Quarantine procedures

[Patrick Calhoon]

In the last year I have been acquiring fish from private sellers and having them shipped to my door. I have a procedure for my 4 week quarantine, I would like to know what you do while monitoring a new fish in an isolation tank. I pre-treat water with Prazipro and Levamisole and feed Spectrum hex guard for the first week. If fish eat and act healthy after that 1st week I do a 30% water change and begin normal food and monitor for the next 3 weeks. Whats your process?

 

[RD.]

Pretty good routine, except Levamisole needs to be treated again 2-3 weeks after the initial treatment. I also prefer to extend the QT process beyond 30 days, but that's just me.

 

[Patrick Calhoon]

Pretty good routine, except Levamisole needs to be treated again 2-3 weeks after the initial treatment. I also prefer to extend the QT process beyond 30 days, but that's just me.

I retreat in 3 weeks if any worms were initially expelled.

 

[RD.]

Gotcha.

A couple additional threads.....

Can you reduce quarantine time with pre treatment?

I've seen online a school of thought that you can 'pre treat' fish for pathogens. Has anyone here tried this method?

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Barrett, I forgot a med that I used a couple yrs back, copper. I have always used copper to treat ich, unfortunately Coppersafe hasn't been available in Canada since it was bought out by another vendor. The copper product made by Seachem, which is what I have used in the last 10 yrs is a bit trickier to use, compared to Coppersafe.



BTW - I'm in no way suggesting that one can't, or shouldn't treat newly purchased fish. I'm really only against using meds in a shotgun approach, especially antibiotics. The whole concept of QT is to prevent introducing disease/pathogens into an established tank. Even public zoos and aquariums use prophylactic measures with new fish, but they are selective in the meds being utilized. Interesting to note that some of the same meds that I listed are commonly used by public aquariums and zoos.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22204059

Fish quarantine: current practices in public zoos and aquaria.
Hadfield CA1, Clayton LA.
Author information

Abstract
The primary goal of quarantine is to reduce the risk of introducing infectious diseases into established collections. Fish quarantine is inherently complex because of the variety of species, environmental requirements, and facilities. To examine current practices, questionnaires were submitted to 60 public zoos and aquaria, predominantly in North America. Questions reviewed system type (closed, flow-through), quarantine length, diagnostics, treatments, and cleaning and disinfection. Forty-two of the 60 institutions responded. Most institutions had separate quarantine protocols for freshwater teleosts, marine teleosts, and elasmobranchs. Ninety-five percent of institutions had a minimum quarantine period of 30 days or more. Sixty-four percent of institutions used isolated areas for some or all of their fish quarantine. Twenty-five percent had designated fish quarantine staff. All institutions used regular visual examinations to assess animal health. Fifty-four percent of the institutions carried out routine hands-on diagnostics on some fish; this was more common for elasmobranchs than teleosts. All institutions carried out necropsies on mortalities. Fifteen percent of institutions performed histopathology on almost all fresh mortalities; 54% percent performed histopathology on less than 10% of mortalities. Prophylactic treatments were common in closed systems, in particular, formalin immersion for teleosts, freshwater dips and copper sulfate immersion for marine teleosts, and praziquantel immersion for marine teleosts and elasmobranchs. Institutions using dips generally did so at the start or end of quarantine. Fenbendazole- and praziquantel-medicated foods were used commonly in teleosts, but dosages varied greatly. Cleaning and disinfection of systems and equipment increased in response to known pathogens. These results can be used to compare and discuss fish quarantine practices at display facilities in order to improve quarantine success.

Do you guys do it and if so, how do you quarantine the fish? Are medications/chemicals involved?

Quarantine New Fish

Do you guys do it and if so, how do you quarantine the fish? Are medications/chemicals involved?

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[Patrick Calhoon]

Pretty good routine, except Levamisole needs to be treated again 2-3 weeks after the initial treatment. I also prefer to extend the QT process beyond 30 days, but that's just me.

How long do you Q for?

 

[EntoStentor]

2 months

 

[RD.]

Typically 2 months, unless I see something that suggests that it should be longer. The only time that I don't QT is if I know the source of the fish personally, and trust their word on the background and health of the fish. I can count those people on one hand, with a couple of fingers left over. lol

 

[duanes]

When I lived in the US, and had a number of tanks, I quarantined for about 2 months, if anything looked suspicious, longer.
While in quarantine, I always add water from the tank they will be going into, to get them accustomed to the bacteria population they will be subjected to.
To me quarantine isn't just about keeping things from the established fish, its also about gradually getting the new fish used to whats in the tank, your established fish may have built an immunity to.
Most of the time, it may seem like over kill, but all it takes is once, if a parasite gets in and get established, the outlay of med cost, possible death far out weighs the wait.
A friend of mine who runs the aquatic exhibit at a municipal zoo, quarantines a minimum of 6 months.

 

[EntoStentor]

I imagine when you have a 50,000 gallon aquarium at a zoo, you don't want ich taking over your tank.

 

[RD.]

I know someone with a 2,000 gallon marine tank, he also placed all new fish in a minimum 6 month QT tank. Some of his fish were over a decade old, and he had grown them out from 3-4" to dinner plate sized.