Minimum Days For Qt

Hi! There is currently a 50% off sale at my lfs and they are getting a shipment in tomorrow. Most of their freshwater fish will be gone by Friday to Saturday. I want to buy some Cory cats and cardinal tetras. I won't be able to go Friday or Saturday because I'm very busy both days. The problem is that I have some cardinal tetras and Cory cats already in my qt and they've only been there since Saturday. It's a 5 gallon qt tank with 9 cardinal tetras, 8 habrosus cory cats, 2 gold rams, 4 otocinclus, and 1 red lizard whiptail pleco. I know this isn't ideal but the fish are not stressed. I change about 2 gallons everyday. Do you think it's safe to move out the rams and pleco (because they produce the most waste) to make room for the new fish? I also have a 10 gallon with 8 serpae tetras but there's more of them going in there so that tank is going to be pretty full. They have also been in since Saturday. My logic is that the least amount of fish I move means the least chance of a disease getting into the main tank. All the fish look healthy so far, nothing to worry about yet. Is it mostly safe to move a few fish into my 75 gallon tank?

 

What!! You need to stop getting fish for that 5 gallon QT. At minimum those fish should all be in a 20 gallon to QT them.

They need to be in QT for 4 weeks or longer. The longer the better. Minimum time is 4 weeks. Your fish store will get another shipment next week and the week after that, and will have sales later.

Shoving 24 fish into a 5 gallon tank is completely unreasonable. Moving only 3 of them out, to make room for more fish, is also unreasonable. Shortening their QT time isn’t even close to being a good idea.

 

I would be surprised if any of your current fish survive their QT with so many of them stuffed in so small a space.

 

I know it's not ideal, as I stated before, but I'm on a really tight budget (the only money I make is from taking care of my neighbor's cats when she goes on vacation. If I miss out on this sale it means either waiting another year to get more fish or getting only half the fish I wanted for my tank. I have no reason to believe these fish are stressed in the tank. It may seem like a lot of fish (and it is) but the tetras stay in the middle, the cories and pleco stay at the bottom, the otos stay on the side, and the rams swim throughout. I would never keep these fish in there permanently. I understand you might think this is crazy, but I was asking for advice on where to put the fish, not comments on whether or not you think the fish will survive.

 

I suggest you stick to what you can afford. What’s the point in overstocking for the sake of a sale if there’s a higher chance of losing them? In the long run there is plenty of time to stock a tank the way you want it. There are no shortages of species you want, I’m sure. Take it easy and do it right. Your fish will be healthier and happier. When you overdo it you end up regretting it. I tried throwing seven tetras into a tank that wasn’t fully stable yet. I lost all of them. I wasted my money. It’s not worth it!

 

You had plenty of money to get a 75g, and 25 fish. I think you will be just fine money wise. If you can’t take care of fish properly, you shouldn’t care for them at all.

Spend your money on a proper QT tank. It is $14 for a glass 10 gallon tank at Walmart.

 

Is there any fish in the 75 gallon yet? If there are no fish in there, you could add all the fish from your 5 gallon into the 75, as long as you keep up with water changes because that’s a lot of fish at once. That would clear up space for you to add the fish that are on sale into the QT.

 

I know it's not ideal, as I stated before, but I'm on a really tight budget (the only money I make is from taking care of my neighbor's cats when she goes on vacation. If I miss out on this sale it means either waiting another year to get more fish or getting only half the fish I wanted for my tank. I have no reason to believe these fish are stressed in the tank. It may seem like a lot of fish (and it is) but the tetras stay in the middle, the cories and pleco stay at the bottom, the otos stay on the side, and the rams swim throughout. I would never keep these fish in there permanently. I understand you might think this is crazy, but I was asking for advice on where to put the fish, not comments on whether or not you think the fish will survive.

You asked for advice on where to put the fish, and I gave you that advice. I advised to put them in a bigger QT. I advised to not shorten your QT time. I advised that the shortest amount of time for QT is 4 weeks. So I did, give you the advice you were requesting.

 

Well the fish are doing well on the new tank. Just because I bought a tank doesn't mean I have unlimited money. I bought it for $100 and it came with a stand and filters that I am reselling. I have a 10 gallon tank and I've decided that I'll pass on buying more serpae tetras and instead use it for some of the new fish. Since I have to extra space now, you might think I would be crazy enough to buy more fish than I was going to. That is not true, I am buying a few (maybe 5) habrosus cories and 5 cardinal tetras. I've done the math and that would leave me with enough money to buy a few more fish after the sale, which would complete my stocking. Thanks for helping. Sorry if I sounded a little harsh I'm just trying to get a worst scenario question answered. There are currently about 6 fish in the 75 gallon tank so very few to worry about if anything does happen, though I suspect everything will be fine.

 

one month is the minamum time for qt

 

I'm not gonna lie and say i've never shortened my qt time. I have. Recently even when I had some nipping going on I went ahead and moved the offenders into the main tank. It depends on the situation. In your situation, if it is not urgent, I would not.
That is certainly a lot of fish to add at one time though. In the future I would advise to only get 2 to 3 fish at a time, even 5 or 6 if you are trying to keep a shoal or school happy. But 24, woo, that's ambitious. But, what's done is done, so we need to figure the best possible solution. Which in my opinion is simply to not buy any more fish at this time. I know it sucks to miss a great sale, but in my opinion it is the best for your fish in your current situation.

 

I don't know about there, but here in Asia, if you are buying from a good source QT time we do average is 2 weeks. Not 4 weeks. As usually we QT for common fresh water illnesses, especially ich. And Ich will cycle through if you keep the temperature at a 86-90(if the fish can take it) for 4-7 days.

Most of the cases, I have read that longer QT in less than ideal tanks cause more damage to the fish than what QT is trying to achieve.

 

You had plenty of money to get a 75g, and 25 fish. I think you will be just fine money wise. If you can’t take care of fish properly, you shouldn’t care for them at all.

Spend your money on a proper QT tank. It is $14 for a glass 10 gallon tank at Walmart.

If it helps at all, I have this $14 tank as my qt; I got it because of the price. Have had 0 problems with it.

 

I know it's not ideal, as I stated before, but I'm on a really tight budget (the only money I make is from taking care of my neighbor's cats when she goes on vacation. If I miss out on this sale it means either waiting another year to get more fish or getting only half the fish I wanted for my tank. I have no reason to believe these fish are stressed in the tank. It may seem like a lot of fish (and it is) but the tetras stay in the middle, the cories and pleco stay at the bottom, the otos stay on the side, and the rams swim throughout. I would never keep these fish in there permanently. I understand you might think this is crazy, but I was asking for advice on where to put the fish, not comments on whether or not you think the fish will survive.

I know it's not ideal, as I stated before, but I'm on a really tight budget (the only money I make is from taking care of my neighbor's cats when she goes on vacation. If I miss out on this sale it means either waiting another year to get more fish or getting only half the fish I wanted for my tank. I have no reason to believe these fish are stressed in the tank. It may seem like a lot of fish (and it is) but the tetras stay in the middle, the cories and pleco stay at the bottom, the otos stay on the side, and the rams swim throughout. I would never keep these fish in there permanently. I understand you might think this is crazy, but I was asking for advice on where to put the fish, not comments on whether or not you think the fish will survive.

Make sure you have extra filtration! More powerful filter & AN extra sponge filter! I have an Aquaclear30 HOB Power filter AND a 30 gal. xlrg. spongefilter in my 20gal. tank bc I have more fish in it plus I do more smaller water changes and vac. poop and waste debris every other day!