Quarantine Tank
- Thread starter dougie
- Start date
It's nice to have , but no it's not absolutely necessary at all. Not unless you have a tank with medicine sensitive fish that will die if you treat the entire tank.
you can make a pretty good 10G Q-tank/hospital tank for $40-$60 (tank, filter, heater, hood, gravel, some decor/fake plants) and thats a good investment. the tank acts as a buffer for your main one, so when you decide to add more fish, you can quarantine them for a couple of weeks to see if they carried any dieases or sickness or anything else you wouldn't want in your main tank and then treat it. plus the 10G size allows you to dose less meds saving you money there.
its worth it when you get a fish that is sick and it kills off the rest of your fish. you will be wishing you had spent that extra money on the QT tank.
My pair of little 3-gal Eclipses have been sitting "idle" for a couple months (filters running, Java moss growing, the occasional water change, no occupants). Suddenly had a weird fungus outbreak on a couple of my fish. Each Eclipse is now housing a fish under treatment (a little bit of salt appears to be the cure here); just glad I had a pair of quarantine / hospital tanks when I needed them.
Small size means less meds or additives needed, too.
v/r, N-A
Small size means less meds or additives needed, too.
v/r, N-A
I have a 20 high QT/hospital tank that I keep filtered, planted and has snails to provide a little bioload. I learned the hard way and lost some expensive fish from not quarantining a new arrival. I always qt new fish for thirty days now.
Mark
Mark
Heh, my QT tank is the size of your main tank, 29 gal. They are usefull to have in that you can also isolate problem behavour fish, or fish fry if you're breeding in your tanks, or of course ill fish. I don't put a new fish in the big tank without at least three weeks in QT.
Another advantage of a QT is that it helps in the acclimation process, especially if your main tank's water chemistry greatly differs from the water in which the fish were initially kept. When you get the fish, have the QT match the water chemistry of the source water as closely as possible. While the fish are cooling their heels, or I guess in this case, fins, in isolation, you can gradually adjust the water chemistry to that of the destination tank.
Also, many fish may have been weakened during the transportation process and may not compete successfully for food in the main tank, or otherwise may be picked on by stronger tankmates. The QT isolation gives you a chance to fatten them up.
Also, many fish may have been weakened during the transportation process and may not compete successfully for food in the main tank, or otherwise may be picked on by stronger tankmates. The QT isolation gives you a chance to fatten them up.