How long do you quarantine?

[eah]

I was wondering how long people on here quarantine their new fish. I have some that have been in my QT tank for 12 days now and I'm thinking of adding them to my main tank sometime soon...

 

[shayfish]

I don't have a QT

 

[Guest]

IMO, it is a great idea to QT. all new fish for 14 days. I will admit that I have not always done this but it can sure save you trouble in the long run.

Props for you!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I never used to, but am QT'ing from now on, now that I've been bitten with ick from the lfs here every time I got fish. 3 weeks for me. Never used to get ick from them, but I think their store is slowly deteriorating.

 

[gheitman]

I quarantine my fish for four weeks. Since the life cycle of Ich is about three weeks this allows me to catch any outbreaks before they can spread to one of my other tanks. I have caught and eliminated Ich at least twice because of this.

My quarantine tank is also smaller than half of my tanks so I don't have to use more medication than necessary nor medicate fish that don't need it.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

We QT for 2 weeks.

About two years ago we bought a few fish from the lfs. At the time we didn't have a QT so we just added them to the tank. Slowly over the next 5 or 6 days we lost about 10 African Cichlids. The new fish had introduced heximitosis into the tank. Ever since that day we have had a QT set up for new arrivals. The cost of the QT was roughly $15. The cost of the fish that we lost in that one incident was roughly $150. Well worth it.

 

[maxwell1295]

It all depends on where they were purchased and what the fish look like. From a trusted source I QT them for a week or less, but no less than 3-4 days. Just enough tme to observe them for obvious signs of sickness. If I buy fish that look okay, but I don't really trust or know the shop very well, I will observe them even longer....up to 2 weeks.

Whenever I have bought fish that were borderline sick, I'd give them at least 2 weeks. I recently picked up some Ick-y clown loaches. I will treat them with high heat for 2 weeks and probably watch them for another week at normal temps before moving them into another tank.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I don't QT right now. I guess I've been lucky because I've only had 2 cases of ich from new fish and that was almost a year ago. I'm very careful about where I buy my fish and I inspect the tanks at the LFS. I will have a QT soon though, when I setup my 38g and move the 10g fish around. We'll see how it goes!

 

[bigmac1878]

i don't have the facitilies to QT, nor do i have the money or space to start a QT, sadly.

 

[hc8719]

i buy almost all my fish from petsmart, which until recently, always had incredibly healthy fish (fish are still healthy now, but some are beat up)

so i didnt qt. only did that with some gouramis from wal-mart, and that was only for less than a week, kinda risky i know, but ive never had a fish problem

 

[Burks]

I don't QT my fish at all. I either buy my fish at a very healthy store or personally pick them out. I'm sure one of these days it will bite me in the butt but oh well.

 

[Zagz]

I Qt for one to two weeks depending on whether I got them from a lfs or a breeder.

 

[Mosaic]

Everything I get goes in QT for a month. Fish, plants, snails, everything. I'm too attached to the fish I have now to put them at risk with new arrivals. Incidentally, I have not had any disease outbreaks in 10 years.
Plus, I'm in the process of acquiring some sensitive, hard-to-find species, and giving it some alone time in QT will give it time to acclimate before adding it to the main tank, I hope.

 

[eah]

It's really interesting to hear about how other people do things. Thanks so much for the responses!