dhenn

OK ... I understand the need for QT for new fish you're bringing in. Makes perfect sense to me. If the fish is sick you don't want to introduce it to a stocked tank.

However, I'm curious about everyone's experience with quarentining a sick fish. So far, our only issues with fish have been ICH (we're very new). Given the ich lifecycle it has not seemed worth it to quarantine the sick fish because the entire tank is most likely infected. Am I wrong? I have also not done the opposite and quarantined the healthy fish because I've assumed that they may be infected we just can't see it because they're light colored.

I'm sure there are other illnesses where it would make sense to quarantine fish but the same question applies, how do you know that you caught the sickness in such a manner that the healthy fish are really still healthy and if you treat only the ones displaying sickness, what guarantee do you have that the rest don't come down with the same thing?

Next question on the QT tank thing, if you don't keep the tank up and running all the time and you only establish it when it's needed and you use your main tank's water to do that establishing, aren't you also potentially adding whatever is making the fish sick into the QT?

I see the recommended size for a QT is 10G. That is the size of my DD's main tank. If I took somewhere between 20 and 50% of water from the main tank I'd still need to then fill both tanks with new water. Would this be OK? Should we really have a 10G QT tank for a 10G main tank or would say a 5G QT be sufficient?

Currently, we're treating for a small ich breakout and I'm not using a QT, these questions are really more for knowledge building on my part so that I have the answers if I unfortunately ever need them.

Thanks!

clinton1621

One of the reasons for having a seperate quarantine tank is because some plants, invertebrates(like shrimp), and also some fish (mainly scaleless like corys and other catfish) will not tolerate some medications like your regular scaled fish will, it could make them very sick or possibly kill them. Always read the bottle warnings and or look up the medication online to see what fish it is compatible with.

You are correct in adding water from your main tank to the QT if it is a parasite (like ich) you are potentially spreading it to the QT as well, but thats the point of the QT is to treat the fish for whatever they may have so you should be medicating for whatever youre putting the fish in there for... does that make sense?

As far as size for your quarantine... a 5G should be alright if you have mainly small fish, which I would assume you do with a 10G main tank

dhenn

Thanks a bunch Clinton. she has 4 guppies right now (very small at this point) and may at some point be adding 3 platys OR 3 mollies (she likes both so hasn't decided which she wants). She doesn't have any invertebrates or scaleless fish.

What I'm hearing (if I'm reading right) is that the QT would be more needed for a specific illness in our case and not a parasite. Something that the fish could get sick and chances are it only affects the one fish and not the tank. So maybe, we don't need to deal with a QT at this time. Thus far there isn't any med in the tank anymore ... we're treating the ich with temperature and it seems to be working thus far.

If we get a bigger tank at some point to put in a main living area (a consideration since she doesn't want her little sister to look at her fish) we will reconsider the QT.

clinton1621

No problem, also if you do get a QT and happen to ever have invertebrates or scaleless fish and want to use a medication for your main tank that might hurt them, you could put them in the QT instead of the scaled fish while youre treating your main tank =)

Lucy

I keep extra sponges (filter media) in my tanks. That way if I can set up a QT tank when I need it.

Some illnesses aren't apparent right away so it's always a good idea to quarantine any new inhabitants for at least 2 weeks.

Even if whatever illness your treating your fish for isn't contagious, a sick or weakened fish is likely to get picked on, so it's good it be moved somewhere that it's safe.