How to quarantine feeders???

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Gamefishin

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 1, 2005
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Minnesota
Ok so I've heard numerous suggestions to treat the feeders for disease before feeding them to you monsters. I will soon be buying minnows from the local bait shop to feed my mini monsters and would like to know what's the best setup to do this.

Should I just keep the feeders in a seperate tank?
Put medicine in the quarantine tank?
How long do I need to treat the feeders for?
Do I need a filter for the feeder tank with air bubbles?
Do all feeders baitshop/petsmart carry disease?
My fish keeps getting ICH after I treat them, Do the ICH keep coming back from the feeders?

Help is appreciated.
 
Okay I will go over these questions in order so I don't miss any,

Yes, feeders should be quarantined in a seperate tank, I like a pair of storage tubs between 20 and 40 gallons, each 1/2 full. I try to quarantine for 2 weeks. Just keep them in an out of the way place.

No, I do not use medicine on the feeders, I keep them in clean water mixed with either aquarium or canning salt at a ratio of 2 teaspoons per gallon of water, this will take care of the common parasites like ich.

!0 days is the minimum time for safe quarantine, 2 weeks is better and the colder the water the longer the quarantine.

Yes, you need filters but extra airstones are not needed, cheap box filters and sponge filters work great for this.

Not all bait minnows or lfs feeders carry disease but due to the conditions they are kept in it is not unusual for one fish to infect the whole batch, if you use feeders you will eventually encounter disease.

Ich comes back for 2 reasons, one is bringing in an infected fish, the other is not killing off the population of ich spore packets in the tank, that is why you must treat the infected tank for at least 10 days, only the motile stage of the ich's life cycle is vulnerable to treatment and you need to catch them all.

Hope that helps.
 
yup that helps a lot........thanks bro.

and what's a good brand of Aquarium salt, gotta go buy some ASAP.
 
I think that most are pretty similar, Doc Wellfishes will work.
 
Ok the local petsmart is just 2 blocks from my house so I just picked up some Jungle brand aquarium salt. Poured some in so hopefully this can cure some ICH off of my fish. When I used the Maracide it seems to make the fish sluggish, almost like they were on drowsy cold medicine.

How long before I add more salt since it doesn't say in the instructions?
 
Bait minnow are most likely to carry at least ICH. Even when i buy feeder fish from the aquarium store where they do some quarantining i will treat the fish myself. I buy 200 goldfish and 300 minnows every 2 weeks. I keep em in a 150 gal Rubbermaid feed trough with four Hydrosponges V's. The side of the trough conveniently has a 2" threaded hole so i can flush ( chg the water ) daily. This trough also has a Lifeguard 60 watt uv steralizer. 2 days before feeding i take a few feeders and place em in another 30 gal tank where i bath em with acriflavine, gentian violet and septra. For 1 to 2 days. It all takes 2 weeks.
 
Oh i ran out of space. I forgot to mention that you most likely would like to keep ur feeders alive until feeding time. First you have to make sure they get enuff oxygen and you should not use a powerhead cuz ur feeders ar most likely very weak already. Use airstones. The whole trough should be in a cool area, colder the better. Keep it dark. Let em rest. Never ever feed the feeders until u want to use em. Then after the drug bath u can use em. U may have noticed newly arrived fish in plastic bags or feeder fish in a tank with yellow water, its the color of acriflavine. Oh u can now gut feed ur feeders if u have the time. I use a childerns liquid multivitamin Poly-vi-sol. I fill a syringe with the vitamin solution and inject "a bit" into the back muscle. Surprisingly this does not kill the feeder!!!
 
Chicken teeth I deleted the one post because it was just one of a double post,
One thing about using salt is that a lot of people have a habit of just pouring the salt directly in and that can lead to brine pooling, IMO it is better to dissolve it in a bucket or pitcher of water and then pour it in the tank. Another thing is that in many areas you can save money by buying canning salt instead of aquarium salt (for treatment, not for keeping marine tanks) it is just granulated salt and contains no iodine or anti-clumping agents and unlike road salt is food grade so doesn't contain phosphates and other impurities.
 
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