Botia + New tank.

[Ej]

Okay so about a year ago I had a plague of fin rot go through my tank and kill off all my fish, and up until about two months ago I was almost positive all the fish were dead (yeah im not the cleanest and left the tank to evaporate im horribe but what ever XD lol) well i happened to look in it and there was my 3 inch long red tailed botia just swimming around happy as can be in about 2.4 inches of nasty water, hadnt fed him in the longest time either. So I immediately took him out and put him in a small tank, fed him, n now hes living in some nice filtered water. But I was wondering if you think itd be safe to put him in my new tank when I get it set up or is there a risk of him bringing any parasites or any bad bacteria or anything like that into the new tank even though he appears quite healthy.

[Diana]

He has probably outlived any disease organisms. I would play it safe, though, and watch him in the separate tank for a week or two, just to be sure.
Do you have a cycled filter for this small tank?

[newshound]

i could be wrong but i thought fin rot had to do with poor water quality to begin with.

[Diana]

Fin rot is caused by any of several organisms, often bacteria such as Flavobacteria columnaris. This particular bacteria does seem more active in aquariums with high nitrates. It can gain a foothold in fish that have damaged fins from ammonia burns, too.
Anything that stresses the fish (poor water quality, wrong pH or temperature for the species, low oxygen levels, even social issues with the other fish) can make the chance of disease greater, though individual resistance will vary. You might have a tank of fish that have all survived through a fish-in cycle, and most of them are left weak from the ammonia burns and trace of brown blood disease they went through. Then a somewhat virulent form of Flex takes hold and you lose 90% of the fish. , but some survive. In this case, 1 surviver.
If the disease organisms were still active the fish has either developed enough immunity to not show the signs or else would be dead. My guess is that while there is still some bacteria lingering, it is not enough to bring this fish down. Moving him out of the tank, and quarantining him and a few water changes will further lower the population of bacteria that may be lingering, and make it safe to add this fish to the main tank.

[Ej]

Alright, thank you very much = ]