How Long Should I Quarantine For?

Hi Everyone,

So a couple of weeks ago I was reading about poor Katie's experience when she introduced a sick fish into her tank. From then on I decided that if I get fish they're getting quarantined first (unless I get them from AquaPaws because they're awesome )

Yesterday I managed to find a couple of ottos at a petstore. In my experience they're pretty hard to come by as a lot of them don't survive the shipping. They were pretty sorry looking, all skinny and there was a dead one floating in there. I have one otto in my 120L already and since getting him I've learned that they like to be in groups so I said I'd get them and hopefully "nurse" them back to health. There were only four left in there so I got three (because one poor fella just looked beyond help). I put them in my Fluval Chi 25L which will be my quarantine from now on. It's home to my male betta. One of the ottos died last night but I think he was on the way out anyway....The other two seem to be doing fine, no sign of disease and they're devouring some algae spots that I've inevitably missed while cleaning.

My question really is this: How long do you quarantine your new fish before introducing them?

Thanks
George

Do you mean how long should you quarantine for? or how long you (we) actually quarantine?

I'll admit that not every fish I get gets quarantined, but if I do decide to quarantine fish then it is 6 weeks.

Anything less than that is not really quarantine (in my definition of quarantine at least)

The length of quarantine, though, will depend upon such factors as temperature and species (and as a note, I quarantine amphibians for at least 6 months).

ian

I love otos but have had nothing but grief with them, never last more than a couple of weeks. I've read that they use an anasthetic (mild poison?) when catching them and they never fully recover from the shock of this.

Thats terrible Christy. They're such brilliant fish, my one likes to go shoaling with the rummies sometimes Brilliant cleaners too. Hopefully the other two make it. I think I'll keep them in there for a week or two looking out for white spot especially as I've heard they're quite prone to that.

Wow Ian, you're pretty committed to quarantine, that's impressive! Do some diseases only manifest after 6 weeks?

George

My experience of Oto's is that they should only be added to a very established tank.

Gavin

@grgeorge....I'm not always as rigorous as I should be. Quite often I simply plonk the fish in an established tank: it all depends on the fish.

I don't quarantine as much as I used or should do.

Yeah, things like white spot can have a long cycle time. I do quite often buy fish that have white spot, but the main concern is that I also have a lot of fish that do not take kindly to white-spot medication.

Also, I have a lot of amphibians (dart frogs)....many fish shops sell aquatic frogs and I need to be certain that nothing is going to be spread (by my hands) from fish to frogs.
But, when it comes to buying amphibians, I'm very strict.....and that is mainly to protect our environment.

ian

Glad to see that my horrible experience has raised awareness and hopefully will prevent anything like that happen to someone else.
Its heartbreaking to say the least. I dont even want to think about just how bad it could have been, would I have my 180 liter tank fully stocked and something like that got into the tank

I am going quarantining from now on everything for 3 to 4 weeks. I know I am not ruling everything out with that time frame, but a serious virus like the one what cleared my tank would raise its ugly head in that time anyway.

But just a question ... is your male Betta in the tank with the fish you are quarantining ? ? ?

Katie, at the moment my male betta is in the tank. He gets along fine with ottos as they just do their own thing really and dont bother him.

If at some stage I pick up a fish that definitely wouldn't be compatible with the betta I'll probably have in invest in a small clearseal tank and stick a sponge filter in it along with a few guppies or something and use that as a quarantine.

But for now, I only plan on getting a few more ottos (if I can find some)

George

I know Ottos are fine with Bettas would be only an issue if the Betta isnt good with them

My worry would only be that you are risking your Bettas health all the time

Hmm, I can see you coming down with Multiple Tank Syndrome too

I know its not exactly ideal, but the way I see it, it's better to risk the betta's health than the health of all the fish in my community tank... And I'm pretty sure there has to be at least one or two fish in the quarantine tank all the time to keep the bacteria in the filter going? So I'll be risking some fish's health regardless really. But I know what you mean, it's not really fair on the betta.

I had thought about moving him into the big tank, but I think he'd be happier where he is.

Haha multiple tank syndrome is a terrible terrible thing!

Another point about quarantine isn't just about protecting other fish: it should be an opportunity to give new fish some special care in new water and to minimise stress.

If you plonk a new fish into a community tank then it will be weakened by stress and anything it is carrying will simply be amplified...or anything in your existing tank would find an easy target to gain a strong-hold even if the new fish didn't bring anything in with it (often the story with outbreaks of white-spot after new introductions).

The quarantine tank should have excellent water quality, places to shelter/hide and be dimly lit.

If I buy any fish that are particularly sensitive to water chemistry changes then I ask for a little extra water from the LFS from their tank and then I add my water to the fish rather than the fish to the new water.
For small sensitive fish (eg gourami, hatchets, wild betta species, cave-dwelling tetras) this easily done.

ian

grgeorge wrote:

... And I'm pretty sure there has to be at least one or two fish in the quarantine tank all the time to keep the bacteria in the filter going?

