help do I need a quarantine tank?

[matthewfaye]

Hi all the shop we get fish from say they quarantine there fish before sale and we have added 2 raccoon butterfly's and the day we out them in are tank they showed signs of parasites so we started an anti parasite treatment but it's spread to the fox faces that we have and we have lost one of the raccoons and a fox face we are still treating but this has made us think do we need a quarantine tank the shop has said no we don't but cuz them raccoons have had parasites it's made us think we do but is it going to cost money running are 1000l tank aswell as a quarantine tank? The shop has said when we put fish in we need to run a treatment on the tank but cuz of the size of the tank it's costing a lot of money in treatments help please
Thanks
Faye

 

[fishgate]

Yes, run your own quarantine tank. Quarantine new livestock for 4-6 weeks. There is a sticky on a proper quarantine tank.

 

[DDon]

First off, yes, you should have a quarantine tank. I do not trust any store's quarantine process. There are differ methods people use for the process. I personally run every fish through the tank transfer method as a prophylactic against ich since it seems to be one of the most common ailments. I also treat with prazipro for flukes on 2nd and 4th transfer. After tank tranfer I follow up with 4 weeks in qt tank for observation.

The first thing you need to do is determine what disease/parasite your fish have in order to take the appropriate steps to treat.

 

[snorvich]

First off, yes, you should have a quarantine tank. I do not trust any store's quarantine process. There are differ methods people use for the process. I personally run every fish through the tank transfer method as a prophylactic against ich since it seems to be one of the most common ailments. I also treat with prazipro for flukes on 2nd and 4th transfer. After tank tranfer I follow up with 4 weeks in qt tank for observation.

The first thing you need to do is determine what disease/parasite your fish have in order to take the appropriate steps to treat.

Excellent quarantine protocol. No LFS quarantines properly.

 

[Marchillo]

it going to cost money running are 1000l tank aswell as a quarantine tank? The shop has said when we put fish in we need to run a treatment on the tank but cuz of the size of the tank it's costing a lot of money in treatments help please
Thanks
Faye

It's gonna cost you a lot more money and heartache if you don't run a QT. Setup can be simple and cheap. With the $1 sale at Petco you can get 2-10G or 2-20G for $20-$40 in total for TTM. I got 2 - 20's and I got sponge filters online that cost me around $6 each. I got decent heaters so the temp would be stable and a couple of phs.

Well worth it in my opinion. Good luck.

 

[matthewfaye]

Thanks people think i better get one get on set up. So when I set up a quarantine tank do I just treat it like my normal tank so I would have to put nopox in and how often should I water change the quarantine tank? And would I still have to run anti parasite treatment I'm my big tank?

Thanks
Faye

 

[Marchillo]

If you have ICH all fish need to move to QT and recommend your main tank remain fishless for 72 days. I wouldn't treat the main tank with much. I've read Prazi can be ok but no need to do anything in main tank if you move all the fish. Copper will kill inverts and corals. I wouldn't run any copper product in my display.

Some people cycle a qt. I did not. It requires more wc's to do it uncycled. In your situation you probably want to start asap so not enough time to cycle it. I kept a Seachem ammonia badge on my qt to monitor. I ran uncycled with many wc's for just over 40 days.

Good luck!

 

[aclinville]

I always do a Tank transfer method (its stated on this forum) to make sure of ICH and Velvet, then i use a QT after that to make sure of any other parasites. Atleast a couple of weeks works for me if i don't see any signs.
TTM - atleast 12 days
QT - atleast 2 weeks

 

[gone fishin]

TTM will not help velvet it is only good for ich.

 

[gone fishin]

Thanks people think i better get one get on set up. So when I set up a quarantine tank do I just treat it like my normal tank so I would have to put nopox in and how often should I water change the quarantine tank? And would I still have to run anti parasite treatment I'm my big tank?

Thanks
Faye

some folks will cycle or keep a QT running, others will use an uncycled QT. WC's will depend on when ammonia is present. I like to use seachem ammonia alert badges along with normal testing. I always recommend keeping plenty of water on hand for WC during QT. At some point in in the QT I will do 2 rounds of prazipro.

 

[matthewfaye]

Thanks for all the info but had a bad 2 days we have lost another 3 fish it's a fish only tank so the copper don't matter with corals. But iv done a water change and dropped the salinity to 1.019 Norway at 1.020 going to drop it a few more as parasites can't live in low salinity I have been told. Going to do another water change in 3 days time iv taken all sponges out the sump to see if any parasite was living on it I just feel like crying I put 4 fish in and lost 6 fish the fish shop did a full test on the water and it's all normal I don't have any plug in air freshers don't spray anything downstairs I us wipes to clean coffee table and tv, so can't understand why iv lost fish. All fish have stopped eating apart from clowns they seem fine. The shop can't understand why we're losing fish any ideas?
Thanks faye

 

[homer1475]

I TTM every new fish for ich, then they spend 4 weeks in QT at which point they get 2 rounds of prazipro separated by a week. WHy dose prazipro while doing TTM? kind of limits the amount of time the fish have in contact with the prazipro, no?

 

[BuzzPion]

What don't you understand? You acquired fish that were infected and placed them in your DT without QT. I would be mad as hell at the LFS who BS'd you into thinking it was all good to place them in your DT. However, some of it is on you though for not having QT's them (and still have not set a QT up).

There is no water test that is indicative of parasite infection. All your fish in the DT are at risk as well as any new fish (QT'd or not) you add later.

Pull all fish out and place in QT/HT and leave main DT fallow for 73 days.

Go back to the LFS and let them know and request your money back and for the loss of the other fish. I would let them know that they are full of it regarding them QT'ing the fish too.

Lesson learned--QT everything wet. A pest free DT is a simple and difficult as that.

 

[CafeReef]

Excellent quarantine protocol. No LFS quarantines properly.

This is a fantastic point. I have an outstanding LFS that I buy everything from and I have had no issues. They do quarantine all their fish for 4 weeks before any of them go for sale, I visit them weekly so I know this is not a ploy. BUT, they will also be the first to admit that with having well over 100 fish in "quarentine" for observation, it is easy to miss some things. It is always much safer to quarantine and monitor yourself, rather than trust the quality of another. almost an exact quote from the owner of my LFS.

 

[DDon]

I TTM every new fish for ich, then they spend 4 weeks in QT at which point they get 2 rounds of prazipro separated by a week. WHy dose prazipro while doing TTM? kind of limits the amount of time the fish have in contact with the prazipro, no?

I treat with prazipro during TTM just for ease of removing the medicine afterwards. It does limit the exposure time but have been successful with the (2) 3 day treatments.

 

[matthewfaye]

Iv taken fish out and there in qt but I have done another water test on my main tank and there is no kh reading for 5ml of thank water and iv out 30 drops of kh saloution and it's still showing nothing is that bad? I know I have not had any cardon in my sump cuz I was putting treatment in so had to take carbon out could this have anything to do with my fish dieing?

Thanks
Faye

 

[gone fishin]

what test are you using?

 

[matthewfaye]

Tetra and tropic marine test kits

 

[gone fishin]

Sorry I have zero experience with those brands. I find it hard to believe your not getting anything.