The Importance of Quarantine

[bettasngoldfish]

bettasngoldfish submitted a new article:

The Importance of Quarantine - How and why we quarantine new fish

The Importance of Quarantine



If you have been keeping fish for any length of time I'm sure you already know the importance of quarantine. You may have learned from others in the hobby who are more experienced or you may have learned the hard way like myself. I lost some of my favorite fish by adding a new fish to an already established healthy tank. I made the mistake of thinking that the newly acquired fish was healthy simply by looking at it and observing it for a short while in the...

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[Dave 54]

Wow well done on your first ever article Maria and a very important topic too as if you risk breaking it it brings to light the problems you may get .
I like the link into my subjext of how and why we do scrapes of our koi and goldfish , all in all for your very first attempt at this Val and I would like to give you top marks for a well thought through article you mave grasped the importance of QT and made it understandable to all from newbies to people like ourselves who should know better than to break it .
A Very Well done from Val and I

Dave

 

[sissy]

Thing is people quarantine fish but they never think of everything else they put in there pond .I have 3 fish here now that i am taking care of for people that built a pond and got plants from the nursery and then got rocks from a creek and they never cleaned or repotted the plants or cleaned the rocks and hard lesson learned after they lost 12 of there fish and 3 is all they have left .

 

[bettasngoldfish]

@sissy You are correct

Why not write up an article on that subject? You could explain how to disinfect plants, rocks, driftwood, etc

 

[Dave 54]

@sissy You are correct

Why not write up an article on that subject? You could explain how to disinfect plants, rocks, driftwood, etc

Hey Maria what a great idea are you up to it sissy , this is all going to a future cause in that the articles may be read by others in years to come and from them they find a way forwards with our rewarding hobby safe in the knowlege that everything was tried and tested for them by other more experiance fish keepers
What do you say ?

 

[Tula]

Maria,
Quarantining is the biggest reason I haven't purchased a new koi. I have a 110 gallon rubber maid tank and extra air pump, but don't have an extra filter or pump, right now. I also don't have a microscope. I'm interested in the part of your article that says we don't need filtration, if we're doing daily water changes and checking our parameters.

I'm also interested in learning more about sterilizing nets, I hadn't thought of that. I use mine almost daily, to scoop debris from the pond, should I be sterilizing it?

Thanks!
Kim

 

[sissy]

With fish all you need in the stock tank is a cheap pump and a crate on top of a crate with some filter stuff in it and a hose from the pump coming into the top crate .I have used it .You know I never thought that people would ever just bring home plants or rocks and put them straight into the pond until lately .I ran into a guy at the garden center asking questions since he killed all the fish in his wife's pond .Would you believe this he actually used bleach to clean the filter stuff and rocks and then put them straight in the pond .Needless to say he was in hot water with his wife .He never knew about using peroxide to clean every thing .Just amazes me to this day .

 

[Tula]

With fish all you need in the stock tank is a cheap pump and a crate on top of a crate with some filter stuff in it and a hose from the pump coming into the top crate .I have used it .You know I never thought that people would ever just bring home plants or rocks and put them straight into the pond until lately .I ran into a guy at the garden center asking questions since he killed all the fish in his wife's pond .Would you believe this he actually used bleach to clean the filter stuff and rocks and then put them straight in the pond .Needless to say he was in hot water with his wife .He never knew about using peroxide to clean every thing .Just amazes me to this day .

Wow, that is very sad

I've been tempted to use some peroxide with a tooth brush on my water fall. I'm so paranoid, I just scrub it by hand with a big brush.

@sissy , thanks for the idea for koi filtration on QT tank...didn't think of that. Do you treat QT'd fish with something as a preventative measure, or just watch, then scope and scape if a problem occurs?

Since my koi spawned this morning, I'm thinking more about population control, than a new koi - LOL !

 

[sissy]

I just turn off my pump on my waterfall and squirt peroxide on it and wait 20 minutes to half hour and then turn pump back on .I use national geographic or an organic plant based medicine on fish or I use the organic stuff from pet solutions .I have never really had a sick fish in my pond .

 

[Dave 54]

Ah but sissy can you turn that into an aticle as Maria has done thats what we would both like to see take us through everything and then present it as an article .
VaI, Maria and I all think it would make more than interesting reading especially for the novice dont you think ?

Dave

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Maria,
Quarantining is the biggest reason I haven't purchased a new koi. I have a 110 gallon rubber maid tank and extra air pump, but don't have an extra filter or pump, right now. I also don't have a microscope. I'm interested in the part of your article that says we don't need filtration, if we're doing daily water changes and checking our parameters.

I'm also interested in learning more about sterilizing nets, I hadn't thought of that. I use mine almost daily, to scoop debris from the pond, should I be sterilizing it?

Thanks!
Kim

Jungle makes a product called net soak that you can use to clean your nets http://www.bigalspets.com/net-soak-...xpJS0x621Gqg2Bh8bm4GtdGRqqg3B4qxv4aArVx8P8HAQ

Any time I buy a new fish I always treat for parasites with a general antiparasitic treatment before going into my pond or a tank. So using a matured filter isn't really of much help since the medication will set the filter back anyway (and if you use carbon it will absorb the medication) This is always something that is short term so I don't feel a filter is necessary. I do use air pumps for aeration and I do water changes daily while in q-t. Never had trouble with water quality that way. So yes, I would say you don't have to have a filtration system. Now if I have a fish that I want to keep an eye on but am not medicating I would prefer to use a matured filter while in quarantine so I don't have to do daily water changes.

 

[Tula]

Thanks for the link to the net cleaning solution. I'm going to a koi / goldfish auction this Saturday. It's being held on site at a large water garden nursery I've wanted to visit for some time, and they're having their annual water lily sale.

I'm thinking about if I should set up the rubbermaid tank this week , in case I see a small koi I'm interested in. I'd QT for for 6-8 weeks.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Sure

That sounds like a good plan. I think you will be just fine especially if you are getting a smaller to medium sized fish.

Can't wait to see what you come home with

 

[Nepen]

This is a good article. Thanks Betta!

What do you think about using Potassium permanganate dip for the new fish?

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Thanks Nepen

I personally wouldn't use it as a preventive for new fish unless it were being treated for a specific problem. Even then it wouldn't be my first choice of treatment. It has to be used with caution and if not it can actually kill your fish.

I have in the past always treated my new goldfish with a round of quick cure (formalin & malachite green) to rid them of any unwanted parasites (while in quarantine) It is a broad spectrum treatment for many different parasites.