I finally set up a quarantine tank for when I buy new fish. My questions are how long should the fish stay in quarantine? And after the fish stay in for their alloted time can my existing fish still get ich by the stress of introducing these fish. The fish in question are a yellow tang and a niger trigger. if i understand correctly the niger is pretty tough and is not easily succeptable to ich. if this is the case can he go in earlier. Any suggestions would be helpful.
questions about quarantine tank & ich
- Thread starter bluesurf1
- Start date
quarantine is dependent on the health of the fish. the ich lifecycle is 4 weeks, so you should consider it for at least that long. if you do a search on ich and quarantine, there's a wealth of information already on the site.
BTW, the niger trigger is a great fish for movement and color in the tank, but the one I had ate escargo until my cleaning crew was wiped out. I still have a snail shell graveyard from it in one corner of my 72......
BTW, the niger trigger is a great fish for movement and color in the tank, but the one I had ate escargo until my cleaning crew was wiped out. I still have a snail shell graveyard from it in one corner of my 72......
If there is already some infection in the display (there may be no symptoms, but if any of the fish have had it and not been treated, it's most likely in there) then no matter how you treat the new fish, there is a risk/likelyhood that you'll see an infection when they go in.
If the display really is clean, and the fish in QT really are clean (I treat with Hyposalinity on all new fish) then you have nothing to worry about.
In the end, it's a parisite with a lifecycle. If the parisite is not in there it can't come out of nowhere. The problem is that many tanks may have a slight infection that doesn't show itself until there's a stressor of some sort - hence the misconception that "all thanks have ick"
If the display really is clean, and the fish in QT really are clean (I treat with Hyposalinity on all new fish) then you have nothing to worry about.
In the end, it's a parisite with a lifecycle. If the parisite is not in there it can't come out of nowhere. The problem is that many tanks may have a slight infection that doesn't show itself until there's a stressor of some sort - hence the misconception that "all thanks have ick"
I havent had any ich or new fish for a year at this point so i set up the quarantine, plus treating the main tank is not easy as it is 170 total gallons. I am impatient and seeing the 2 fish in quarantine is tough but it is worth it. If you say the ich cycle is 1 month then 1 month it is. It'l be worth it in the long run. The 2 new fish are really healthy looking and ate food from the get go like pigs, the niger is fun to feed. Thanks
