Quarantining Cardinal Tetras Question

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purple_drazi

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I recently lost the last of my cardinals to old age and wanted to replace them so I bought 10. I don't want to chance putting new, possibly diseased fish in my established 65g so I set up a quarantine tank and spent hours slowly acclimatising them to the water temp & adding the new water to the bag before I released them.
Overnight 5 died.
I went back to the store and got 5 more. The guy at the lfs suggested (and I agree) that it's probably because the water in the quarantine tank is too "new", it's not the kind of matured biosystem that cardinals need. I took 1/2 of the water out of the quarantine tank & replaced it with old water from my main tank, and then took 1/2 out again and replaced it again. I also replaced the clean filter from the quarantine tank with the filter from another tank that's been running for years to try and create as much of a matured system as possible. Then I spent another - I dunno, 4 hours acclimatising the new arrivals to the water temp and then slowly adding tank water to the bag before releasing them.
Since then (in the last 4 hours) I've lost three.

I really don't want to just put the new guys in my main tank - I've had too much experience with parasites and whatnot in fish from the lfs and I don't want to risk infecting my main tank.
otoh, I don't want to lose any more cardinals because those little beggars are expensive!!

any ideas of other things I can do to keep them happy in the quarantine tank until they're ready to go in the main tank?
 
When you acclimatise fish to a tank you only need to float the bag for about 30minutes. During that time you add half a cup of tank water to the bag every 5 minutes. Then after about half an hour pour the fish into the tank.
By leaving them in the bag for 4 hours they probably started to suffocate.

When you set up a quarantine tank you want to fill it up and get it running a week before you add the new fish. Have an established filter running in another tank and put that in the quarantine tank the day before you get the new fish.

You can even just fill up the quarantine tank with old tank water and put a filter in it. Then add the new fish. Make sure the old water has a low level of nitrate and is free of ammonia & nitrite.

Check the water quality in the new tank and see what the PH is. Then check with the shop and find out what their PH is.

If you put the new filter from the quarantine tank into one of the other tanks in exchange for an old filter you could have introduced a disease to the old established tank. Filters should be cleaned and disinfected after coming out of a quarantine tank. Likewise the quarantine tank should be disinfected after use.

Make sure the water is the correct temperature and have a backing on the tank. Lots of fish freak out if they are stuck in a bare tank. Having a thin layer (5mm) of gravel, some plastic plants, and an aquarium backing can help them relax a bit. And make sure there is plenty of surface turbulence.
 

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