whats your quarantine method?

I'm just curious what process others follow for quarantining fish.
Do you have a special hospital/quarantine tank that's always running?
How long?
Do you run a course of preventative meds?

Just looking to gather ideas, info, etc.



(I've been wanting to use this one since the convo on emoticons)

Dedicated quarantine tank. No meds. Usually keep them in there for 2 weeks unless I see signs of an illness.

i run a 20 long with no gravel a few floating plants and a simple hob filter. With a single dither fish i do not really care about. i move it out when i need to qt fish. I qt fish and now plants for two months then i add them to my tanks if there are no isssues.

I used to not quarantine but I think I learned the hard way. I had introduced two different wild caught fish into an established tank and ended up losing almost all my fish. Then thinking my tank was free of what ever junk was going on I lost another batch of fish. So I am taking the tank apart for a full disinfection.

In the meantime I have purchased a 20L that will be a strict quarantine tank. No gravel, bare bottom. Just a simple hob filter with no carbon to circulated water or maybe a sponge filter/air pump combo. I will medicate all new fish with parasite meds before going into the main tank. Probably for a minimum of two weeks.

i do a bit of it.. but nothing serious. had to cut back tanks so not really available. but i guess it also depends on source of the fish.

Both of my wild caughts came from a well respected store and a breeder. I had too much faith in both. Lost fish that I had raised for over three years because I trusted the source. They went in just fine at first but with in about a month and a half it all hit the fan. Both fish looked healthy and ate like pigs when they first started off. But they were the only variable that was different in my case so I could pinpoint the start.

So I will now quarantine, and I bought a petco $1 per gallon tank to do so.

i do a bit of it.. but nothing serious. had to cut back tanks so not really available. but i guess it also depends on source of the fish.

I definitely quarantine and I dont ever keep one running unless I have fish to put in it. ( Don't want to pay for the utility bill when not in use ) I just syphon water out of my establised tanks during water changes then add some clean water if I need one. I keep some rubber maid storage containers handy for this. Otherwise they are used to store my other spare tank parts etc. For filter I just use some sponges I have sitting spare inside my wet dry filter so that I have an instant good bacteria bed. Pretty much a low cost quarantine setup.

Always have a qt or 2 going, depending where the stock came from really makes a difference in how long they stay there, average 3 weeks for livebearers, africans, and a few others. My exception is when I get discus or uaru they stay 4-8 weeks, just depends but totally not willing to take a chance after getting burned on a couple of shipments (but that's another story)

To keep my qt's running usually just throw a few of the males from the guppy bachelor pad in there, due to location in the house and ran off the central air pump.

Meds I don't use any unless they need it

These days I seldom get anything knew, but when I do, I quarantine for about two weeks without medication. I don't keep a tank running for it.

My tanks are on a smaller scale. Recently, what I have been doing is taking my less-temperamental betta and moving him into the guppy tank (he doesn't care about the guppies a bit) to use his 5g for quarantine for incoming fish (usually guppies).

Now I've managed to come across two small acrylic tanks (a 3 and a 5) that I can easily setup for QT if I need to. Although, at the moment, due to some moving of stock, I have empty tanks anyway.

Thanks for the input everyone!

most of my fish are smaller,...I keep a 3 gallon up and running with some pennywort and floating plants for QT.

I keep fish in it for about a month as long as there are no issues..no meds
just super clean water extra water changes (30% about twice a week )and lots of quality food.

I stare the fish down until any parasites on it jump off and die. Then they go in the tank.

Spyral wrote:I stare the fish down until any parasites on it jump off and die. Then they go in the tank.

Ahhh... the elusive Chuck Noris quarantine!!