Do You Quarantine?

[magpie]

Still gathering data on quarantining. I'd like to know if you quarantine new fish and for how long. I just got a 10 gallon kit setup with heater and all at Petco on sale for $34. Pretty darn cheap, and I can use it for a fry tank in the future too.

This is a multiple choice poll.
IF you choose YES, then please also choose one of the bottom two options, indicating why you do.

Feel free to discuss below.


For me, my answer would be -
No, I don't but have had at least one disease outbreak w/addition of new fish.

It was ich, and it was most likely from a store that is not my usual LFS, but it was an outbreak nonetheless. Of course I can't be sure as the new additions weren't those that were affected by the ich.

** Now that I type that, is that usual, or is there a chance the ich was brought on by stress? **

 

[swanseastilo]

Just so you know people have to answer both questions even if they select no. Forum makes u select both,

But i have never quarantined.

 

[magpie]

Follow up question - if the fish come through the quarantine healthy and disease-free, could I scoop them say in a bowl instead of netting them again? If there are no issues, I wonder if adding the water from that tank is a problem?

Just so you know people have to answer both questions even if they select no. Forum makes u select both,

But i have never quarantined.

Strange. OK, I modified it so there's no second separate question, but if you do choose YES, please also choose an answer to the bottom two questions regarding why you do.

Thanks!

 

[FishFanatic04]

Had my lfs order in Apistogrammas for me special since they don't stock them. Added them to my 75g and within days they started dying. 4 expensive medications later and the remaining 3 are still sick and one has stopped eating. Nothing is curing them and my kuhli loaches are still acting funny. I want to buy new fish, but I don't know if my tank is contaminated with some mystery, medication resistant alien fish virus.

I will be quarantining fish from now on. Week one and 2 to settle in. week 3 with slightly raised temps to speed up any possible parasites. week 4 to calm down and de-stress before the move to the big tank.

The whole thing lost me over $100 and I still have 3 sick fish which brings the $$ loss to 150. Then if I lose the kuhlis, or any new fish I add to the tank.....

After the QT:
I would put them in a bowl and drip acclimate from the tank they are going to move into.

 

[magpie]

Does your LFS quarantine their fish before selling? Or did they get them directly from the importer/breeder and then give them right to you?
Were they wild caught or tank-raised?

 

[masaman]

putting new fish in a q tank is a nice idea but not pratical for most ppl i think .
as for me i have never. the onltproblem i have everhad when putting new fish into a tank is with a school of 20 cardinals . over the first week i lost a few every night untill i only had 6 left . this caused a out break of fungus that killed 2 black phantoms

 

[FishBlast]

Never even knew about acclimatization, much less quarantining before I saw this forum. Never had disease outbreaks due to new fish (even though most of the fish I've purchased in the past were not from shops, but from the market instead, which meant the poor things were being kept in horrible conditions before being bought and probably developed resistance to disease too). I didn't even know there was such thing as ich either. Or dropsy or velvet.

There was a problem I've encountered though in the case of one hoplo (with no relation to buying any new fish and that fish wasn't new either), but don't know if it was a disease, old age or improper water conditions that killed that one in 2010. He couldn't maintain buoyancy and kept turning upside-down.

 

[FishFanatic04]

They had them for 2 1/2 days before I picked them up, and they have no idea about an original source. They are a very dated fish store and aren't into learning new techniques or anything in depth about fish. They don't accept fish-less cycles or words like "mature media" I tried to ask for their help with the apistos and their answers were useless.

I can't WAIT to move. New fish stores coming soon!!!

 

[Termato]

Magpie Hey lol

I think from reading everything we ca safely assume that quarantine is not NEEDED but HIGHLY recommended because of the possibly risks you may take in the case there is a virus, parasite, etc.

2 weeks minimum. 1 Month is best to be safe as FishFanatic states. Especially for those breeds known to carry things like the inbred species.

Best of luck!

 

[FishFanatic04]

I bet the people who have never had a problem and don't quarantine are the ones in areas with a good fish supplier.

 

[Termato]

I bet the people who have never had a problem and don't quarantine are the ones in areas with a good fish supplier.

Yeah for real. That or some freakishly good luck.

 

[FishBlast]

I bet the people who have never had a problem and don't quarantine are the ones in areas with a good fish supplier.

I wouldn't call marketers good fish suppliers though. The way they keep their fish is way different than the shops.
Baby bettas crammed in 1.5L or less, in a tiny space. Cories all crammed with zebra danios etc all fish in a tiny space, crammed together, not even a species only 1.5L compartment. And it's still going on, as the guy who made my aquarium this year had his shop next to a woman who was selling the aforementioned fish.
The cherry on top is that there was absolutely no filtration in those tiny tanks. So those fish have to stay for like 7-10 hours in there while they are on display in the market at the stalls.

Pet shops on the other hand, appear to have filtration (I'm not sure, didn't check) and larger, species-only tanks. (that's where I got my current swordtails from)

But some pet shops (mall ones) do keep bettas with gourami and while they separate the betta males, they keep most of them in tiny plastic cups. I think one was dead, they were all placed in a sink. The possibly dead one was a red crowntail and it lied on the floor of the cup, motionless and pale, although not to the side or upside down.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

After some bad experiences in the past, losing fish with no observable symptoms, I now try to quarantine new fish.

However, having said that, some recent purchases (Synodontis notata; Microsynodontis sp.1; Steatocranus tinanti; Phenacogrammus spp.; Chaetostoma milesi) have gone straight into established tanks because my two QT/spare tanks currently have two different generations of Steatocranus casuarius fry in them. I just hope I don't live to regret the risk, as these fish have gone into three different tanks, potentially infecting all but my Lionhead Cichlid nursery tanks and my Persian Killifish tank.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Yup. I had to get a separate 10g for fry after the fry tank became a QT. It never ends because to buy new fish, I would need a new QT tank because my QT is now a hospital tank for apistos.

 

[magpie]

This is the struggle, as the LFS I do buy from is excellent. Fish are in tanks with separate water for each (not a common source cycling through all tanks). They are held in a separate facility for quarantine and baby-raising until they go to the main store. Their fish are in excellent health and always acclimated to my tank very quickly - I think because they are starting off healthy. I know that this is no guarantee.

I have had two issues:
One, the ich bout. I had introduced 12 gertrudae rainbows from another LFS. A few days or a week later, my ricefish came down with ich. None on the rainbows that I could tell but they are so small! So, it wasn't the introduced fish that had the ich. Turns out that with some research, my ricefish (oryzias woworae) can suffer from issues/bloat with live food or food that is too meaty, and I feed live brine and blackworms, as well as lots of frozen things like brine, bloodworms, daphnia, etc. So there's a chance that the diet was stressing them out, causing the ich.

My other issue was when I added a new piece of wood AND dwarf cichlids at the same time.
I had massive deaths - still not sure whether it was a toxin from the wood or possibly gill flukes. Either way, the new fish (Laetacara araguaiae and Apisto. baenschi) were not affected in any way, and the Laetacara ended up spawning shortly after.

So in both circumstances, the NEW fish were not affected.
Would new fish carry something that could spread to others, but not outwardly affect them?

I keep going back and forth. Still think that transferring fish a few times would be stressful.... especially since my large tank is nice and established, well-planted, with floating plants so seemingly good for new fish to feel comfortable in quickly. The QT would be sparse. ARGH! Don't know what to do.