introducing senstive fish

[Saltair]

WHen adding fish that are sensitive to change such as oto cats or neons do you still put them in a QT? I am afraid I my risk more fatalities by moving the fish twice.

 

[Fishguy2727]

I don't quarantine. IME unless the QT is at least as good as the DT you are doing more harm. Put them in a proper setup from the start and they won't be stressed and won't get sick.

 

[mfdrookie516]

It all depends. I'm all for QT'ing new fish. I agree with fishguy though, if you don't have a good QT, you're not doing anything good for the new fish. The point of a QT is to monitor the new fish, make sure they don't have any disease, and treat them if they do. That said, if I know where my fish are coming from, and trust the source, I don't QT them. I just got a shipment of Kerri Tetras from HN1 and SM. I didn't QT them because I know they do, and wouldn't have sent fish to me if they had been in the same tank as sick fish (at least to their knowledge). I also spend a lot of time at the store that I get my fish from now. I know of any sick fish. I also know how long the fish have been there. I have no problems putting their fish straight in my tank.

If you're not sure of where you're getting them from, I would most definitely QT them. You want to make sure your QT is cycled and that you keep up on the maintenance just like it's your main tank. And you still want to drip them when moving from the QT to the main tank.

JMO

 

[Aeo]

WHen adding fish that are sensitive to change such as oto cats or neons do you still put them in a QT? I am afraid I my risk more fatalities by moving the fish twice.

A QT is primarily useful for keeping new infections out of an established tank.

As for the sensitivity of your newest fishy friend, run the critical water tests on both your tank and your new fish's water (pH is the only really critical one) and put together a dripper. You want to slowly add your tank's water to the aquarium water until the pH matches). Once you have a matching pH, then you can place the bag with the new fish in the water for about 10 minutes to match the temperature.

It is best to transfer the fish and not the mixed water into the new environment. Even after a QT, you really don't want to add foreign water to your closed ecosystem.

By first matching pH and then matching temp, I have had far less sudden death in the first 48 hours of pet ownership... with the exception of oto cats. Those things are just impossible to predict.

 

[Homedog98]

So, let's say you have a 29 gallon tank, and a ten gallon quarantine, would that help or hurt? (my choices locally are petco and petsmart, so ya, I've gotta qt.)