Quarantine new fish

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Jcj0033

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
238
How long should you quarantine new fish ?
I have a quarantine tank it's a 55 gallon and I am running cupramine and Prazipro in it, I was wondering is 2 weeks long enough to quarantine fish ?
I have had a orange shoulder tang, a Midas blenny and a kole tang in there for 2 weeks would it be safe to put them in the main display now ? They seem healthy but you know how that goes.
 
Well they say that one treatment after 5/7 days should be ok to knock out most problems .
 
everyone has there own technique when it comes to quarantine , it can be from a week to 6 weeks . the reason why this time frame differs one fish keeper may only look for the simple things like is the fish eating or is it stressed ,

than others may want to have time for observation of fish habit along with monitor for parasites ect

some fish-keepers look for things some of us would probably over look , and than theirs those who just do a dip and add the fish into the main tank .

they risk not knowing if that fish will eat , dips don't always guarantee the fish isn't sick and could cause problems to the entire tank ,

new fish are likely stressed adding to a new environment can add more stress which can bring on ick that can effect your whole tank.

these are only a few reasons why most of us Quarantine everyone's methods are different but they all serve there purpose ,
 
It is all about risk tolerance/level.

Some people QT for 6 months because they have high value tanks that they want to take very little risk on.

Do you have a FOWLR tank or a reef tank? One you can empty and disinfect if you have to, the other, you may have to fallow for an extended period of time.

How much livestock do you have in your display tank and how attached to it are you? Financially, would replacing all your livestock be a difficult burden?

On the other hand, how difficult is it to keep the fish in QT? Is there enough space for them to survive? Are they overly stressed in the QT environment? How much time are you spending maintaining the water quality in the QT tank?

Like others have stated it is all situational. If your asking, how long would I need to wait to be fairly certain there are no problems I would say 10-12 weeks. That being said, it is not an all-or-nothing proposition. 2 weeks in QT carries much less risk than dip and toss. 4 weeks in QT carries less risk than 2 weeks, etc, etc.

My personal opinion is that 2 weeks is the minimum you should QT fish if there is stuff you care about in your DT.
 
My QT time depends on what type of fish I have in QT and the number of fish in the QT tank.

QT for me is from 6 weeks to 4 month. Tangs and Idols no less than 10 weeks.

Blennies 6 weeks. Lionfish and leaf scorpions 8 weeks. Wrasses 6 weeks.

File fish and puffers 6-8 weeks.

Butterflies 10 weeks min. Morray eel is the only fish I don't QT.

These QT times still depend on the Ind. fish. This is just my own QT times.

I just hate treating a main tank, when it could be avoided through good QT.

This also gives you time to see how the fish is going to adjust to aquarium life and any SP. dietary needs that may need to be addressed for a particular fish.
 
Back
Top Bottom