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RE: Most Important

FattFishy — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:06:07 GMT

I don't have an isolation tank... I just end up making it another tank.

So... supplies are:

Some clear tub that can be stored

Filter?

No substrate

Natural room lighting will do..

anything else?

RE: Most Important

BonnieandClyde — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:38:29 GMT

i agree with you. I would say about 2 or 3% of the people that shop where i work have an iso tank. i wis more would

RE: Most Important

GRUBYGUPPY — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:08:23 GMT

ADSloan (8/19/2008)

Greetings all,

I would like to set up a quarantine tank. My question is, after the quarantine period is over, how do you transfer fish to the regular tank? I assume you would not want to just net them out if the quarantine tank and place them directly in the regular one. How do you acclimate them to the regular tank?

Have a super great day!

-Allen

I went to my local grocery store(it has a deli) and bought two of those large clear plastic containers they put salads and such in(if there ok for my food,there ok for my fish),and attached a handle from an old net to the container.I place this into the quarentine tank then with a small net guide the fish into the container lift it out and place it into the main tank. i then take one container of water from the main tank and add it back to the quarentine tank,just to keep the water level balanced.;)

RE: Most Important

GRUBYGUPPY — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:59:01 GMT

filipem (8/19/2008)

I use a ten gallon tank filtered with zeolite. I change the zeolite every 4 day's to make sure that it's working properly. I quarantine for at least 4 weeks. The tank has a small flower pot and cave. No gravel, and no lights for the first few day's. and if course a 50W heater. Water change of 20-30% at least 2x week. I feed the fish only what I feed the other fish that it will be introduced to. I have had great success quarantining this way.

The one time I didn't quarantine a fish I ended getting a disease in the tank. :angry: Lesson learned.

The only thing I do different is raise the temp.,my reg. tank and the quarantine tank are at 79 deg.F,over the course of 3 days I raise it to 90 deg.f.,keep it there for a day to see if anything nasty pops up,med if n\it does and then lower the temp. back to 79 over a 3 day stretch.

RE: Most Important

ADSloan — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:51:49 GMT

Greetings all,

Have a super great day!

-Allen

RE: Most Important

Nikita — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:18:23 GMT

Unless you're working in a retail/wholesale setting like David Lass, it's not a good idea to mass-treat new arrivals. No medication is a cure-all; you have to know exactly what you're treating for in order to dose your tank and expect results.

The thing is, fish medicine, like people medicine, has a shelf life. It expires and becomes useless or even harmful after a certain amount of time - and it's likely that you'll be quarantining fish and having no problems off an on for longer than that medicine is designed to work. It's like buying a lottery ticket. It might pay off, but odds are you're just going to be throwing an expired product away before it's ever used.

I'd just wait, and if your fish show signs of specific disease, pick the appropriate medicine up then. You might want to stock a general anti-fungal anti-ich medicine, though, because these conditions are more common and easier to bring on through stress of rehoming. The other drugs? Better to just leave them on the shelf until it's certain you need them.

RE: Most Important

JCHAMPAGNE — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:53:26 GMT

So, what medications (preferably liquid) should I have on hand for a quarantine tank? Should I just treat regardless of proof of disease?

I am assuming that the possibility of ich is the reason for the 4-6 week duration?

RE: Most Important

filipem — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:34:53 GMT

The one time I didn't quarantine a fish I ended getting a disease in the tank. :angry: Lesson learned.

RE: Most Important

GRUBYGUPPY — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:10:11 GMT

Hmm... I will have to check the directions,20yrs ago we did not have med. food,we had to medicate the whole tank with liquid medications. I the directions call for consecutive days it will be easy to change the feeding scheduall. As for not feeding for a couple of days a week, hungry fish don't leave wastes to contaminate the tank.

