Quarantine... Do you need it..?

[Pegasus]

Quarantine.

One of the hardest things to accept in keeping tropical fish is Quarantine.

We look at the fish we buy and think "Well, they look healthy enough" and in most cases pop them straight into our lovely established tank without further thought, but in the world of the aquarist it is the things you can't see that you should be concerned about.

We then wonder why suddenly we have sick and dying fish in the following days or weeks.

Almost all water, apart from distilled water, contains masses of living organisms, some good, and some bad, and in aquarium water these organisms amount into the millions, many of which you can't see without a microscope.

A single drop of water can contain enough of these bad organisms to bring your tank from a wonderful picture of perfection, to a tank full of sick and dying fish, and this can happen overnight.

It's hard to spend money on another tank just for the purpose of quarantine, but this extra tank can have many uses such as a fry rearing tank, a breeding tank, a place to grow extra plants, a place for that odd sick fish and so forth, but it should be kept available and ready to use so that you can use it immediately if the situation arises.

So What Are The Dangers?

Any fish, plant, snail, rock, gravel or any implement taken from another tank and put into your established tank can be a source of disease.

Even your wet hands can transmit disease from one tank to another.

All new fish should be placed in separate quarters (Quarantine) for at least ten days, and longer if possible.

While these fish are in Quarantine you would be wise to add a couple of your regular healthy fish from your regular established tank.

Doing this it allows you to watch not only the new arrivals but also your regular fish to see if any ill effects are noticed over the ten days or so.

Invariably if any fish do become sick then you will have to treat the whole tank and all its occupants, but this depends on what the fish are suffering from.

You must at this time be extremely careful that you don't use any implement such as nets or filters from the quarantine tank and use them in your established tank.

As mentioned above, even wet hands that have been in your quarantine tank can transmit any disease that might be lurking there and affect your main fish supplies in your established tank, or tanks.

If possible make your quarantine tank "Out Of Bounds" to everyone except yourself, this includes all children that love to flick their fingers in the water.

Other Precautions.

There are sterilizing solutions that you can buy for nets and equipment, but for the cost of these you would be wise to purchase a spare net and the bits that you may need.

Be sensible and think before you act, as a moment of neglect can cause you great heartaches when your fish begin to die.