Quarantine Methods for New Fish

[clm08k]

Didn't see an official thread for quarantining new polys. Would love to hear everyone's preferences and routines on quarantines. You can be as specific or general as you want.


1) do you quarantine? if, not. why?

2) What size QT tank?

3) What is in your QT tank? ie) sand, fake plants, heater, air strip, filter preference, etc.

4) How long do you quarantine? days, weeks, hours,?

5) List of medications used during quarantine: reason for medication (internal parasites, bacterial, fungal)? prevention, treatment or both?
ie} Prazipro- external parasites. Treatment and prevention

6) Quarantine procedure:

7) yearly preventative measures in established tank:

 

[freak78]

I usually quarantine new fish unless it's from a Breeder that I trust. My Tank is a 20H and it has a sand substrate. I keep it running with a few small fish. I'll quarantine for two weeks. The filter I use is a penguin 200 HOB.

 

[Polyaddict86]

1. Yes sometimes no, lolz, cause i dont have a proper qt tank.
2. A water cooler
3. Just air pump and air stone
4.24 hrs
5. Tetra parasite gaurd when in the cooler and prazipro when introduced in the main tank.
6. No feeding while in the cooler.
7. No idea i dont have my polys for a year yet.

 

[flukekiller]

Depends, if wild caught I would definitely QT cause they can bring in some nasties and if captive bred the QT period would be a lot less.. everyone does it differently so there are many ways.

I use either a 13 gal tank I made myself or a 20 gal long..and a sponge filter

 

[ShanerBock888]

1] Yes, I quarantine
2] 40 breeder right now, but it depends on size of the fish and what tanks I have lying around
3] setup is simple, dimly lit with sand substrate with a couple rocks. Try to keep it easy to clean and make it easy for me to watch the fish for signs of illness.
4] I usually quarantine for a minimum of 2 weeks, but will increase or decrease based on source. From my lfs I may do a bit longer, first time from a website a bit longer, but a trustworthy store like wetspot it will be as short as a week.
5] I use tetra parasite guard
6] I usually don't feed for the first day, and keep the tank lights off for the first day, then everything is normal
7] haven't had polypterus for a year yet, so we'll see!

 

[jaws7777]

I always qt. I learned the hard way by not qt'ing a fish i recieved from a reputable vendor. Its not his fault i would think its impossible to know whats going on inside every fish they sell.

I normally do 4 days of parasite gaurd then monitor for a couple of weeks. Once they started eating inrove them from qt.

I usually use a 30 gal but now that im down to just a 20 gal its the bare minimum 4 day PG treatment then in they go.

Im eventually going to use my 75 gal as a qt.

 

[Vancouver_98683]

1. Yes sometimes no, lolz, cause i dont have a proper qt tank.
2. A water cooler
3. Just air pump and air stone
4.24 hrs
5. Tetra parasite gaurd when in the cooler and prazipro when introduced in the main tank.
6. No feeding while in the cooler.
7. None

 

[skjl47]

I keep it running with a few small fish

Hello; I keep a QT running by having at least one fish in it all the time. This is for at least two reasons. One is to keep a minimum level of beneficial bacteria active at all times. Another is to have something in the tank to eat mosquito larvae that may show up in warm months.

Just air pump and air stone

Hello; This is all you need in a QT at ab basic level. I like to have some structure so the new fish can have a place to hide but is not necessary.

quarantine for a minimum of 2 weeks, but will increase

Hello; As I get older the QT time has gotten longer. Two weeks is pretty much a minimum any more but I generally go longer.


I keep a couple of small tanks cleaned and empty and ready to set up as QT or hospital tanks.
I split the sponge of a sponge filter into two sections and keep it running in one of my established tanks. That way I can grab a section of the sponge (or the whole filter) to set up a QT quickly.
This also helps if I get several new fish or a large fish whose bio-load might overwhelm the bb of the constantly running QT.

The clock on a QT starts anew anytime new fish are added to the QT. If you have some fish in QT for 13 days and then add a new purchase then the QT period begins again.

I do feed in the QT and pretty much treat it like any other tank with WC and such.

Good luck

 

[Polyaddict86]

1. Yes sometimes no, lolz, cause i dont have a proper qt tank.
2. A water cooler
3. Just air pump and air stone
4.24 hrs
5. Tetra parasite gaurd when in the cooler and prazipro when introduced in the main tank.
6. No feeding while in the cooler.
7. None

Sound and look familiar

 

[clm08k]

Thank you all for the wonderful posts! Very helpful and educational- especially for us new poly keepers! It really does help

Setting up my quarantine tank today. I'm only allowed a 10 gal at the moment. But I did purchase sand, top, plastic plants, spongefilter, and heater. Never done a QT tank before, so kinda excited about it!

Gonna pick up some tetra parasite guard too.

Hello; I keep a QT running by having at least one fish in it all the time. This is for at least two reasons. One is to keep a minimum level of beneficial bacteria active at all times. Another is to have something in the tank to eat mosquito larvae that may show up in warm months.


Hello; This is all you need in a QT at ab basic level. I like to have some structure so the new fish can have a place to hide but is not necessary.


Hello; As I get older the QT time has gotten longer. Two weeks is pretty much a minimum any more but I generally go longer.


I keep a couple of small tanks cleaned and empty and ready to set up as QT or hospital tanks.
I split the sponge of a sponge filter into two sections and keep it running in one of my established tanks. That way I can grab a section of the sponge (or the whole filter) to set up a QT quickly.
This also helps if I get several new fish or a large fish whose bio-load might overwhelm the bb of the constantly running QT.

The clock on a QT starts anew anytime new fish are added to the QT. If you have some fish in QT for 13 days and then add a new purchase then the QT period begins again.

I do feed in the QT and pretty much treat it like any other tank with WC and such.

Good luck

really like your idea of splitting the sponge filter, to QT whenever without crashing the tank. Hoping to try that out soon.