RE: Most Important

GRUBYGUPPY — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:59:13 GMT

I don't have a problem with you saving this, check with the Moderator to be safe.;)

RE: Most Important

princessotfu — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:33:09 GMT

Medications seem to vary between people during quarantine. I routinely use praziquantel for new fish, to get rid of gill flukes, but that's because half the fish I have now have had flukes. Other than that, I don't treat unless I see something.
Medicated food should be fed on consecutive days, according to directions though, even when used as a precautionary measure in quarantine. Medications should be used at the level indicated by the directions, or you aren't really doing anything but killing off the very weak diseases, leaving the strong.

RE: Most Important

FattFishy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:18:10 GMT

I like. May I have permission to copy & paste that into a Microsoft Word document? I want to organize everything into that... I have a USB drive just for fish pics and info.

RE: Most Important

David Lass — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:42:24 GMT

your feeding routine, GGuppy. is excellent. I wish more people would realize that you should not feed your fish for a day or two a week.

The procedure with a quarantine tank is to keep the new fish in it for at least 3 weeks, 4 is better. No need to do any medication (other than the first treatment of QuickCure) and just make sure they do not have any problems.

RE: Most Important

GRUBYGUPPY — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:41:39 GMT

I use 10gal tank as most of my fish are small when bought.As for procedure it is different for each person, I go with 4 wksor 6 wks,depending how excited I am to get the fish into my main tank. my procedure is as follows....

Day1 reg. flake food

Day2 freeze dried or frozen bloodworms

Day 3 no food

DAy4 medicated flake food(Jungle 2 kinds for different problems)

Day5 freeze dried or frozen mesquito larva

Day6 ho food

Day7 med. flake food

Then I start the whole feeding cycle again.

This is a 7day cycle that I use,others may do it differently,hope it helps.

RE: Most Important

JCHAMPAGNE — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:13:14 GMT

If you recently just purchased a quarantine tank, what is the proper procedure and duration for new fish.

I just got an extra tank.

RE: Most Important

GRUBYGUPPY — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:21:49 GMT

You put forth sound advice,the more new people who read posts like this will loose less fish and stay with the hobby instead of dropping out.yes a lot of people will jump on you about medication,but if it saves fish(for those who do not have quarantine tanks) it is the second best thing.Personally, I feed the new fish(in a quarantine tank) with medicated flakes as well as regular food for a period of 4 wks.

RE: Most Important

David Lass — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:50:27 GMT

You are absolutely correct -- a quarantine tank is the best insurance a hobbyist can buy against wiping out a tank. The problem is, q tanks are like going to the gym four days a week -- everyone agrees it is a great thing to do, but very few actually do it.

Having thought about this for a long time, mo conclusion is that, since virtually no hobbyists will keep a quarantine tank, they should do two things before they bring any new fish into their tank.

1) Do a 25% water change. The probability is that you haven't been doing regular water changes, and therefore have high nitrates in your tank. Your fish, living in their own sewer, have gotten used to the high nitrates. The new fish you bring from your lfs are coming from conditions where the nitrates are probably pretty low, since most lfs's do regular water changes, if only because they are always removing water when they sell fish. Dumping the lfs fish into your high nitrates tank will shock the new fish, and some of them may die. You will blame the fish store, but the problem is yours, and could be alleviated by doing a 25% water change before adding any new fish.

2) Treat the tank with QuickCure -- formalin and malachite green. I know that many of you out there will yell at me that it is a bad idea to treat fish with chemicals. This is just MHO, but something I've been doing with every tank I have for many years now. QuickCure is the industry standard for treating ick, which is the most common problem fish get. Using it every time you introduce new fish is, in my experience, a good protocol. I would treat once, and then again two days later.

Hope this brings out some opinions from other hobbyists.

Most Important

GRUBYGUPPY — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:40:21 GMT

IMHO...... the most important thing someone in this hobby(new or oldtimer) should have is a quarentine tank.The size could be a 5-10gal. I have seen friends buy and set up a tank and then they call me and the first thing they say is.....I just bought some new fish and now my fish are dieing or are covered with spots or a cotton like stuff. Any time someone asks me what they need to set up a tank, I always tell them 2 tanks and then explain why. I knw some may not be able to afford 2 tanks,but should always try.......What are your veiws on this?;)