HankB

Hi folks,
Having been burned too many times in the past - add new fish form the LFS, they get sick and start taking other tank inhabitants. I bought 4 SAEs last night and have them in a QT tank. (*) I'm not treating them and there is no indication that they have any problems, but I want to QT to give them a quiet place to recover from stress and second, to make sure they really are healthy before I add them to my community tank.

What seems reasonable? A week? Two weeks? A month?

thanks,
hank

(*) I get to do everything I can think of to encourage algae growth since that's what they eat.

Lucy

Hi Hank, if I haven't said it before, Welcome to Fish Lore.

I've made the mistake of not quarantining new fish also, never again!
I Q'd my last fish for 2 weeks.

Good luck with your new fishie friends.

Dino

I agree, 2 weeks is enough time for most things to show up.

COBettaCouple

People run quarantine from 2-4 weeks usually. You could encourage algae growth if the QT has FL lighting. I think you could feed them Omega One veggie rounds or crumbled Nori too.

HankB

Thanks for the replies and tips.

Yes, I am encouraging algae growth by putting the QT tank in a south facing window. Mid day it gets sun (if we get sun.) I've also moved some algae infested rocks and plants over from my main tank. I'm also feeding with Hikari algae wafers. (Hmmm spirula is pretty far down the list of ingredients.) I'm putting spinach leaves in there - a small leaf about every other day - for the Otos I'm also QTing but I haven't seen the SAEs go for that. I've read that Otos should have a full abdomen at all times since vegetable matter has less nutritional value than meat/fish. I suppose the same is true of the SAEs and so far they all seem to have plenty to eat.

thanks,
hank

COBettaCouple

Yea, I love Hikairi products but on dry foods Omega One beats them. The veggie rounds don't fall apart as fast or cloud the water and have the ingredients you'd prefer.