When I had all my tanks going I didnt keep the quarantine tank going all the time at all. You could just have a spare tank with heater and filter in the house. When you need it put some media from the other filter into the spare filter, put some clean water from your tank in the quarantine tank, top up with fresh water and plug in the lot .... ready, cycled and good to go
Or run a second small filter in your other tank and use that when you need to for quarantine.
No need to put any fish at risk.

Sounds rich coming from the girl who didnt follow her own rules, I know I used to be so precise about it but thought I get away with it now. Thought made a fool of me

Yup, multiple tank syndrome is bad. Not that I would know about it (....sneaking off to set up the third tank in the house so that I can eventually quarantine new fish away from my little Rasbora survivor

Katie, that's a fantastic idea....I can't believe I had never thought of it! That's definitely the best way to go! (And an excuse to get another tank ). How big is your new quarantine tank by the way?

Glad to hear your little rasbora made it. He's a trooper

George

I would say that a quarantine tank defined as such should be something that is a full running tank and not a 'quick set-up'.

Such a tank would be left running as mature as possible, and would have plenty of life in it (could be algae, diatoms, infusoria, snails, daphnia?, plants etc). A common problem is that quarantine tanks are too sterile for new fish, and fish get stressed whilst in them.
Fish such as Otos need food.....a new tank may not offer them the food they need when grazing (this may link in with Gavin's comments above).

I buy many wild-caught fish. They pose a threat to other fish, but also need some very tender care themselves.

Ian

grgeorge wrote:

Katie, that's a fantastic idea....I can't believe I had never thought of it! That's definitely the best way to go! (And an excuse to get another tank ). How big is your new quarantine tank by the way?

Glad to hear your little rasbora made it. He's a trooper

George

I am proud of Survivor too

I got the choice of 2 tanks that I already have, but still empty They used to be home to my male Bettas. One is 38 liters and the other 55. I am strongly considering moving Survivor into the 38 liter one (with his filter/heater/plants) and after a thorough cleaning I could set up his 55 liter tank as quarantine tank. Just got to poke out a spare heater/filter from the storage room.

igmillichip wrote:

I would say that a quarantine tank defined as such should be something that is a full running tank and not a 'quick set-up'.

I fully agree Ian. In an ideal world that would be just perfect. But with energy prices constantly on the rise and this recession only getting worse, not many people can justify an extra full-set-up running just because you might need it every once in a while.
A "quick set up" got to be better than no quarantine at all

katie wrote:

igmillichip wrote:

I would say that a quarantine tank defined as such should be something that is a full running tank and not a 'quick set-up'.

I fully agree Ian. In an ideal world that would be just perfect. But with energy prices constantly on the rise and this recession only getting worse, not many people can justify an extra full-set-up running just because you might need it every once in a while.
A "quick set up" got to be better than no quarantine at all

Agreed, and as I said I don't always quarantine (and hope for the best).

Mind you, many of my 'quarantine' tanks have turned into full set-ups...and then another quarantine tank is needed, and then that is then a new set-up ...and so on etc etc until you end up with around 40 tanks.
At which stage, my front room is so warm that I no longer need extra heaters for extra tanks and I use empty coke bottles to divide out the air-supply.

igmillichip wrote:

Agreed, and as I said I don't always quarantine (and hope for the best).

Mind you, many of my 'quarantine' tanks have turned into full set-ups...and then another quarantine tank is needed, and then that is then a new set-up ...and so on etc etc until you end up with around 40 tanks.
At which stage, my front room is so warm that I no longer need extra heaters for extra tanks and I use empty coke bottles to divide out the air-supply.

thats my biggest trouble too Only I dont have 40 tanks Goodness thats a lot of waterchanges and maintenance work. When do you sleep/eat/work ?

But hey, I just looked into my attic space for the bag of spare heaters and filters and guess what I saw there ................. another fishtank what I had forgotten about Its a 60 liter tank too.
And of course if all comes to all, I got a small acrylic tank under my bed too

I also keep a quarantine tank on the go all the time. It's a small 25l tank without lighting and always keep a couple of swordtails in it to keep the filter ticking over.
New fish go in it for about 3 weeks. However I don't keep very expensive wild caught/large fish - this solution seems to work for me (well, so far so good ... ).

Hope this helps.
Valerie

katie wrote:

igmillichip wrote:

But hey, I just looked into my attic space for the bag of spare heaters and filters and guess what I saw there ................. another fishtank what I had forgotten about Its a 60 liter tank too.
And of course if all comes to all, I got a small acrylic tank under my bed too

Ah thats brilliant! And another under your bed? What are you waiting for? Set those bad boys up! Haha, I can't imagine having some spare tanks lying around the house, but I guess if you've been in the hobby for years you tend to accumulate bits and pieces.

Thanks for all the input everybody.

George

If you would see my energy bill every month you would know whats stopping me
Hmmm, maybe after Christmas is over but till then I will have enough things plugged in
Anyway, going to be busy stocking up my 180 now
I build up my collection of tanks when I had my Siamese Fighters