Quarantine process? How do you QT for your new fish?

[sushiray]

I will be getting a pr of Koi's from another member & possibly some octo's from LFS. I want to get the best means of QT from everyone so I can avoid future issues (since I had assumed in the past the fish I got were ok so only acclimated instead of QT - what a rookie mistake that was).

Plse let me know what worked well for you & what fish were you QT'ing. any meds/salt/just isolation, etc.

Most I know have a separate hospital/QT tank but I do not have that luxury at this time - but I do have a 5gal bucket I can use.

Any & all suggestions are welcome. If you can be a bit specific that would be appreciated also.

thks all

 

[Lupin]

All it takes is a barebottom tank operated with a sponge filter. I use heater only when needed since I live in a tropical area. Quarantine takes place for 3-4 weeks. You could treat your koi with praziquantel for flukes since flukes are very common among goldfish and koi. Praziquantel is a rather mild treatment and does not interfere with the nitrogen cycle.

For meds, I also keep trichlorfon with me since several goldfish and koi I find tend to carry external parasites, mostly fish lice and anchorworms. These pests are a pain to remove. Juveniles can be killed with lower concentration of trichlorfon but adults need to be removed or you'd end up dosing a higher concentration which might also harm the fish.

Other necessary equipments include forceps or tweezers, table salt, iodine solution, clove oil/Finquel (preferably clove oil) and microscope if you can afford one for skin and gill scrapes to determine whether the issue involves flagellates, bacteria, virus, etc.