quarantine question (vertebrates)

[Anonymous]

I've never quarantined my fish before.

Fenner recommends a freshwater bath (15-30 minutes in freshwater buffered with baking soda to the pH you run in your system, with methylene blue added) followed by at least 30 days of quarantine in a bare tank with hidey-holes made of big PVC pipes/pieces. Sponge filter for filtration.

This seems pretty doable to me - what do others think of this method? Any tips for quarantine you want to share?

thanks,
jayo

 

[Anonymous]

I haven't quarantined any of my fish. I would recommend for Tangs though.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't do the freshwater dip bit unless you are certain there is something wrong that can be curable with it. Freshwater dips are quite stressful for fish, and the usual "big" dish issues with fish (namely ich) is not effective at removing it. The QT period in the tank is the important time, since it allows you to observe a fish (which often has not been in stores long enough to show any signs of disease) and give it a lookover.

The quarantined the astronauts after they came back from the moon to observe them for signs of some "space illness" or whatever as a just in case issue. They didn't give them loads of antibiotics or the like just incase they contracted space herpies or something. The QT works the same way, see if your fish has any signs of space herpies

 

[Anonymous]

The QT works the same way, see if your fish has any signs of space herpies

:lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Is it not common for fish to come in from the wild with external parasites?

How stressful is a freshwater dip? Does it vary by species? This seems like such an easy basic prophylactic - clean off the fish before quarantine.

jayo

 

[pcardone]

I think that you should take the extra time to slowly introduce any new comers. If you do it right, they will be around for a long time. I have an old external protien shimmer that I hang on a 5 GAL BUCKET. If someone gets sick, I sacrifice a live rock and set up a hospital bucket with copper for a week or two. It always works. The hardest part is catching the @##% fish