How long to quarantine?

[peacockkeeper]

So I will start by saying I don't normally quarantine my new fish before adding them to my main tank but now I have a 10g up and running I'm going to start.

I just picked up 1 sunshine peacock and 2 Bi-color 500's from a lfs. It is not one I normally go to but it was right around the corner from where I was and I thought I would check it out. Well I have been looking for the Bi-color for a while now so when I saw them and they had a few males I couldn't resist. That said I was not loving the conditions at the store. The tanks seemed reasonably clean but not great there were dead fish in a few tanks and it looked like a few other tanks had some fish who were struggling.

The fish in the tanks I bought mine from seemed ok but I don't wan't to add them right away to my 75g show tank. Wouldn't want to loose couple hundred $ worth of fish. My question is how long should I keep them separated a few days, a week, couple weeks. I really don't know so any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Brookster123]

I usually do 2 weeks with a few days of paraguard..

 

[tonedogz]

I usually do 3 to 4 weeks. There's no hurry better to be safe and not infect your tank.

 

[jlk]

I would personally recommend four weeks minimum, longer from a questionable or unknown source of fish. If the fish become unwell at any point in time, quarantine does not restart until they are completely healthy again. Not worth the risk even if the fish are coming from breeder I personally know.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Long enough to treat for internal/external parasites and internal/external bacteria.
Sometimes though, I cut corners. If I need the space for another sick fish for example.

Lfs told me 71 days for marine, I thought that was exessive, so I did some research. Some parasites have a max recorded lifespan of some 344 days!