Is a quarantine tank really necessary?

I have a quarantine tank. I believe it is very necessary when you already have or plan to get a lot of fish. Yes, there are too many fish diseases out there. I don't want any unnecessary risk.

A few years ago one fish came with ick killed half of my tank before I was able to put a stop to it. That's when I started to have a quarantine tank.

The next batch of fish came with mouth rot. I treated them with anti-biotics in the quarantine tank before I introduced them to other fish. It saves money to treat them in a smaller tank, and it doesn't affect the filtration in the community tank.

I have one. I didn't used to have one, but then every other fish I got brought in some nasty. Ich spreads like wildfire and can kill quickly if not treated right away, and once ONE fish has it in a tank, they all have it. All it takes is a fish with ich(which isn't always external) to be in your tank for five-ten minutes and it's in your water to infect other fish.

There are so many contageous nasties out there, some are like ich and spread and kill fast just by being there, others can take a while and are much harder to cure and can even stay in your tank for years until they find a suitable host to infect. Some are even incurable and destroy your entire tank, like Fish TB. Gourami's are also known to carry some incurable nasties, always quarantine those for at least a month MINIMUM, preferably six+ weeks.

Two years ago I had a platy tank, I bought one new platy and it had ich that started internally(I found out when she had white stringy poo) and within twelve hours all my fish had it. Every fish in the tank died within 24 hours, it was a horrible case of it and it loved the tropical water temps so it bred and spread quicker, and didn't die because I had no salt or meds to put in the tank since it was discovered at ten PM. It doesn't always move that fast, but it certainly can. I have heard of it moving even faster before as well.

It's a good safety measure to have, but not everyone does it. Sooner or later your liable to get a nasty though and would regret not having a QT. Last year was horrible with ich and certain fungus going around, at least it was here. There have also been a few cases of fish TB that I've seen personally at three of our LFS's. Better to be safe than sorry.

Totally necessary? Maybe not. Depends on how valuable your existing fish are (to you) and where you are getting your new fish from.

The risk is that you buy some new fish, put them in your big display tank, with your favourite fish that you have had for years, and the new fish are carrying some random pox, which infects your main tank, and kills your favourite fish.

The best way to avoid this is to quarantine new fish for a while. (a few weeks) All you need is a designated tank, with nothing important in it. Keep the fish in there and watch them. If they don't break out in pox after a couple of weeks they are probably safe to add to your main tank. Just keep that tank isolated from the others, don't share nets or gravel vacs etc, until you know it's safe.

Ian

it truly is sweet to have a quarantine tank. enable me tell ya... it truly is a actual stinker to lose your "little ones" that you've had, or see them wade through by potential of an ailment. a 10 gallon could be sufficient to abode your new comers in for a week minimum, 2 is more suitable acceptable. even although a fish seems healthful at the same time as offered, that would not advise it truly is. no matter if it truly is a sparkling arrival, it truly is been by potential of a tremendous style of stress being netted, bagged and transported, no longer to point you do not recognize the situations it got here from. all of which will be exasperating. then they're moved lower back, and... you get the picture. initially once you first commence getting fish you are able to no longer discover it needed, yet as your inhabitants grows and so does the money you make investments, you are able to be happier in case you probably did.

In my personal expierience ive never had a quarentine tank, My fish store does'nt exactly keep there fish in the best conditions either, But even without a quarentine tank, Ive encountered no problems.

A quarinteend tank would be alot safer because, if a fish has a disease like ick or fungus and dies and you dont quarinteen an aquarium and you get new fish your fish are likely to get that diease or fungus.

If you buy your fish from a reputable source, it is not nessecary. If you buy your fish from wal-mart, there's no way I wouldn't have a quarantine tank.