Quarantine tank questions

[Mark Z.]

Hi all,

I am planning on setting up a 10-gallon quarantine tank. I have never quarantined my fish before, but think it would be a good practice to begin, but I have a few questions.

I don't buy fish too often anymore; maybe once every few months, if that.

Do I need to cycle a quarantine tank?

As I don't buy fish often anymore, I don't think I would keep this tank running all the time. I plan to have the tank bare-bottom and use a sponge filter for air and a small heater and I plan to treat it with some type of parasite medication.

How long should I keep a new fish in quarantine? Do I need to quarantine snails?

Any suggestions are appreciated!
Mark

 

[Demeter32]

I'd just have a sponge filter going at all times in you established tank and when you need it for the quarantine it will be ready to go. As for quarantining snails, I've no idea.

A good 3 weeks or so should be plenty of time. Some people say more time other less, but I think 3 weeks is good.

 

[Byron]

If you cannot have a permanent tank running for use as QT, then the sponge filter process Demeter32 mentioned is the way to go for the filter. I would also use a bacterial supplement, like Tetra's SafeStart or even Seachem's Stability (I have used the latter, it worked, the Tetra is probably the best here). If you have some floating plants in other tanks that you could toss in to the QT when fish are added, they will take up a lot of ammonia and avoid any cycling issues. They also provide shade and a "cover," and this significantly calms down new fish. Most forest fish are programmed to expect cover above them.

I have a 20g QT running permanently in my fish room, planted, and that means thee newly acquired fish are introduced to a very stable environment and that is what you want to aim for, even if it has to be a temporary QT.

Definitely have a substrate, for two reasons. First, fish "expect" it and a glass bottom tank is highly stressful especially to new fish. Second, the substrate provides a "base" for organics to accumulate and various bacteria (aside from the nitrifying) to do their job, and these are important for water quality and stability. More "settling in" for the fish.

On the parasitic treatment...unless you have reason to believe the fish are infected, do not use it. Any and all medications add stress to fish, always. And again, stress is something you want to avoid with new fish as it only makes it more likely they will be infected with ich, which is caused by stress and nothing else; it is only when fish are stressed that they succumb to ich. A medicated food, meaning food mixed with something like metronidazole, might help especially with internal protozoan that cannot be seen and can take weeks to manifest themselves, and then only by the fish just dying in succession. This can occur several weeks after acquisition, so I would keep the new fish in QT for at least five weeks. I have had fish die in the fourth and fifth week, and was glad they were still in QT. These internal protozoan can quickly spread through a tank, I had that twice before I learned my lesson.

Snails can carry pathogens and disease, anything wet can transfer it. So can plants. If you mean larger snails, rather than small ones that just "appear," QT might be advisable depending thee tank they came from. A store tank with fish is obviously a possible source of pathogens and disease, whereas a fishless tank that is not connected to the other tanks (central filtration system, etc) is less likely a problem. I do not worry about plants in such tanks.

Byron.

 

[Mark Z.]

Thank you as always for the advice!

Mark

 

[AbbeysDad]

Mark - As an alternative, just before adding QT fish to the 10g, take the filter media from the filter on your established tank and 'clean' it in the 10g tank ensuring your seeding it with active, live BB. Oh it looks like yuk, but it really, really works.

 

[Mark Z.]

Thanks!