Best QT procedure for wild caught fish?

[Mikefallen13]

Hello!
Title says it all, I caught several pumpkinseed sunfish and two yellow perch while on vacation that I intend to eventually add to my NA native tank. I quarantine any new fish I get but I've never done it for freshly caught native fish before so Im kinda unsure about what to look for when it comes to diseases, so any tips about specific things to watch out for would be great. So far the only thing I was planning was to immediately treat them with a general antiparisitic as I'm guessing they will all have some sort of external or internal parasites. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks!
Mike Fallen

 

[kno4te]

Cold water/native fish should be qt'd longer as bugs develop slower in the colder water. Basically non tropical fish temps. About 6-8 weeks. It can vary but a rough estimate.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

If you are a risk taker like me you just throw 'em in lol.

Basically the main issues I've seen with WC sunfish are parasites, both external and internal, and possibly fungal infections but that's rare.

My treatment method was always a tank with a mix of tank water/water that they came home in. I would always treat with a combo of prazi pro and paraguard.

Wild caught fish may have a higher chance of bringing something into the tank with them, but they also have absolutely bulletproof immune systems in my experience.

I've had farm raised fish mixed with wild caught before, had a nasty fungal outbreak in the tank after a minnow died in an overflow box and I didn't notice, and every one of the farm raised fish died, the wild caught sunfish never even showed a symptom.

p.s. perch are very hit or miss when wild caught. Small perch do the absolute best, once they are 5"+ they tend to become very lethargic and sulk in tank environments, they just never really adapt well.

 

[jhook]

I qt'd mine for 6 weeks. I also ran them through a treatment of de-worming and anti-parasite treatment. After that, lots of water changes into which I added some aquarium salt.

The de-worming cycle produced some interesting results. A few of the chubs had something burst out like in Alien... was very nasty and convinced me to ALWAYS qt the new ones.

I have no idea if the salt helped, but it didn't seem to hurt. All the fish are now doing well in the regular aquarium.

 

[Frank Castle]

The de-worming cycle produced some interesting results. A few of the chubs had something burst out like in Alien... was very nasty and convinced me to ALWAYS qt the new ones..

Wait......WHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTT?????

 

[Mikefallen13]

Thanks for the tips guys! I'm going to start them on API general cure today as I just had some laying around but I'll pick up prazi as a backup. I was really tempted to just throw them in the display but I already have some healthy longear sunfish in there and I don't want to risk it. Also, how long does it take for sunfish to start taking pellets/flakes? I go fishing regularly so I'll have plenty of excess red worms for them to eat but I'd like to get them on pellets before they go in the display.

The de-worming cycle produced some interesting results. A few of the chubs had something burst out like in Alien... was very nasty and convinced me to ALWAYS qt the new ones.

Jeez, that sounds pretty disgusting! I've seen some weird stuff when it comes to fish illnesses but that would probably take the cake.

 

[jhook]

Yeah, it was pretty nasty. A friend and I had just collected some creek chubs and I put then in a 40g breeder. Day 2 of the cycle, I wake up and see this wormy mass wiggling out of a few of their stomachs. That definitely convinced me to qt everything now for at least a few days just to make sure.

 

[jhook]

Also, how long does it take for sunfish to start taking pellets/flakes?

My Green Sunfish started eating flakes and then pellets after about 2 days, but he's a pig. Once he started eating, the others that were qt'd with him started to tentatively take the food as well. Ones that I have tried to get started on flake and pellet food by their lonesome tend to take longer.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

Yeah, it was pretty nasty. A friend and I had just collected some creek chubs and I put then in a 40g breeder. Day 2 of the cycle, I wake up and see this wormy mass wiggling out of a few of their stomachs. That definitely convinced me to qt everything now for at least a few days just to make sure.

creek chubs, also from my experience, are excellent parasitic hosts for whatever reason. Mine always had some form of hitchhiker with them when I'd catch them.

 

[Mikefallen13]

Well, I did end up losing the perch, they looked pretty bad after I added medication so I kinda figured that would be the outcome. The sunfish on the other hand look great and are nibbling at frozen bloodworms, I haven't tried pellets yet but as long as they're eating I'm happy!