How do I handle quarantine time for all fish coming to a new community tank?

[Edna L]

Hi.  I've been a goldfish keeper for almost 4 years now. Since I only got to have 5 of them quarantine was easy ( I still have 3 of them).  Every time I held 1 or 2 fish in quarantine for a month and this way I only needed 1 Q tank.

However, this time period seems way too long if I'm going to add more than maybe 10-12  species to a totally new 75 gallon tank,  Since I've been plannig this for quite a while I've got plenty of seeded hob and sponge filters (plus most of the gravel) for this new tank so I feel this part should be ready. 

My stock will come mostly from petco & petsmart stores near me (that's where the goldfish came from) and I understand I'm not putting ALL fish in the same week but If I let's say I buy 3 species in petco and then 2 others in petsmart, I would have a Q tank/tote for all fish from same store.  Does this make sense?, For how long?  Also, I usually use 1tblspoon aquarium/5gallon water in my Q tank.  Is this okay? Is it too little or too much?  Can I mix in the Q tank all fish that are going to be in Q? No matter where they came from?

I would love to have livebearers, dennison barb, corydoras, tetras and would also like to try my luck with a german blue ram pair

I'd appreciate your input.  Thank you

Happy fish keeping

[Edna L]

Hello, everyone.  It's my first time in this forum and I'm looking for your input/help.

I've been a goldfish keeper for almost 4 years now. Since I only got to have 5 of them quarantine was easy ( I still have 3 of them and they are moving into a 110g soon).  Every time I held 1 or 2 fish in quarantine for a month and this way I only needed 1 Q tank.

However, this time period seems way too long if I'm going to add more than maybe 10-12  species to a totally new 75 gallon tank,  Since I've been plannig this for quite a while I've got plenty of seeded hob and sponge filters (plus most of the gravel) for this new tank so I feel this part should be ready. 

My stock will come mostly from petco & petsmart stores near me (that's where the goldfish came from) and I understand I'm not putting ALL fish in the same week but If I let's say I buy 3 species in petco and then 2 others in petsmart, I would have a Q tank/tote for all fish from same store.  Does this make sense?, For how long?  Also, I usually use 1tblspoon aquarium/5gallon water in my Q tank.  Is this okay? Is it too little or too much?  Can I mix in the Q tank all fish that are going to be in Q? No matter where they came from?

I would love to have livebearers, dennison barb, corydoras, tetras maybe a few reticulated hillstream loaches (Cory's fault for making me fall in love with them) and would also like to try my luck with a german blue ram pair.

I'd appreciate your input.  Thank you

Happy fish keeping and have a great Memorial Day weekend.

[FrozenFins]

If your plan is to get a 110 gallon and put all those fish in there, great! What I would do is get your first batch of fish (so lets say you gte the livebearers, denision barbs and the corydoras at first) and quarintine them in the 110 gallon, this is fine because there isnt any fish in there. 

Then after the month that they have been in the 110gal, get your second batch. But this time get a smaller batch of fish and quarintine them as you would in your quarintine tank.Yes you could put alll the fish together to quarintine to depite where they came from, it would probably be better if you got them all in the spot at once (so get to petsmart, get your fish quarintine them, then go to Petco and get more fish and then quarintine those) It depends how small your quarintine tank is to determine how much fish goes in. Did you say it was a 5gallon quarintine tank? That seems a bit small, instead I would get a clear storage rubbermaid and use that. Irene from Girl Talks Fish has an excellent video on this, I'll link it down below.

One concern, did you want to put goldfish in the 110 gallon with all the other fish you wanted? I wouldnt do that as goldfish are coldwater fish and the fish you mentioned you wanted are tropical fish, meaning they want warmer tempertures of water. I would do one or the other.

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by James Black

[Goosedub]

The only downside to QT in your display tank of 75 Gal is if there IS an outbreak of some illness, it gets very expensive to treat. Honestly, just go slow. If you want to speed it up, Quarantine 

44 minutes ago, James Black said:

If your plan is to get a 110 gallon and put all those fish in there, great! What I would do is get your first batch of fish (so lets say you gte the livebearers, denision barbs and the corydoras at first) and quarintine them in the 110 gallon, this is fine because there isnt any fish in there. 

Then after the month that they have been in the 110gal, get your second batch. But this time get a smaller batch of fish and quarintine them as you would in your quarintine tank.Yes you could put alll the fish together to quarintine to depite where they came from, it would probably be better if you got them all in the spot at once (so get to petsmart, get your fish quarintine them, then go to Petco and get more fish and then quarintine those) It depends how small your quarintine tank is to determine how much fish goes in. Did you say it was a 5gallon quarintine tank? That seems a bit small, instead I would get a clear storage rubbermaid and use that. Irene from Girl Talks Fish has an excellent video on this, I'll link it down below.

One concern, did you want to put goldfish in the 110 gallon with all the other fish you wanted? I wouldnt do that as goldfish are coldwater fish and the fish you mentioned you wanted are tropical fish, meaning they want warmer tempertures of water. I would do one or the other.

 

The only downside to quarantining new fish in your display tank is that if there IS an outbreak (which I would argue is more likely with fish coming from chain stores) then it gets very expensive to treat. If it were me, I would stock slowly, Get a couple 10 gallon quarantine tanksn or just totes from Home Depot . Quarantine with the med trio for a couple weeks, move those fish into the display. Rinse and repeat. I have a 20 gallon that is my main display tank and I am still taking my time quarantining.

What I am doing is getting small numbers of fish I want and seeing if I can breed up to the amount I actually want in the display tank before I add them to the display tank. There are a couple other types of fish I am growing to breed for an eventual 75 gallon display tank as well. Take your time, find ways to have fun with it while your display tank is more empty. You will have a much healthier ecosystem in that tank if you go slowly. If you go too fast you are going to be battling illness and algae and all sorts of things. Tanks take time to adapt to new fish no matter how many cycled sponge filters you add. 

[Janelle]

I noticed you wanted to try out some German Blue Rams.  I have a new 75 gal planted tank that I have yet to stock w/ anything besides the cleanup crew.  I too wanted to try my hand w/ rams and then learned they need to be kept in pretty warm water - 84 degrees.  84* is just too warm for my current plants and the other fishies I want to stock...sooo, now I am trying to figure out where my next tank for the rams should be placed in my house!  🤪

Edited May 28, 2021 by Janelle

[Janelle]

11 hours ago, Goosedub said:

The only downside to QT in your display tank of 75 Gal is if there IS an outbreak of some illness, it gets very expensive to treat. Honestly, just go slow. If you want to speed it up, Quarantine 

The only downside to quarantining new fish in your display tank is that if there IS an outbreak (which I would argue is more likely with fish coming from chain stores) then it gets very expensive to treat. If it were me, I would stock slowly, Get a couple 10 gallon quarantine tanksn or just totes from Home Depot . Quarantine with the med trio for a couple weeks, move those fish into the display. Rinse and repeat. I have a 20 gallon that is my main display tank and I am still taking my time quarantining.

What I am doing is getting small numbers of fish I want and seeing if I can breed up to the amount I actually want in the display tank before I add them to the display tank. There are a couple other types of fish I am growing to breed for an eventual 75 gallon display tank as well. Take your time, find ways to have fun with it while your display tank is more empty. You will have a much healthier ecosystem in that tank if you go slowly. If you go too fast you are going to be battling illness and algae and all sorts of things. Tanks take time to adapt to new fish no matter how many cycled sponge filters you add. 

Love your idea of breading up to the amount you ultimately want in your display tank!! Great idea!