Fish quarantine/Ich procedure

[vtech2]

Hello Reefers! Need a bit of advise, am setting up my 2ft tank and want to know the proper procedure of quarantining new fishes. Dun wanna kena Ich! How long should i quarantine the new fish and what else is there to do? Should quarantine the fish in a separate container in the main tank or use another tank?

If kena ich does freshwater dipping for a few minutes really help and should it be done for all new fishes? Never really had much success using medications sold by LFS previously to cure ich. Thanks!

[cornyfish]

Hello Reefers! Need a bit of advise, am setting up my 2ft tank and want to know the proper procedure of quarantining new fishes. Dun wanna kena Ich! How long should i quarantine the new fish and what else is there to do? Should quarantine the fish in a separate container in the main tank or use another tank?

If kena ich does freshwater dipping for a few minutes really help and should it be done for all new fishes? Never really had much success using medications sold by LFS previously to cure ich. Thanks!

Definitely you should quarantine your new fishes in a separate tank, otherwise it defeats the purpose of having quarantine. Websites usually suggest a quarantine of minimum 2 weeks, plus a freshwater dip before putting the fish into the quarantine tank. I don't exactly agree with the freshwater dip though... causes unnecessary stress to the fish and also has questionable effect on preventing disease.

If kenna ich transfer your affected fishes into quarantine tank again and lower the S.G of the water in the quarantine tank to 1.009, keeping them like that for 6 weeks. Freshwater dipping at this stage won't help at all.

[vtech2]

Hmmm,

a quarantine period for 2 weeks...wonder if reefers here do so. abit long but what to do better safe than sorry...

[Elune]

bro vtech,

(i might go a little off-topic below..... apologies in advance)

Yes you should quarantine your new fishes in a seperate tank, preferably up till 2-3 weeks.

I dunno about fresh-water dipping new fishes (iregardless got ich anot), but fresh-water dipping fishes that already have visible white films covering its body does help to "freshen" the fish up a little. It sort of makes the fish more comfortable as the film will come off in the fresh water. (my fish got livelier after the dip). Then again, this method might stress the little fish a bit (although it is dependent on the type of fish).

Note that fresh water dip is still a questionable method. some fishes survive, some dun.

One more step you can take when buying new fishes for your tank set-up is to avoid buying NEW ARRIVALS from LFS. they're usually still under stress or under quarantine condition when reefers buy them home. Hence increasing the chances that those fishes have ich on them and putting you thru the trouble of quarantining them.

What is better is to make a mental note of the fishes in the tank of the LSF, then when you are back at the shop 1-2 weeks later and that fish is still there, looking healthy, fat and lively, thats the time you should buy that fish. it basically indicates its a strong and healthy fish that is still surviving after such a long time. ( if you can't wait this long, and scare others will grab it before you do, you can always buy it immdiately and risk ich problems).

just my few cents...

[Elune]

Oh ya~~

came across this chart on Reef Central (i forgot which thread), and saw this chart, which I immediately saved it down:

Shows a very clear life cycle of Ich.