Quarantine Procedure

[Birds'nBunny]

I am wondering if some of the experienced forum members could describe their quarantine procedure for new fish.

How long do you quarantine?
Do you use prophylactic medication? If yes, which one(s)?

I finally have a dedicated QT tank and I want to know how to properly use it.
I actually set up a QT tank awhile ago, but it's gradually become fully inhabited. "This new tank is REALLY going to be for QT. " (that's me explaining to my fiance why I needed to buy another new tank.)

Thanks!

[chefkeith]

Quarantine time-
Quarantine time will depend on how healthy the new fish and how strict you want to be with disease control. Minimum time would be 3 weeks. There is no set maximum time.

Myself, I'd probably quarantine any new fish for a minimum of 3 months with prophylactic treatments because I don't want to risk infecting my main tank system, which is about 400 gallons and stocked with about 100 fish and sensitive plants.

A lengthy quarantine time alone will not guarantee that the fish are disease free. Most parasites can't be seen with the naked eye unless there is a full blown infection. If the quarantine tank is rather stress free, then it is also likely that the fish will be able to fight off full blown infections.


Prophylactic treatments-
Prophylactic treatments depends on how valuable or delicate the stock in the main tank is and/or how large the main tank is. If you have some irreplaceable fish in the main tank or would be heart broken if something bad happened to them, then you should do some prophylactic treatments on the new fish while they are in quarantine.

If the main tank is large, like over 100 gallons, you'll probably want to avoid having to dose it with any medications if you can help avoid it. It can gets rather expensive to treat large tanks.

Medications to use-
Treat the new fish for the most common and most harmful parasites, especially ich. There are a number of wide spectrum meds that should work well for this.

To be coninued... need to go to the the pub for a drink right now.

[Diana]

First step: Make the water in the Q-tank match the water from the store for GH, KH and TDS.

I quarantine for 1 month past the removal of any medicine.
UV sterilizer for the first week, then turn it off. Kills Ich that may have come with them, then turning it off is proof that the Ich has actually died.
Meds for intestinal parasites.
Other meds only if some disease shows up.

As the new fish are living in the Q-tank, regular water changes will slowly change the water chemistry so the fish are in water that matches the main tank and do not have to acclimate to that chemistry all in one hour, or while they are already maximally stressed from being caught, bagged and so on.

If you are really paranoid then add a fish from your main tank to the quarantine tank for another month before trusting that the 2 groups of fish are not carriers of something the other group does not have immunity to.

[NancyD]

I usually quarantine new fish for a month or more if there are problems. Loaches I treat with levamisole but I guess I'll need to find something else. I like to have a few plants & substrate I don't mind throwing away & some kind of hiding place I can see into.

[Birds'nBunny]

Diana, you mentioned that you treat for internal parasites when you quarantine. Which med(s) do you use?

Thanks for the in-depth answers, everyone. I love this forum, it's so informative!

Keith, I hope you had a good night out at the pub.

[Diana]

I still have some levamisol. Also, dog wormers can be used but there are specific instructions for each one, and most need to be mixed with food. I also have some of Jungle's Parasite food, but the fish do not like it.