Q-Tank

[Troy-N-Eli]

This may be a silly question, but it needs to be asked anyway.  We've seen a number of comments about using a Q-tank with new fish.  Our research has not turned up any info on this at all.  Are we not doing something right?  All our fish seem to be happy and healthy and we have had minimal problems w/ adding new fish, w/ the rare exception of some weirdo fish that we got.  

Anyway, bottom line, could someone please explain the Q-tank concept?  Just want to find out what it is and what it involves.  If it causes less stress in the fish, we're all about that.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[lizwinz]

I think the idea behind having a q-tank is to keep your new fish from introducing disease to your main tank (and your other fish also) sometimes fish can be diseased but that may not be advanced enough to be showing visible signs, so you would keep them in the q-tank to make sure they are healthy before you introduce them to your main tank
i'm pretty sure this is why, if i'm wrong someone let me know

 

[dattack]

I personally don't quaratine but I guess I am playing Russian roulette.



In certain reef tanks, people quarantine for a few weeks to see if there are any potential diseases that could be introduced into the tank.  If the fish is sick in the reef tank, there is a very low probability of catching these fishes to treat.  That's because the fish will probably hide in rockworks that needs to be torned down to catch.  This is almost an impossibility when you have some inverts and corals that already made a home in or on some of the rocks.  Most medication if added to a reef tank, will be detrimental (especially copper) to all inverts in the tank.
So a mishap such as a dead fish in a reef tank could effectively kill all the living creatures within the reef system because of the ammonia/nitrates/nitrite levels.  Remember certain corals/anenomes are very sensitive to water chemistry.

Also, in dealing with freshwater such as African cichlids, one might have a hard time finding that one fish to treat if the rock work is impossible to take down.  Moreover, in a heavily planted tank, catching a small fish but be an impossible task.