Quarantine time?
 

For all you out there that quarantine fish. How long do you keep them in quarantine before introducing to main display.?

I haven't ever had to quarantine before, but thinking of some really expensive fish so might do it. I'm thinking if I use a 20 gal barebottom, with a u/v filter hooked up, probably would only have to quarantine for a couple of days. ( assuming the u/v would have killed any ich or any other parasites)

What about adding a dose of copper to the quarantine tank. That should kill just about anything ( provided the fish survives LOL )

I now quarantine for 4 weeks and treat with chloroquine.

Mine take about 3 months total. That's because I do the hypo salinity routine which takes a little longer. But I make good use of the extra time to get the new fish feeding well so they are healthy and strong before they go into the display tank.

Be sure you have a fully cycled QT, so you don't have any ammonia or nitrite issues. I keep a canister filter with a sponge running all the time, so it is always ready to go. I recycle display tank water through it when I do water changes.

I just completed another QT with new fish, and they are all healthy and happy now in the display tank.

The very minimum is 4 weeks, but best is 6 to 8 weeks to be sure.

Last time I did quarantine it was 8 weeks, and 3 of those were with Paraguard.

But what if you have a sterile tank, say bare glass, treated with copper, a strong uv light and maybe even ozone. Theoretically speaking, any hitch-hiking parasites should die quickly. Wouldn't that speed up the quarantine process?

I've been lucky so far,but when seahorse told me about his bout with velvet, might start to do it, especially for $400 plus fish

It's not about a single $400 fish, it's about all the fish in your tank. I lost thousands of dollars of fish by adding one more fish, which was a $50 fish. It was fine in the DT for weeks before velvet broke out and killed everything in 4 days...

How are you going to keep the tank sterile with fish eating and pooping? That's how ammonia starts up. You can treat it with all kinds of stuff, but not sure how your fish are going to like it, along with the copper, etc. Why not do it right with a fully cycled QT.

I have never used copper. I think common Ich is often mistaken for MV. The hypo routine is a lot easier on your fish, and using recycled display tank water to bring the salinity back up means they will be fully acclimatized when you're ready to move them to their permanent home.

If you are going to buy $400 fish, shouldn't you be giving them the best possible start in their new home?

If you do all that you will probably kill the fish. The strength of a UV sterilizer needs to be 336,000 uWs/cm2 to kill 99.99% of Ich (which is huge btw). Copper treatment has a very small "safe" window, and even a minor overdose can cause liver and kidney damage. Even the "safe" dose is hard on the fishes' organs. Ozone is also easy to overdose which can even be harmful to you. Taking shortcuts is really not a good idea, and defeats the purpose of quarantine.

Ok, but I thought the main purpose of quarantining a fish was to make sure it had no pathogens and parasites that could infect the other fish in your display tank. If I treat it in quarantine, ok say I just use a 50 watt uv for a week in a 20 gal, and the fish remains healthy and is eating, wouldn't you think it would be safe for the display?
I've never had to quarantine fish before, but only because I don't buy fish that have just arrived at Lfs. I usually wait til they've been in the tank at the Lfs for at least a month.

The fish I'm considering is a goldflake angel. Might have to special order it, which means I have to pick it up shortly after it arrives at Lfs.