Starting a new tank, question about QT.

[chole88]

quarantine tank

First off, this forum has been incredibly helpful to me. I'm basically a newbie and I've been looking everywhere for such a succinct list of do's and don'ts

Now for my question:

I'm trying to start a tropical fish tank on a college student budget and I definitely don't have the money to buy an entire other tank with all the trimmings to use as a quarantine tank. I have a few questions:

Can a rubbermaid container really function as a sick tank?

Do new fish really need to be quarantined for several weeks, or is it possible to just isolate them for a few days and dose them with some basic anti-fungal/anti-bacterial medication (I'm thinking aquarisol and mellafix)?

Would that just stress them out too much?

Would it be possible to use a plain big fish bowl as a quarantine tank for a few days if I use water from my tank and keep it in a room with a constant temperature?

 

[WaterPond]

Ok,

First of all, WELCOME TO AA!!!!

... here is the thing. I only quarentine fish that look questionable. If it looks ill in an way i QT it. Same with when im buying new fish.

QT tanks arent really needed enless you have multiple setups and are buying fish on a regular basis. I rarely quarentine fish after buying them.

How many tanks do you have?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Always QT fish. We had a 150 gal tank full of African Cichlids and purchased them all from a lfs that we trusted. We purchased 2 new Mbuna and added them to the tank without QTing. They looked completly healthy. It turned out that one had Heximatosis. It's not something that you can just look at a fish and see. We ended up losing 16 fish because we didn't QT. We don't buy fish on a regular basis but we always QT because you never know what kind of internal parasite or disease they may have.

A rubbermaid container will work fine. Make sure it has a heater, filter, and a lid. We used to have a dark blue rubber maid container and my husband drilled holes in the top. That way the fish couldn't jump out but still had fresh air to breath. He also cut out enough room on one of the sides for the hob filter. Get a colored container to reduce stress.

 

[chole88]

I just have one tank, a ten gallon, with a single betta in it (but he's going to be getting some friends soon), and an acrylic ice bucket which I converted into a bowl for a second betta.

I posed this question because I'm hopefully going to be getting my betta some tankmates soon, and I had a bad experience when I got my second betta. When I got my betta # 2, Louis, I put him in a divided ten gallon with my first betta, Ziggy, and then Ziggy got a case of tail rot. I pulled Ziggy out and treated him, so he's fine, but I think Louis had fin rot when I got him. He's a pet store mutt, so I thought his weird fins were just the result of a half-breed crowntail/veiltail, but after Ziggy got sick I realized that poor Louis just had a hideous case of fin rot. He's in the ice bucket now and on his way to recovery, but I've decided not to put him back in the ten gallon, and to get Ziggy some tank mates instead

 

[WaterPond]

why not take the existing betta out... put it in a large bowl then get the freinds, put them in the 10gallons, and monitor them for a few weeks/months? Then if they do fine add the betta back in.

JMHO, its not worth your while to setup a QT tank when you are just dealing with a ten gallons, and not many fish

 

[Fishyfanatic]

If you have to treat the new fish with meds you may end up wiping out an established tank. It's a lot easier just to have a QT.

 

[WaterPond]

true... but its just my personal opinion that QT tanks, while great to have, and helpful, aren't always worth the trouble.

Setting up a rubbermaid bin one would be fine, but still, will cost some money. I'm just a cheapscape, excuse me for that.

 

[chole88]

why would treating new fish wipe out my whole aquarium?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Some meds destroy beneficial bacteria. That's another benefit of a QT, you dont' have to worry about the bacteria in the main tank being compromised due to meds.

 

[ezy33]

true... but its just my personal opinion that QT tanks, while great to have, and helpful, aren't always worth the trouble.

Setting up a rubbermaid bin one would be fine, but still, will cost some money. I'm just a cheapscape, excuse me for that.

I agree. If a fish looks questionable have the store hold it a week for you or just walk. Moving the fish causes stress, when you QT it adds to the stress of handling, shipping, in store handling, acclimation, bagging, ride home and acclimation. Now once it's settled down lets move it again.

Now if a fish does get sick and it's contagious, pulling it from the tank will not stop the other tank mates from becoming sick too. IME it's better to treat the whole tank, that way you may still lose the first fish, but may save all the others.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

QTing does not add stress to the fish. But hey, if you want to infect your entire tank with a disease because you didn't want to QT a new arrival that appeared to be healthy, that's up to you. I've seen what can happen when not QTing by losing 16 fish from an internal disease. What would cause stress would be having to treat an entire tank of healthy fish because you introduced one fish with an parasite. Why risk it and cause un-do stress on the other tankmates?

