How long do you personally QT new fish?

[foster53]

I personally QT for 4-6 weeks. Some diseases take longer to manifest themselves. Ick or fungal infections usually show up fairly soon. Bacterial infections, and internal parasites take a little longer to show up. The fish from LFS go through several weeks of stress, From fish farm, to wholesaler, to store. It takes a while for stress related issues to show up. Think of it this way when humans get ill,anxiety,internal illness, or what ever the case it takes time for it to show up after stress related issues occur. PTSD for example. I read some post on here that people are not using the benefits of QT You may luck out for a long time but someday the luck runs out. I use to have people come in the shop and say I don't understand how this happened, I never used a QT tank before. Their luck ran out!. not preaching just relating some experiences from the past. Loosing a show tank of mature fish is a large price to pay for the sake of a few weeks of QT

 

[Tigroscr]

I agree with you on some points but your fish can still get parasites from food and plants. I guess you can also quarantine plants but you can't the food. Unless you only feed them dried food and flakes or pellets.
We as humans take risk every day when we get out of bed and we also take risks with our fish with everything from pwc's to feeding them, to how we clean and maintain the tank.

 

[slitherbomb]

I personally don't qt because if a fish has ich or some other disease, it should not spread to my other fish, provided that they are healthy themselves. Also, the infected fish should clear out of the disease with proper diet. This just happened to a small blue tang. He went in the tank, got ich, and has not spread it to any other fish. Now he does not have ich anymore and it's been about a week. He's still eating and everything.

 

[Maya]

I'm curious also.....do people who do this let the QT sit dormant for long periods of time without any fish? are they still treating the water and doing pwc? and where in the world if they do use a qt are they putting all these fish? Lol, I have 4 tanks soon to be 5 and don't have that many fish. Also are they buying fish with short life spans and is that why they need to keep buying more fish or are they dying from lack of proper care. I personally think you would only need a qt tank if your a breeder, or own a lfs.

I keep a 30 gallon tank empty in the basement for use as a hospital tank/QT. We keep filter media ready and seeded with bacteria in my display tanks for when I need it. I get out my tank, fill it with water from my display tanks and pop that media in and have a tank ready to go. Never had a fish die on me but I keep it ready to go, the same way I keep a first aid bag that is stocked and at easy access. When we plan to add to our tanks... We set it up and have it ready for when the fish (or whatever) arrive. It take about 30 minutes to set up and in 4 weeks it all comes back down... New media goes into the tank to wait for the next time.

 

[foster53]

I agree with you on some points but your fish can still get parasites from food and plants. I guess you can also quarantine plants but you can't the food. Unless you only feed them dried food and flakes or pellets.
We as humans take risk every day when we get out of bed and we also take risks with our fish with everything from pwc's to feeding them, to how we clean and maintain the tank.

Absolutely they can get parasites from plants and live foods. Crazy as it sounds you should QT your plants and live food(feeder fish) The plants can be soaked for about 10 mins in a 20% solution of potassium permanganate to rid them of a lot of potential parasites and pathogens. Be sure to rinse plants very well in fresh water before putting in the tank if you use the potassium method. I'm just thankful to wake up everyday, let alone face the risks

 

[Tigroscr]

Absolutely they can get parasites from plants and live foods. Crazy as it sounds you should QT your plants and live food(feeder fish) The plants can be soaked for about 10 mins in a 20% solution of potassium permanganate to rid them of a lot of potential parasites and pathogens. Be sure to rinse plants very well in fresh water before putting in the tank if you use the potassium method. I'm just thankful to wake up everyday, let alone face the risks

I don't feed any of my fish live food it causes aggression and I dont want them eating each other, I mostly feed frozen,freeze dried and pellets and flakes. I do think though the frozen can transmit parasites and freeze dried can cause bloat, what gives, lol!

 

[absolutangel04]

I do not have a qt because I have limited space. However, I have started looking for a small used tank to use for quarantining. I have not had an issue so far, but now that the fish in my dt are all full grown, I would be pretty devastated to lose them to something that would have been preventable.

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Very interesting thread. Glad you brought it up Eco, I have been thinking about quarantining for awhile.

I have actually never used a QT tank. I've been considering the idea for quite a while but don't really think it is necessary because I have bought fish from my LFStores plenty of times and not gotten any diseases in my tank.

However I have been thinking about it. Better safe than sorry when coming to fish. So I've been thinking about using my five gallon for quarantining new fish for two weeks or so, only because I'm setting up a new tank and don't want anything to go wrong with it, because I can't really afford to spend anymore money now that I've been put on a budget. The only constraint is size. Not sure how well angels will do in that size of a quarantine...but not adult ones, juvenile ones.

I have heard nothing but goodness about Severum Mama's and HN1's fish so don't really worry about quarantining those, just other locally bought fish.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I think a better question on here is... who says they qt, but don't?

 

[Maya]

I think a better question on here is... who says they qt, but don't?

As in .... who's not being honest about whether or not they quarantine their livestock? Why would you say you did if you don't? It's your tank. I don't know why anyone else would care one way or another.
3 months ago I quarantined a cleaner shrimp and a Halloween hermit crab and three snails in a 30 gallon tank for 4 weeks. Lol. Probably stupid but hey... It's my dime. I plan on quarantining the java fern and chain sword I'm going to order as well. I will be the first to admit that I am a slightly obsessive compulsive and overprotective mom. I accept myself and that's the first step. Lol

 

[foster53]

I don't feed any of my fish live food it causes aggression and I dont want them eating each other, I mostly feed frozen,freeze dried and pellets and flakes. I do think though the frozen can transmit parasites and freeze dried can cause bloat, what gives, lol!

I don't believe frozen food can transmit parasites. I am not 110% on that, I guess I have not given it alot of thought. As far as FD food goes if it is soaked in tank water for a few minutes and allowed to hydrate it shouldn't cause a problem.

 

[Terrance]

Frozen food will not carry parasites if it was frozen for 1-2 weeks. In that time period, all parasites should die. I buy raw food for my fish, freeze it, and then thaw for my fish to eat. I'm thinking about soaking my frozen food so that my fish can get some vitamins into their system.

I will QT for 1 month, but wouldn't mind doing it for 2 or 3 months. The tanks are mostly bare right now due to QT, and i want the disease to show itself so that I can treat it. I want less work in the future.

 

[Tigroscr]

Frozen food will not carry parasites if it was frozen for 1-2 weeks. In that time period, all parasites should die. I buy raw food for my fish, freeze it, and then thaw for my fish to eat. I'm thinking about soaking my frozen food so that my fish can get some vitamins into their system.

I will QT for 1 month, but wouldn't mind doing it for 2 or 3 months. The tanks are mostly bare right now due to QT, and i want the disease to show itself so that I can treat it. I want less work in the future.

Where do you get raw food? And what kind?

 

[Terrance]

Where do you get raw food? And what kind?

Grocery store have wild (not farm raised) prawns, mussels, cockle, crab legs (my fish too small to eat this right now so I haven't tried it yet).

In all, food for my fish is relatively inexpensive.
0.25 pounds of prawns ($1.50) will feed my fish for 2-3 weeks

 

[xxwolfpackof1xx]

i dont qt mainly because i dont have the space and my mom would kill me at the thought of yet another tank but what i do is look for the healthiest fish and keep some general meds on hand so if something common breaks out i can treat it

 

[Tigroscr]

Wow! That's awesome but I live in Kansas and none of the fish we get here is real fresh, I don't know if I would want to feed it to my fish. I eat it but only after cooking it, lol. Do you live by the coast or somewhere you can get fresh fish?