Quarantine Tank For New or Sick Fish (What it is and why you need one)

Advice / By

quarantine-tank-for-fish

A quarantine tank is a container for fish that cannot be missing from an aquarium. As an aquarist you try to keep your fish healthy, but diseases cannot be excluded. Especially in case of a sick fish, the specially equipped tank is a great godsend.

 

Quarantine tank for sick fish

Our tropical freshwater fish can get sick. Some fish diseases are transmissible. It is best to place a sick fish that is contagious in a specially equipped quarantine tank. By keeping the fish separate, segregated from the group, you can prevent the other freshwater fish from getting sick as well.

 

The sooner the aquarium fish with the contagious disease is put aside the better. The spread of disease must be ruled out as quickly as possible. Therefore it is important to learn how to recognize fish diseases. This is done by observing the fish closely, for example during feeding.

 

Recognizing fish diseases

Observing fish and recognizing if they are sick is best done while feeding them. A sick fish will show different behavior in many cases. They eat less than before or no longer accept food at all. They increasingly isolate themselves from the group. The behavior is different than before. The fish swim differently or stay in other areas of the freshwater aquarium. The appearance of the fish becomes different, the colors are dull or it has strange spots and bumps.

 

But a sick fish can also appear to be completely undamaged, in which case it becomes more difficult to recognize the sick fish. If you have placed the sick fish in quarantine, you can treat it with medicine, if necessary, without the other fish coming into contact with the medicine.

 

A good quarantine tank

It is a small separately arranged aquarium that is not connected to the real aquarium. Quarantine tanks function the same as a normal aquarium. There is a good working filter system, air pump in it and for tropical fish it includes a heating element. Of course, it does not have to be a new aquarium, a cheap second-hand one will do just fine as a temporary home.

 

The water composition is almost the same as that of the real aquarium. In a quarantine tank, sick fish can temporarily house themselves until they are cured. A quarantine tank can also be used to hold your new fish temporarily, to see if they are healthy before adding them to the existing aquarium with fish.

 

A quarantine tank should never be used to keep fish in by default. The setup of this tank should be special. Never decorate the tank too much to your own taste. Often the tank will be used as a standard aquarium anyway and fish and beautiful plants will be placed in it. This is not what a quarantine tank is for.

 

The tank does not have to run constantly, only when fish need to be temporarily housed in it. The place where the quarantine tank will be placed is not entirely unimportant. As with an aquarium, the spot should be quiet. A crowded place can stress the fish. Set up the tank and supply it with fresh aquarium water with the same water values as the original aquarium.

 

Add some fast-growing plants. To improve the bacterial culture you can use some filter wads and sponges from your running aquarium. You can quickly start up the aquarium with these. Always test the water thoroughly before putting a fish in it.

 

Treating with medications

There are medications for a number of diseases that can be used directly in the aquarium. After the disease treatment, the medicine must be removed from the water. This is done by special filtration and frequent water changes. The disadvantage when treating in your own aquarium is that the non-diseased fish also receive the treatment cure. As a result, fish may even become immune to the drug and the drug will no longer work efficiently if the fish is really sick and needs treatment. When using a quarantine tank you don’t suffer from this, a big advantage.

 

Let the fish that transfers become the quarantine tank get used to the water composition, just as you do with new fish by filling the plastic bag with the aquarium water a little at a time. Instead of a plastic bag you can also just take a small tank. The drip method seems excessive, but a sick fish is weak and can take quite a beating or even die from transferring.

 

Quarantine setup

 

Setting up quarantine is simpler than a breeding tank or as a standard aquarium. You can put in a few plants to put the fish at ease a bit. Take some excess live water ivy or hornwort. The plants are just to provide a natural safer-feeling environment. The little plants should be taken out anyway if medication has been used. Plastic plants can also provide hiding places and a reference point for your fish.

 

Most importantly, the tank should be filled with aquarium water whose water values and temperature are good. The water should also be changed just like a normal aquarium. You can add a handful of gravel to the bottom, but it is not really necessary.

 

Quarantining new fish

When purchasing new fish, a quarantine tank is also very useful. If you want to add new fish to an already existing aquarium with fish, it is best to quarantine them first, in a separate tank to prevent infection and spread of disease. This way you can see if the fish are healthy and prevent them from infecting already existing fish.

 

Before the new addition arrives, you should prepare the quarantine tank. The special fish shelter will be used for the new fish for a month at most. The tank is completely bare with only a heater and a filter in it. Upon arrival of the new fish, the drip method should be used to acclimatize them to the new environment. During the quarantine period, the new fish should be observed carefully to see if nothing abnormal occurs.

 

The fish only need to be fed sparingly. You can use very reliable heating equipment to raise the temperature to 30 degrees max for 5 days, do this gradually. The heating element should gradually make the water ever so slightly warmer unnoticed by the fish. With this you will easily combat any parasites present. The tolerance of the fish to temperature is played out here against that of various parasites, which is usually lower. Make sure sufficient oxygen is present, at a high temperature water will absorb less oxygen, use an air pump if necessary.

 

After 5 days let the temperature slowly drop back to the original temperature. After about one month without problems you can transfer the new fish to the large aquarium. Transfer to the large aquarium is also done using the drip method to allow the fish to get used to the water composition.

 

Using the quarantine tank as a breeding tank

You can also easily use the tank as a breeding tank. Of course, you do have a problem if a sick fish shows up and the quarantine tank is temporarily converted to breed fish.

 

 

Frequently asked questions

 

How long should you keep fish in a quarantine tank?

2 to 4 weeks

Acclimatise the newly purchased fish as you normally would, and then leave the fish in the quarantine tank for a period of 2 to 4 weeks. Feed as normal and perform water changes weekly. After the time has elapsed and assuming the fish have shown no signs of illness or disease, they can be introduced to your main tank.

 

Does a quarantine tank need to be cycled?

No, you don’t need to cycle the QT if you are prepared to do frequent water changes and dose ammonia detoxifiers. There is sort of two approaches to a QT, you either cycle the tank using biological filter media, or you don’t cycle the tank and just do large water changes to remove and dilute ammonia.

 

Can I use a bucket as a quarantine tank?

An economical quarantine method being used by the Roger Williams University Marine Lab calls for keeping incoming fish singly in 1-gallon or 1.5-gallon polycarbonate buckets and moving them daily into clean water.

 

 

Ben
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