chickadee

The Potassium Permanganate (PP) is wonderful as long as you use it outside! I tried mixing it up in my kitchen one time and it made tiny little purple dots on my walls that three coats of paint cannot cover up. They just keep bleeding through. I love the stuff otherwise and it makes the BEST net soak in the world but wears out fast. As long as you remember to change it often it is the best.

I also found out not to put bare hands or tissue of any kind into it as it takes forever to come off. Soap and water will only do so much.



Thanks for the additional information, D.

Rose

FishPerson

I lack a quarantine tank. I only got a 10gallon for my b-day, so if i DO get a bigger tank one day, I may turn the 10g into a QT.

plant crab

I'm wondering if someone can help me with the quarantine tank thing.

I have a 55 gal and I want to add more fish. I also have a 10 gal and i think the qt tank idea is a good one, but if I set up a new tank, how do i handle the nitrogen cycle when it starts up again? Should I be changing the water daily? If so, wouldn't I end up with a tank with completely different parameters at the end of the four weeks which would stress the fish out all over again when I move him to my community tank?

I'm especially curious because i'm thinking of getting oto's next and I'm worried that two transfers will be really hard on them as they are such delicate fish.

I'm sorry I'm ranting, and I'm not questioning the QT tank thing (ultimately it is the best thing to do) I'm just trying to figure this out.

chickadee

The simple answer is to put a couple of small (up to 10 gallon sized) sponge filters tucked into the corners of your 55 gallon tank instead of airstones to provide air movement and additional oxygenation of the water. At the same time they will be growing bacterial beds that will be able to be used as filters for a quarantine tank if ever needed for the 10 gallon tank. Then when you get more fish, just fish one of them out and use it in the quarantine 10 gallon tank to quarantine the new fish and as long as no issues of health appear to cause problems in the quarantine tank needing medication or causing death of any of the new fish the sponge filter can be returned to the 55 gallon tank when the quarantine period is over. If there is a problem the sponge part of the filter can be replaced when the other part is cleaned and then it can be put back into the 55 to be cycled into another cycled filter for reuse. They are also a back up for possible help if your main filter ever needs a little help if there is a time when it goes into a mini-cycle for any reason. If you want to use the slightly larger sponge filters they can even take the place of the main filter if it ever fails. I never run a tank without a small sponge in it somewhere anymore as I usually end up needing one somewhere, in a quarantine tank or a hospital tank or a bucket occasionally if I run out of room.
On the subject of Otocinclus, they are fragile and the normal quarantine period for them is 30 days due to the fragility of their systems. Not that they are so terrible to have but the handling they receive during their capture (they are not bred in captivity but caught in the wild with the use of cyanide) and the problems they face during their care in petstores make them more likely to be problems to keep during the first 30 days. Once they make it past the first 30 days, the chances of them living a very normal lifespan of a matter of years is excellent. That is why we generally recommend not introducing them to the main tank for the first 30 days as that is the critical period for their adjustment. After that they generally are considered to be as much a safe risk as any other fish. The important thing to watch for when purchasing them is to make sure that you are not sold any fish without little round bellies but not totally bloated fish and they should not be red and feverish looking on their bellies. Hot pink is okay but not reddened and sick looking. Milky white is wonderful and little pot bellies are lovely in Otos. If you want to know all about Otos they do have their own website. It is: http://www.otocinclus.com

They are wonderful little fish and I have owned several and still have some. The ones I have are quite old (over a year and a half) and are some of my favorite little fish. They are quite loving and get along well with the other fish and loved my Alexander very much until he passed. They took naps together every afternoon. (Alexander was one of my favorite bettas) I still have a picture of two little Otos and a little betta butt under the airstone hiding taking their afternoon nap together.

I hope some of this has been helpful.

Rose

P.S. It takes about 2 weeks to seed a sponge filter in a cycled tank to my satisfaction.

plant crab

Wow, Rose - Thank you.. I will definately try that.

Jake

My 2 cents on quarantining plants:

Putting anything in quarantine for a while is never a bad idea. If I get plants from someone I don't know, I do a potassium permanganate dip and then quarantine a week or so.

If I know the person, and have received countless boxes of plants from them, I might do the dip and then go ahead and add to tank.

Plants from overseas DEFINITELY need a quarantine period. I have a buddy who killed a whole tank of shrimp just by adding plants to a tank he had rinsed off repeatedly. There was still a bit of bromide gas residue on the plants after all that rinsing, which was more than enough to kill every single shrimp.

If you aren't on a first name basis with the owners of your local pet store, I would quarantine their plants as well. Even if I were on a first name basis with them, if they had plants in tanks with a central filtration tying them into other tanks with fish, I would still dip and quarantine.

Even if you trust the person or people you're getting plants from, that doesn't mean that there is no way they could unintentionally give you something you don't want, as in icky diseases, carnivorous larvae ( dragonfly nymphs, etc.), pest snails, duckweed, etc. Dipping and THEN quarantine is usually your best bet. A plant shouldn't mind a couple of weeks or so by itself.