New Baby Bn Pleco - Quarantine

Hi,

I have a 65 gallon tanks with rams and Blood parrots I plan on putting my bn pleco in I got yesterday. I had one before and after about 3 years passed and he did an amazing job with keeping the algae clean and tank looking nice.

The baby bn pleco is fairly small about 1 inch big. When I got my rams and parrot fish (Got them all once my new 65 gallon tank was cycled) they all ended up getting itch. I treated with warmer water and paraguard and all survived and healed.

Since I do not want to risk putting in the new bn pleco in until I am sure he is healthy, I have him in a 2.5 gallon tank since he is so small. No filter but has a rock he hides in and a heater. I will be doing daily/every 2 days water changes. When I got him yesterday I added a little stress guard since the store just got him in that day so hes going through a lot of changes.

My question is, how long do I quarantine him there for ? And do I just treat with paraguard to be sure he is healthy when I move him to the 65 gallon tank ? And if so how long do I treat him for ? Also, how long do I use the stress guard for ?

 

The first thing that jumps out at me is no filter in the QT. I highly recommend putting a small sponge filter in there. Granted it won't be a filtered sponge, so it wouldn't help much off the bat. Any chance you have a small sponge filter running in the 65g?

But without a filter...are we talking stagnant water? or do you have a bubbler at least? There needs to be some kind of movement in that water. It can't be stagnant like that. So again, I suggest a small sponge filter rather than a air stone. But even an air stone would be better than nothing.

Also, since you are going filter-less, I highly recommend daily water changes, using seachem prime. Even a little baby pleco can cause an ammonia spike in a tank that little. So skipping even one day could cause problems.

As for treating him with paraguard to make sure he is healthy.....paraguard doesn't treat everything. So that won't guarantee that it is healthy. But it can't hurt I suppose.

Personally I have been burned more than once by skipping QT, or getting impatient and doing a very short QT period. So now, I do a minimum of 4 weeks. (usually more) But that is a long time for him to be in an uncycled 2 gallon tank.....So I don't know if I want to suggest that long of a QT...but I also don't want to encourage you to not QT appropriately! It only takes one sick fish to destroy a whole population of fish. Its a gamble for sure.

 

I wouldn't use Paraguard (or any med) as precaution.

Only use meds when needed and for what they are made for.

Does it have vegs / food ? Ik looks quite thin (maybe the pic)

 

I also do not medicate without symptoms. I would get a filter of some kind. Highly important to have the water being moved, I agree an air stone is better than nothing but if you're doing an air stone you might as well do a small sponge filter. I prefer to keep in a QT a while, a couple weeks at least. That allows you to really monitor the fish for illness and making sure they're eating well before I add them to the tank.

You may also want to seed the QT with the filter media from your other tank. Uncycled tanks can be hard on fish.

 

I don't have a filter for it.will go to pet store tomorrow and get one. I am doing daily 90% water changes right now using my osmosis filter and use prime for the water.

He seems to be moving around at night but since he is small not sure if he has eaten any of the sinking pellets ive thrown in. I will throw in a sliced cucumber tomorrow and see if he likes that. I can also add water from my 65 gallon tank daily if that option is better?

 

Ive done algae sinking pellets and krill sinking bottom feeder pellets. I remove any uneaten portions daily and replace with new ones each day as well.

 

I put an internal filter in today. In it I put some purigen biofilter in it from my 65 gallon tank. Hoping this makes the little guy a little more comfortable in there.