Quarantine Step by Step?

[biggie1985]

Hi everyone

What are the processes for quarantining new fish or existing fish prior to adding them with discus?

Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Dave

[Merrilyn]

Hi Dave, others may do things a little different, but I'll take you through what I do before adding new fish to an existing tank.

First of all, prepare a bare bottom quarantine tank of suitable size well before you bring your new purchases home. Add a piece of driftwood or some plastic plants to give shy fish somewhere to hide.

Two weeks before buying any fish, add a sponge filter to an existing tank, and allow it to cycle. This will become the cycled filter for your quarantine tank. A small internal or external filter would serve the same purpose, but sponge filters are cheap and easy to come by.

After bringing the new fish home, I like to allow them a week to settle in. During this time, I will do a couple of waterchanges, all the time observing the fish, to see of they're eating and pooping properly. This is where a bare bottom tank makes observation easy.

During the second week, I will treat with levamisole to remove internal worms, and during the third week I will treat with prazi to remove gill flukes.

The last week the fish are allowed to relax while I again observe them. If all looks good, into the big tank they go. If there are any problems, they stay in quarantine till the problem is fixed.

Remember, even ten dollar's worth of neon tetras could bring some horrible disease into your tank, and wipe out all your fish.

I've seen it happen just too many times to ever think about skipping quarantine. Yes, it's a PITA because you have to have a spare tank, heater and filter, and it's a lot of extra work, but what's the alternative - skip quarantine, drop some sick fish into your perfect tank, and suffer a wipe-out !

It HAS happened, more times than you could believe.

Play it safe, and quarantine EVERYTHING.

[biggie1985]

Thanks for the reply Merrilyn.

Cetainly a lengthy process but I suppose better to be safe than sorry.
And you're right sounds like a PITA lol.

Where can you get the meds from?

[Mickey C]

Merrilyn, do you normally start this process with your tank at PH neutral (to replicate the pet shop environment) then maybe in the 4th week start to change parameters to match your main tank, assuming they're different?

This is a practice I go through to minimise pH shock. I also got in the habit of fully draining the QT tank before the next lot of "patients" go in (mine's constantly ready for fish, just in case) :)

[Decapper]

I like to keep a small sponge filter running in my main tank all the time. Then when I want to QT or look after a sick fish I use the sponge filter that I have ready to go!

[Merrilyn]

bigie1985 - Prazi you can get from most LFS under a variety of names. It's the main ingredient in anything designed to rid fish of gill and body flukes. Levamisole is sold under the brand name of Sykes Big L Pig and Poultry Wormer and is available from most online fish stores. Don't be tempted to buy the bird wormer containing levamisole, it has sugar in it and will cause a huge bacterial bloom in your tank, leading to fatalities.

Mickey C - A slow pH change is terribly important especially with new fish. I'll begin to reduce pH in the last week. My tapwater comes out at 7 and that's usually what LFS keep their tanks at. Simply because I do a lot of waterchanges while fish are in the smaller quarantine tanks, it's easier to keep the pH at 7.

Decapper, yes that's a great idea, then you're ready to go at a moment's notice.

[Oonallee]

Great post