quarantine

[yoba]

my lfs guy swears that the fish have been quarantined and that there is absolutely no need to do so myself. i am pretty keen on doing it though and also the fresh water dip/ any suggestions

[lori]

quarantines are good but if you dont have one ask how long the fish has been at the store.3 weeks is a good length of time.make sure all life in tank is free of disease and all are happy.ask owner to feed the fish and make sure its eating well.i have all tank raised fish in my tank,thats also a nice idea.i've never done a fresh water dip just a good 1hr acclimation time.make sure lights are out when doing this and at least one hour after puting in tank.less stress.just remember stores will tell you anything to get you to buy.dont fall into there trap

[yoba]

hey thanks for that. i checked up at the store . they claim all the fish are quarantined before they even dispay them. i dont beleive that. anyways im setting up a 120 gal fowlr for the 1st time. any tips to get about that?

[Ninong]

Hi yoba,




I think it would be wise to have your own quarantine set-up:
Sticky: A Fish Quarantine Process

You should quarantine all of your fish regardless of what the vendor told you for at least six weeks. Better to be safe than sorry.

Chingchai, of Bangkok, Thailand, recently set up a new 1,200-gal reef tank. He transferred most of the corals and fish from his old 300-gal tank. This guy is a very experienced reefkeeper. His previous tank was Reef Central's Tank of the Month back in 2003. He knows what he's doing. However, he neglected to quarantine all of his newly-purchased fish even though he has a very nice quarantine tank. That was a very costly mistake.

Cingchai lost more than 90% of all of the fish in his new $100,000+ aquarium to ich within the past few weeks. It was a disaster. He lost thousands of dollars worth of fish because at least one of the new fish had ich. He should have purchased his new fish over an extended period of time and quarantined every one of them but he was overwhelmed with the shear volume of fish he was buying and skipped the quarantine process for some of them. Here is a link to his thread on RC. That thread has been split more than once, so it is hundreds of pages long. If you manage to find the beginning of it, it will takes you several hours to read the whole thing.

P.S. --
Sticky: Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium

[leebca]

yoba,

Everyone has their own definition of 'quarantine.' I'm sure in your LFS's mind they are doing something they call quarantine. However the proper quarantine, used by researchers, public and private aquariums, and serious hobbyists is an extensive time and/or examination of the fish (microscope work).

Since hobbyists generally don't employ a microscope, we use the time factor and observation. So quarantine to us means 6 weeks worth of total isolation from other fish. For the most part, an LFS just can't afford to do this -- every tank is connected, and that would be just too much time to carry an inexpensive inventory of an easily replaced commodity.

As Ninong has written, it is best to take over the role of quarantine yourself and follow the guidelines for such.

Good luck!

[yoba]

Hi guys, thanks for that. got a couple of basic questions .Am getting 6 blue damsels and a pair of clownfish with a anemone compliments of the lfs guy , who is setting up my tank.just wondering if i have to quarantine each of the 6 damsels seperately for 4 weeks , and also how do i go about with the anemone? heard the anemone is fine with the clownfish but it can be harmful for others?(damsels/tangs/angels)
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!

[leebca]

I would put the Damsels together. They are strong and feisty. However keep in mind that while together they will stress each other out trying to establish a pecking order. This is something we generally don't want to do during the quarantine process.

The pair of Anemonefishes should be quarantined separately, with no other fish. The interaction of the male and female can be very stressful to both fishes and best not done in the confines of a quarantine process.

The anemone I can't help you with. There are procedures to make sure that the corals and other immobile and mobile invertebrates are not carrying diseases in the home aquarium. However the good side is that in general the diseases and parasites of invertebrates do not affect fishes, and vice versa. Still you don't want any unwanted hitchhikers. You definitely don't want the Anemone to bring with it any infected water from the other tank, so at least keep it isolated for 6+ weeks so that fish diseases will die off. Extend this to 8 weeks IF you know for a fact the tank it comes from has fish disease in it.

If you think the origin tank is free of disease: quarantine AND go through the process noted above.

NOTE: You will need proper lighting to keep the Anemone alive so be sure you have that. If you're not sure what it needs, get its scientific name and post the info and question in the Reef Aquarium Forum where they discuss invertebrates.

Compare what your LFS is doing to what is recommended with regards to setting up a new tank: Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium