Gill Flukes and Quarantine

[Christi]

I have a 55 gallon tank that has been cycled and currently has 9 fish

3-bumblebee platy
2-molly
4- white skirt tetra

All my water levels were great, I even took it to my friend at a pet store and he doubled tested it and said all my water parameters were excellent.

One of my platy fish started have mucus below his jaw and his gills looked enlarged. He was breathing more rapidly than all the other fish.

As suggested by this let store...I have moved him into my quarantine tank and started treatment for gill flukes. I also treated the tank since this is a common parasite.

My question is how long should the tank be quarantined before adding new fish and how long should my little guy stay in my quarantine tank. He is swimming around and eating.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post a picture of the sick fish and a short 20 second video showing the patch and the fish breathing?
You can put videos on YouTube and copy and paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube.

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If the fish has gill flukes, there is no point separating it and you are better off leaving it in the main tank to be treated with the others. However, if it doesn't have gill flukes, then quarantining the sick fish is a good idea.

What are you treating the fish with?

As a general rule, fish should remain in the quarantine tank for about 1 month after they have shown no signs of disease. Most people don't bother waiting that long and move the fish back to the main tank a few days after it has been treated. The choice is yours but you should keep the fish isolated for at least 1 week after it has recovered to make sure it is not going to reintroduce the disease back into the main tank.

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Do you know what the general hardness (GH) and pH of the tank water is?
I ask because mollies and platies need hard water (contains lots of minerals) and tetras come from soft water that doesn't have many minerals in. If the GH is too low the mollies could have issues.

Platies, guppies and swordtails need a GH above 200ppm and a pH above 7.0.
Mollies need a GH above 250ppm and a pH above 7.0.