quarintine

[Mckitrick]

what is quarintine and what does it do. is it bad if i dont do that with my fish

 

[alia258]

Quarantine is to seperate a fish for a period of time to be sure that is is healthy and disease free (so the other fish in the tank don't get a disease) I don't do quarantine with my fish, and they all do fine. It's no lethal to your fish as long as you pick out the healthy ones at your lfs

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Have to disagree there ^^
It's not lethal until you get an unhealthy one.... They can look fine and still have a disease in the early stages that they can pass on. Your playing with fire not having a QT IMO.

The advantage of a quarantine is you can keep new fish separate from exciting fish therefore protecting them from any disease the new fish could have. 2-4 weeks of quarantine is usually recommended. This is usually enough time for disease to show up.
Quarantine tanks are usually bare bottom with plastic decor so that it's easily cleaned/disinfected. Having live plants and substrate in QT causes problems IMO. When using salt or medication you risk killing the plants. Substrate makes it harder to clean.

 

[jcolon]

I don't do quarantine with my fish, and they all do fine. It's no lethal to your fish as long as you pick out the healthy ones at your lfs

About 2 months ago ... I bought a couple of fine looking neons from my local Petco and by the next day I'm having to raise the water temp to 88 F ... yep ... ich. Lucked out there ... no deaths on that one.

BUT THEN ... Last sunday I purchased a couple more Cardinal Tetras to go with with other juvenile cardinals and neons .. for my son's tank. They looked good at the LFS and went through a 2.5 hr drip acclimation without issue. As of yesterday ... I lost those plus +1 of the original.

 

[Mckitrick]

ok ic now ill try to set up a qt sestem

 

[Mumma.of.two]

QT don't have to be set up all the time and they don't need to be a tank. You can use a large Tupperware or storage bin. You need a spare heater, filter and the 'tank'. You can run the quarantine filter on your established tank then when you need it it's already cycled. You can just move it over to the QT. If swapping filters from tank to tank be aware any disease in one tank can be transferred to the other. If you treated a contagious disease its a good idea to replace or disinfect the filter media before moving the filter back to the healthy tank to seed with bacteria again. Another option is to keep the tank set up and empty. You have to dose pure ammonia every few days to keep it cycled.

 

[janky]

Totally have to agree here.
I picked up 4 beautiful fish from a lfs that I trusted and thought of as one of the cleanest around. Put them in quarantine just to be safe, and they all died within 3 days - while a fish I got from a hole in the wall gift shop and a fish I rescued off craigslist made it through quarantine with no problems and are swimming happily in the display.

Can you imagine just trusting your fish store and then having an outbreak and having to treat an ENTIRE gigantic display tank vs. just handling it in 1 small 10 or 20 gallon qt? Not to mention, all your fish/plants could completely die...

It's well worth it man. Like Elise said, you can use a tupperware lol... and 10 gallon tanks go for like $15 on craigslist all the time with some parts

 

[HeatherW]

what about plants and inverts like snails? do you need to QT these as well? do they carry diseases into your tank?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

what about plants and inverts like snails? do you need to QT these as well? do they carry diseases into your tank?

Some do, some don't. Plants can carry pest snails and sometimes disease. You can dip them in a bleach solution, hydrogen peroixide or potassium permanganate instead. I don't.
Some inverts can carry parasites. It's probably best to quarentine them. But I don't. :/ Just fish.