prairielilly

If you bought a fish at the LFS, brought it home and put it in QT, noticed it was sick, medicated it and now feel the medication was effective and your fish is on the mend how long do you leave the fish in QT before it's 'safe' to add said fish to your main, disease-free tank? I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Lucy

I'd give it a good two weeks like you would when you normally Q a new fish.
Glad he's on the mend. What fish did you get?

prairielilly

Thx Lucy, I was thinking two but wasn't sure. They're two cherry barbs bought Feb 14 meant for my 20g (background see here). They've had a long haul through 3 different meds and I almost gave up on them to be honest. They're just in good clean water now. I actually don't have a lot of hope any more for the poor male, he's so pale and weak, I've never seen him eat, he's lying on his side right now the poor little guy...the female though is finally acting like a fish and swimming around, eating,....NORMAL!! I'm now a touch worried that if I lose the male the girl will get stressed from being alone.

Lucy

Aww, I hope the little guy pulls through. On his side really isn't a good sign.
It sounds like you did everything you can for him.
I'm glad the little girl is on the mend. Bet it was good to see her eat.

prairielilly

Yeah... That qualified as an excuse for dancing!

I've thought several times the little guy wasn't going to see the next day, and he's still around. Here's hoping he keeps surprising me!

Lucy

Sending best fishy thoughts and prayers his way! He sure sounds like a fighter!

prairielilly

Thx Lucy

prairielilly

Kinda unfortunate update (today wasn't a good day in fishie land all round it seems): both my cherry barbs have had bright red gills for the last two days and yesterday the female started glancing again, off everything in the tank. The male had still yet to eat, he looked more like a worm than a fish he was so skinny. Because of the red gills and the glancing it appeared to me that the bacteria had come back..it seems I didn't get it all. I started another course of the Furan-2...the male died. It is really sad, but I have been expecting this for a month now, I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did, tough little guy. I'm just glad he's no longer suffering. As for the female, I'm really concerned I'll ever be able to rid her of this mystery bacterium. My biggest fear is I'll think it's gone, put her in my community tank - and infect everybody I'll keep going with the Furan for now and hope for the best...