Quarantine questions

[Oskie Boy]

I am expecting a fish order next week, I have a 125 quarantine tank ready to go/ aerated and cycled. I am getting all smaller sized fish that are between 2-6 inches. A mixture of polys, spiny ells, and a black ghost knife. Some are tank raised some I am sure are wild caught. I would like to use the "aquarium Co-Op" quarantine method. 1.) Aquarium solutions Ick-X 2.) API Erthromycin 3.) API general cure.

Do you see and issues with this? I have other tanks and I use all the same cleaning supplies and siphons on all the tanks.

Thank you

 

[tlindsey]

I am expecting a fish order next week, I have a 125 quarantine tank ready to go/ aerated and cycled. I am getting all smaller sized fish that are between 2-6 inches. A mixture of polys, spiny ells, and a black ghost knife. Some are tank raised some I am sure are wild caught. I would like to use the "aquarium Co-Op" quarantine method. 1.) Aquarium solutions Ick-X 2.) API Erthromycin 3.) API general cure.

Do you see and issues with this? I have other tanks and I use all the same cleaning supplies and siphons on all the tanks.

Thank you

I personally don't pre med fish but suggest separating each group in seperate aquariums for quarantine.

 

[kno4te]

I personally don't pre med fish but suggest separating each group in seperate aquariums for quarantine.

+1. There are some that qt for 2 months and wait till something shows up and then treat, more of my preference.

Fish can still get pathogens after the being treated with meds. Fish may have a bad reaction to meds, like the eel. Less pathogen resistance by not using meds prematurely.

Choose what u think works for u. The meds that chosen will cover most of the expected critters.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; My take on the API Erthromycin 3 for sure is to not use it as a just in case preventative treatment. This is an antibiotic and the use of antibiotics with out a target bacterium is not consider good practice. Some potential problems come to mind.
First is the amount of the API Erthromycin 3 to dose 125 gallons at an effective level will be expensive. The cost is perhaps the least of the potential problems.
Next is there is a fair chance a strong dose will wipe out the beneficial bacteria (bb) in the tank and you can lose the cycle. (time for a disclaimer - I am not sure from memory if the bb are gram positive or gram negative and I also am not sure which type of bacteria the API Erthromycin 3 targets. Also may be the API Erthromycin 3 is one of the broad spectrum antibiotics. ) There is also somewhat of a likelihood you can wipe out the normal gut bacteria of the fish with such use. These two things for fish that may not have any pathogens to begin with.
Last thing is the indiscriminate use of antibiotics is one cause of antibiotic resistant bacteria becoming more common. Save the antibiotics for an actual present pathogen. I would also treat with antibiotics in a much smaller volume of water than 125.

Not sure what in in ich-X but my guess is some form of chemical that kills ich by osmotic pressure. Again the dose to be effective is high enough to have side effects. Likely no better than ordinary salt. Treat for ich if the parasite actually shows up.

Not familiar with the third stuff so will not comment.

My take on QT is plenty of time in a clean tank with plenty of water changes. Keep an eye on the fish and save the chemicals for when anything shows up.

If the fish all come from the same place then QT together. If from different sources then may be better to have separate setups for each source if that is doable. Also if you have already other established tanks have dedicated sets of equipment such as nets for those tanks and another set for use only with the QT.

Good luck.

 

[Oskie Boy]

Thanks for the comments. Yes all the fish are coming from the same website (Tampa Florida location), but yea who knows, some are prob bread by small local breeders and some are prob wild caught. I am not sure if the spiny ell's can even be bread in captivity? Even if they can they may come from Asia. I guess I am just anticipating problems to arise due to 15 plus fish from possibly many different paces/ countries and putting them all in the same tank.

I hear the suggestion about putting the different types in different tanks, but unfortunately that will not be possible.

I have never treated scaleless fish before like the ell's and knifes, was thinking that I may have to cut dosages or something?

Thanks

 

[kno4te]

Be cautious with the eels. The spiny eels haven’t been captive bred yet. Know fire eels have some breeding done/going on. The eels come in stressed and meds may make it worse. It won’t eat and stress and die. Would keep the Asian eels separate and monitor before mixing any and other fish, esp polys.

 

[skjl47]

was thinking that I may have to cut dosages or something?

Hello; Cutting a dosage is problematic especially with antibiotics. Too many people have done so and this hastens the development of antibiotic resistance. Short answer being a weak dose kills off only the susceptible bacteria and leaves the more hardy individuals alive. Those hardy ones reproduce and pass on the resistance and on and on. So if doing an antibiotic then do a lethal dose and for the needed time or do not use them at all.

(Note- there is now the belief some bacteria can pass on a sort of gene packet to other bacteria. Say an antibiotic resistant bacteria comes in contact with a disease causing bacteria. It seems it may be possible for these bacteria to exchange genetic material. Antibiotics are a risky business.)

For ich treatments a to low dose is just not effective. I will drag duanes into this because of his recognized knowledge.

 

[Rocksor]

I have never treated scaleless fish before like the ell's and knifes, was thinking that I may have to cut dosages or something?

Thanks

BGK is not a scaleless fish. It just has black scales.

 

[duanes]

Hello; Cutting a dosage is problematic especially with antibiotics. Too many people have done so and this hastens the development of antibiotic resistance. Short answer being a weak dose kills off only the susceptible bacteria and leaves the more hardy individuals alive. Those hardy ones reproduce and pass on the resistance and on and on. So if doing an antibiotic then do a lethal dose and for the needed time or do not use them at all.

(Note- there is now the belief some bacteria can pass on a sort of gene packet to other bacteria. Say an antibiotic resistant bacteria comes in contact with a disease causing bacteria. It seems it may be possible for these bacteria to exchange genetic material. Antibiotics are a risky business.)

For ich treatments a to low dose is just not effective. I will drag duanes into this because of his recognized knowledge.

This is why I don't randomly treat Q tanks with antibiotics, unless I know what I am treating for. The random usage, and low doses allow some bacteria to survive, and then produce super bugs, that each generation somewhere down the line, are resistant to the same antibiotic.
I believe this is why "duck Lips" has become so prevalent in cichlids.
In trying to keep the most colorful, but immunity weak FHs alive, and get them to market, random antibiotics have only strengthened columnar bacteria strains, making the disease harder and harder to treat.

 

[Oskie Boy]

Thanks for the info. I will wait and see what the fish look like for sure. If there is any issues I will post pics of them here.