 

[SparKy697]

The whole concept of a QT tank is that you isolate unknown fish to see if anything developes before you put them in the main tank. Remember that when you buy fish in the LFS they may have only been there a few hours to a few days. They have just gone through a number of moves and are likely to have been stressed for some time. In that condition, there are a whole host of infections and diseases that can take hold in the fishes system. By placing them in a QT tank, you give them time to settle down, relax, and see if any problems are going to result.

I would agree that most of the time you will have no problems. But it only takes one sick fish that showed no signs of illness to infect a whole tank. Then you are treating all your fish instead of one or two new ones in their own little tank/tub.

Actually I kind of like the plastic tub idea. Anything with solid or painted sides will help the fish to calm down. That can go a long way to keep them healthy.

My $.02

 

[neilanh]

My $.02

Want change? hehe


Ich is the most common thing I believe that can come in with new, stressed fishes. By the time you know you have it, the whole rest of the tank is infected. I learned my lesson (twice actually, I'm slow sometimes) with this. The worst part is that once an outbreak occurs, it's not necessarily the "new" fish that you will/can lose because of it.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Excellent point Neilanh. Ich can be carried in the gills of a new fish therefore you won't see it during the purchase.

 

[ezy33]

From the advice from a high end LFS owner. He said ICH was like the common cold, It's always around and you catch it when your immune system is compromised. Thats my $.0002.

By the way Fishyfanatic What is Heximatosis?

 

[chole88]

Do new fish HAVE to be QT'd for 4 weeks? Could I just do it for, say, 1 or 2? Also, I usually add aquarisol to my tank once a weeks as a fungus preventative, but it can be used as an anti-fungal medication (I think it's pretty mild, too). Would I be able to dose my new fish with aquarisol to clear up fungal issues like ich, or would that too eliminate beneficial bacteria? Also, what are some signs that a fish is suffering from internal parasites?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

It is true that Ich is always around, but it is no where near like a common cold. It's more like the deadly flu. If left untreated it will kill. Even if you do treat, it can still kill those with a comprimised immune system. Why plague all of the fish when it could be limited to 1?

Hexamitosis is a disease that plagues some Cichlids. It so happened that one of my new arrivals had the disease. I didn't QT and 10 days later we finally got it under control. The meds to treat the disease are not something that could be found at our lfs so we had to drive 3 1/2 hours to get them. We lost most of our adults. African Cichlids are not cheap so we were out a chunk of change.

A QT of 2 weeks is adequate unless a disease arises. You don't need to be adding the aquarisol. As long as you have a healthy tank there is no need for it. IMO it is best to limit additives into the aquarium. You don't want the fish to become immune to the meds similar to how humans do. To treat ich all you need to do is bump up the heat to 88 degrees and add an air stone. If you have cold water fish, add salt. No need for the meds. Some say that they won't eliminate beneficial bacteria, but some still do. And some also stain the ornaments and silicone.

A key sign of internal parasites is white stringy poo.

 

[Jchillin]

There is a difference between a QT tank and a Hospital tank. The QT is really designed for new arrivals. The hospital tank is reserved for a fish that has a definitively diagnosed disease that has not infected or is not communicable to the other fish that were in the main tank.

As disease such as ich (in FW) requires treating the whole tank since ich is highly communicable. Moving an ich infected fish to a hospital tank is basically useless.

There's my $1.00 worth.

 

[7Enigma]

Here's my $10.00 (had to 1 up you JChillin):

You are starting a new tank. Most LFS' are on centralized filtration which makes them a haven for spreading disease. This means that the sick fish in the tank to the left might be infecting the tank behind you. If you are purchasing all the fish from the same LFS at the SAME TIME I don't see a need for QT. With a proper fishless cycle you can fully stock on day #1. Then your tank becomes a QT tank. You've got your full stocking so unless fish die you have no need for a QT tank.

As JChillin mentioned, this is not a HOSPITAL TANK. Those are used more often used with less frequent or impossible to transfer health issues (a nipped fin cannot be passed to another fish, while the disease/infection the wounded fish could contract is).

A small QT tank is a great addition to any setup. 10gallons are so inexpensive that you can keep them in the closet, set them up when needed, and broken down again. Or do it like me, I have a snail/plant clippings tank that is always cycled and ready to go if needed to QT a new fish or hospitalize a wounded one.

But again setting up a new tank does not require a QT tank. My first year I didn't have another tank, why?, because I wasn't adding anything else in the tank!

One more thing I think is important; regardless of the temperment of the fish you plan to keep I highly recommend a small floating breeder cage. This can be used as an isolation chamber if your fish get aggressive with each other. This allows for a quasi-hospital tank where you can let a fish heal from a wound/condition without the need for a second tank. A second tank is preferrable, but with your budget (and mine when I started) it just wasn't going to happen.

HTH