So...I've learned my lesson.

[flippergonzo]

I never really understood the requirement for a quarantine tank. NOW I understand the need.

I picked up 6 cherry barbs about 10 days ago. On Thursday night my girlfriend noticed some white spots. I got the heat turned up (slowly got it to 84), I added the required salt (2 tsp/gallon) , I made sure there was lots of extra water agitation (lowered water level to about 2/3) to keep the oxygen up and I added the meds (Maricide) after PWCs.

The death toll so far?

2 cherry barbs,
6 neon tetras,
1 molly,
1 kuhli loach
2 clown loaches.

Basically about 60% of the inhabitants. I ended up euthanising about 1/2 of them because they were suffering. I now have left 3 neons, 4 cherry barbs, 1 pleco and 1 frog.

The lesson? Get a QT tank. What's it gonna run you? 50$? Less?

The question....is there any reason to do a preventative temp increase and salt addition to my Cichlid tank? Just in case I transferred something into that tank? Or am I just being paranoid? I have not noticed any symptoms on any of my cichlids.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I feel ya. I recently went through something similar. I sold my qt because i didnt think i would buy any fish for quite some time, and swore id get one before i bought any more fish. Well, i found some fish i just had to have, so i got them because they looked healthy. Put them in my 150g. A week later, two of the acei were dead and several of my other fish started showing signs of columnaris. A few more days went by, lost the last acei and a yellow lab. I am STILL (a month later) fighting columnaris doing daily 50% pwc's and dosing melafix and pimafix. As far as preventative measures, i really wouldnt worry about the cichlid tank unless you start to see signs. JMO though

 

[DragonFish71]

Sorry for your losses. It truly sucks when almost your whole stock gets decimated. We keep a 5.5g QT tank going at all times, and will until we're done stocking our tanks. It can be an a pain in the rump to QT for weeks then move them, but worth it to keep from deaths. Not to mentions loaches and tetras can be hard to treat, very sensitive to almost everything. I have found, for future reference, when I had to treat or 29g for ich, the tetras tolerate the jungle ich tabs, used at half strength better than any other meds. Quick cure at half dose per day also works. As for loaches, if it has malachite green, use sparingly.

 

[flippergonzo]

Well, the 4 guppies have died (I forgot to mention them in the first post), the rest of the tetras and 2 more cherry barbs. The cichlid tank still seems fine.

I'm going to go get a QT tank this weekend before planning out restocking. I'm curious about running a small 10G quarantine tank constantly though. If I don't have fish in it most of the time (after the restocking is complete in a couple of months) are there any special tips/guides for keeping it running all the time? Or do you just let it go and check its numbers the same as any other tank?

Thanks!

 

[joy13]

One thing you could do is put a fish in there that you can take out and put in one of your other tanks temporary, another think you can do is use 2 filters on one of your tanks then when you get a fish to quarantine you can just move the filter. That way you don't put the new fish under the stress of cycling.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

That's always been my worry for quarantine tanks. Sure a sick fish won't cause problems for the existing fish. But the fact that your tank is a temporary one and doesn't have all the usual stuff the main tank has, may cause the fish to get ill!

 

[flippergonzo]

Great idea

One thing you could do is put a fish in there that you can take out and put in one of your other tanks temporary, another think you can do is use 2 filters on one of your tanks then when you get a fish to quarantine you can just move the filter. That way you don't put the new fish under the stress of cycling.

Thanks Joy! That's a GREAT idea, I'll do that for sure. Since it's a 10G tank, I assume then that the process would look something like this:
1. Leave QT tank clean and dry until needed. Give it a rinse with tap water.
2. take about 10G of water from the target tank
3. put it in the QT tank
4. move spare filter to the QT tank
5. Add fish to the QT tank as normal.
6. After minimum 2 weeks, move fish to the target tank.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Thanks Joy! That's a GREAT idea, I'll do that for sure. Since it's a 10G tank, I assume then that the process would look something like this:
1. Leave QT tank clean and dry until needed. Give it a rinse with tap water.
2. take about 10G of water from the target tank
3. put it in the QT tank
4. move spare filter to the QT tank
5. Add fish to the QT tank as normal.
6. After minimum 2 weeks, move fish to the target tank.

Thanks a lot!

In addition to that is it necessary to actually run the filter in the main tank, or just have the sponge from the filter sitting in the main tank?

 

[jsoong]

It would be better to keep the spare filter sponge in the main tank's filter, that way it gets good water circulation & the bacteria won't die out. <Plus just leaving it in the tank looks ugly!>

Running the actual filter is another option, but not totally necessary. Most HOB have enough space for you to put in an extra filter pad or 2.

Also, you don't have to have a tank for QT. I use a 30 gal see through Rubbermaid tub. Works just fine as a tank & I use it to store all my spare fish stuff when not in use. The bigger tubs are good if you are QT-ing larger fish, is unbreakable & costs less.