How long do you quaratine your fish?

[aschroeder]

I've had a tomato clown in quarantine for over 2 weeks. After the first few days it started flicking it's side. It didn't show any signs of ich, but I've seen the behavior before so I treated the water with copper meds. He fully recovered and I did a 50% water change after the treatment.

My question is when would it be safe to put him into my main tank?

[gpep419]

i go 2 weeks min but hold out as long as you can lol
you should be ok now

[chrisp074]

Minimum of 4 weeks symptom free, 6 would be better.

[chrisp074]

Minimum of 4 weeks symptom free, 6 would be better.

[ralphie16]

thanks for playing everybody ;- just teasing

the correct answer is 8 weeks after all symptoms disappear

[aschroeder]

Apparently there isn't a consensus on this one. I googled it and found the answers equally as varied. The most frequent answer I've found seems to be 4-6 weeks, but the longer the better.

So he'll be living in a lonely ten gallon for at least another 3 weeks.

[aschroeder]

I also read this article that talks about the quarantine process:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/librar...gressiveqt.htm

It talks about an "aggressive" quarantine that treats for disease before the fish is even sick. Since I treated for Ich with copper meds, wouldn't that wipe out any parasites in the water, eliminating the possibility of reinfection?

[frederickk]

I would be curious to know what is the real percentage of people that QT their new arrivals?

[aschroeder]

Originally posted by frederickk
I would be curious to know what is the real percentage of people that QT their new arrivals?

I think most people do it because of hard lessons learned. For seven years, I've never quarantined my fish, and had no problems. Several months ago I set up a new tank and the last fish I added got sick and within days my entire tank was wiped out (5 fish total).

The plague that wiped out my tank was partially my fault. I added all of the fish over a 3 week period, so their immunities were probably weak and less able to fight off the disease. If you don't quarantine, add one fish at a time and give plenty of time between the next addition.

[JokerGirl]

Generally I quarantine for a 1-2 weeks after I get a new fish. I've been keeping fish for over 15 years, and the one thing I've noticed is that the diseases that will really wipe out a whole tank will show its ugly face within that time period. That or the fish will show some kind of signs that something is or will be wrong.

[ghostrida3]

i agree i keep mine about 2 weeks but i dose them w/ copper the whole time. copper covers a lot of bases. if anything is unaffected by the copper it will usually show up in that time and i can dose accordingly.. i feel marine ich is the most popular affliction and copper is the most effective treatment. i assume most fish from the lfs have it when i purchase them because in my expereince most of them have had it.

[Freed]

Originally posted by aschroeder
If you don't quarantine, add one fish at a time and give plenty of time between the next addition.

There should be no if's about it. Always QT. Even if you don't want to go thru buying a small tank and go thru the "hassle" of QTing a new fish. The lives of ALL the other fish are at stake here.

[Orca33]

I would recomend 4 weeks just due to the fact that most parasites go through a dormant stage. Just when you think everything is clear, you see those little white spots show again and back to the QT tank again. Better safe than sorry.

Charlie

[Tang Salad]

I quarantine all new arrivals for 3 to 5 months. After this time I put all of the fish from my display into the quarantine tank and quarantine everything together. After 2 to 3 months of this, I put my display tank (the physical tank itself) into the quarantine tank with all the fish. After a week or so of this I usually quarantine my MH bulbs (not the ballasts, of course) and all aquaria related books I have. If I've been surfing RC a lot I also toss in my DSL box and router. My girlfriend is currently in there too, but that's just because she ate salmon for lunch.

[nsreefer]

Originally posted by Tang Salad
I quarantine all new arrivals for 3 to 5 months. After this time I put all of the fish from my display into the quarantine tank and quarantine everything together. After 2 to 3 months of this, I put my display tank (the physical tank itself) into the quarantine tank with all the fish. After a week or so of this I usually quarantine my MH bulbs (not the ballasts, of course) and all aquaria related books I have. If I've been surfing RC a lot I also toss in my DSL box and router.

Please don't flame me: some of us were just born to be wild.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry...... or break things....i'm so confused.

[Tang Salad]

[Aquarist007]

I agree with six weeks from no visible signs
The other use of a quaratines tank is to give the fish time to recover from the stress of the the dealer, the handling, the travel etc. I have run into difficulty when I have added fish back in with others that have already felt they have built up an exclusive club of their own. The new guy on the block already stressed out finds it hard to keep away from the iniatiation committee--I lost a flame angel over night this way because I thought he was tough enought and fast enough to survive--ouch

[drstupid]

> i agree i keep mine about 2 weeks but i dose them w/ copper the whole time.

does anyone else here dose copper as part of their regular QT protocol, even if the fish shows no signs of disease? i can see some good reasons to do it, like 10 gallon bare bottom tanks with no live rock have pretty limited biological filters no matter what you do anyways, but i generally hold off until i see something that makes me want to dose it.

[aschroeder]

Originally posted by Freed
There should be no if's about it. Always QT. Even if you don't want to go thru buying a small tank and go thru the "hassle" of QTing a new fish. The lives of ALL the other fish are at stake here.

No arguments here. Because of my disaster, I am currently and will always quarantine my fish. I was just stating for those who don't to at least be cautious about how quickly and how many fish are added in a short amount of time.

[bureau13]

Yes, I do unless I have a fish that is supposedly ultra-sensitive to copper. I would have put mandarins in that category, but I know someone who just ran their target mandarin through QT w/ Cupramine, and it came through with flying colors. I love Cupramine, by the way. I've never had any problems I could logically attribute to it.

jds

Originally posted by drstupid
> i agree i keep mine about 2 weeks but i dose them w/ copper the whole time.

does anyone else here dose copper as part of their regular QT protocol, even if the fish shows no signs of disease? i can see some good reasons to do it, like 10 gallon bare bottom tanks with no live rock have pretty limited biological filters no matter what you do anyways, but i generally hold off until i see something that makes me want to dose it.

[ghostrida3]

cupramine is great. It doesnt affect my biological filter(hydrosponge filter)at all. if u dose w/ copper from the get go u should elliminate it from even reaching the dormant stage. i net the fish from the lfs bag so the only parasites shoudl be on the fish or in the free swimming stage.

[sammyfish]

Tang Salad man you are too much.

That was funny.