quarantine?

[goheels1]

a friend w/ a new tank went to a LFS to purchase some fish and was told by them to set the bag with her new fish in the tank, acclimate for about 15 mins then dump the entire bag, water & fish, into her tank. i told her that was WRONG! told her there is a possibility their water could be diseased. while browsing the web to look up info for her on how to acclimate, i saw a cpl sites that highly recommends using a quarantine tank for about 2-3 weeks before putting your new fish into your established tank. never heard of this. i do the floating bag method then net the fish out into my tank. what's anyone's thought on this? is it really that risky not putting the new fish in a quarantine?

would a 2-5g tank be sufficient if this method is what most recommend? i don't purchase large fish so i'm thinking a small tank is ok.

 

[Newman]

I would guess that most people on the forum do it the old fashioned way of the bag in the water. One thing that you didnt mention is that you should be periodically adding some water from your tank into the bag containing the new fish. this allows it to acclimate to the new pH and not go into stress. both acclimation to temperature and pH are equally as critical to the stress factor.
By saying "stress", I mean long term damage from the initial shock. (some fish do die)

which ever way you put the fish from the bag into your tank is up to you entirely. a net may stress it more, but there will be less risk of diseased water.
just suggest this to your friend: float the bag in the tank for bit longer than 15 min, periodically adding small amounts of tank water to the bag. after some time, net the fish out and get rid of the bagged water.

 

[OrangeCones]

I would guess that most people on the forum do it the old fashioned way of the bag in the water.

I don't know what most people do, but I put any new fish into a seperate hospital tank for two weeks. It has lots of floating plants and a sponge filter. If, at the end of two weeks, the fish are showing no signs of disease and are eating well, then I rearange the tank they will go into so that the current inhabitants are busy trying to figure out where things are, and will not be so concerned about new fish coming in.

I have one of those plastic containers the fish stores use when bagging up your purchase, fill it halfway with water from the hospital tank, and add the fish. I then drip water from the new tank for about 30 mintues, to almost fill the container. I then pour off half of the water, and drip more of the new tank's water in.

I then feed the main tank, and when they are done eating, I pour the entire contents, fish and all, through a net to dispose of the mix of water, and move the net into the new tank to release the fish. As soon as they swim off and hide in the plants, I turn the lights out.

Some fish have had to stay in the hospital tank longer, if they didn't look healthy or were not eating well. I've not yet had any fish die other than fry getting eaten by larger fish. And, knock on wood, no diseases to treat, such as the dreaded 'ich' I read so much about. I would not risk the fish I have by adding new fish without the two-week wait. It just makes sense to do it slowly, the poor fish have been through enough before you get them, you owe it to them to keep them all as healthy as you can.

 

[goheels1]

Newman, i did fail to mention the adding of the water periodically but yes, i do do that. the suggestion you told me to give to my friend is the exact method i already told her. when you say long term damage (death), do you mean it could take a few days or a week before the shock kills the fish? i assumed if they were shocked from the sudden water change, it would kill them almost immediately or at least w/in a day.

i just may try the quarantine for my next purchase. i want to purchase more fish but the fish looks so bad at all the LFS in this area. the ones i have now, had no choice but to purchase but they have gone through extreme ammonia and long 'cycling'; i don't want to add another fish that will take them out from some disease. but then the bag method has not been a problem. i have had fish to die soon after purchase but i just assumed they were sick. i have to sit and meditate on this. thanks you two for your answers.

 

[Newman]

Um, yes if you have a separate tank and can cycle and fix it up for a quarantine then by all means it's a better way to go. Listen to the procedure Orange told you. I can't really do that so I do it the easier way.

When i say long term damage, the fish usally dies from 1-3 days (you can really tell if its hiding in the corner and barely breathing.) BUT the fish could die after a week. If its constantly trying to go up and down the glass after being introduced, and is trying to leap out of the water, then you know its under a lot of stress (what i term "shock") (usually happens when the fish hates the new pH.) So really it could take up to a week depending exactly on what the fish dislikes about the new water.

Another bit of advice: If your LFS 's fish are in terrible shape, then avoid buying all-together. A safer way, believe it, or not is to buy online from breeders or auctions. Aquabid.com is good for this. Only buy from those who have a Live Arrival Guarantee. Usually the survival rates on these fish are much much higher than from lfs.
I ahve gathered this information from various forums, and have no experience in buying fish online. however i do plan on it in the future.

hope that kinda helped.

 

[goheels1]

thanks for the info Newman. purchasing fish online is something else i never thought of. think i will look into that. thanks again.