Share you Fish quarantine procedure here

[Harlequinmania]

I bet many reefer here has been facing issues of disease being introduced into tank especially when new fish is introduced to their tank. It could become a even more serious problem if it is a reef tank where hash but effective medicine cannot be used to treat the fish, and slowly looking at your fishes started to die one by one.

Many of us here do not have the luxury of space of having separate or additional QT tank that could be used during the QT process. So i am starting this thread for members to share their own experience on how they have successfully treated their fish before being introduce into your main tank.

[Guest]

Sharing here my 7 day QT process if QT of 30 day cannot be achieve due to space and time constraint.

- Acclimatize newly bought fish to 1.15

- Place newly bought fish inside Toyogo box running only with air pump ( With 30% to 50% of water change daily )

- Do a Fresh Water Dip one day after the newly bough fish stabilize to check for sign of flukes or ich ect..

- During the QT process, feed as minimum as possible and remove all un-eaten food Immediately

- If any sign of parasites is found , start the 3 day flukes treatment follow by Copper treatment for 3 day. ( Total 7 day )

- On the last day before i introduce the new fish into main tank, i will do another FW dip again to ensure that all balance parasites on the fish will be drop out before being introduced into the main tank. If there is still sign of flukes or ich in the water, i will extent the treatment for another day or two.

-If it is a reef tank, i will acclimatize the new fish to the same sg level / temperature as the reef tank before i introduce the fish into the tank.

However, do note that only healthy fish can perform a FW dip, as it can be very stressful for a weak fish and might cause it to die immediately.

This is by all mean not to discourage newly bough fish under go proper QT process of 30 days as this should be the correct way to do so. The 30 day QT process would be the safest way to prevent diseases being introduce into your tank.

[Solo77]

Maybe you can clarify whether all fishes can go through fresh water dip and in general, how long to dip. : )

[[V]tEc]

My method will be same to QT in a 2ft container. Depending on condition of fish, I will proceed with fresh water bath before letting go into container. For me I will put media and live rock from my main tank. Figure out this way there are some bacteria which allow me to delay my water change.

[diki88]

Agreed with bro vtech on the media seeded from main tank would help. Especially if u need to medicate, the hassle of having to first change water then correct the therapeutic level again would be avoided for the 3 day copper treatment. I would use bioball or some sponge with a cheap hob filter. Air pump for more oxygen. If have to medicate, ill just throw the sponge and seed a new one in main tank. However as stressed, better to QT for 30 days. Used to do that but now true to HM's words, I no longer have the luxury of keeping both tanks.

[Guest]

Maybe you can clarify whether all fishes can go through fresh water dip and in general, how long to dip. : )

Yes you are right I forget to mention that not all fish can undergo FW dip esp mandarians fish family or delicated fish. Usually i would performance a 5 - 10 min (max ) FW dip . The above QT method i used is cater more toward on Angel fish, butterfly and Tangs family fishes since these are the fishes that is very prone to parasites .

[Harlequinmania]

There is a recent good article from the Online magazine talking about the QT procedure here ;

However not all the medicine which they mention can be found locally, i would replace the Przi Pro with Prazi Gold and Maracyn Two with OF yellow powder.

These are the 3 bottle of medicine which i would usually stock up at home, since i think it is necessarily especially for a Fish only tank. And the additional bottle which i usually would get is Para Guard which is a mix of everything but unlike copper which can be too harsh on some fishes.