Is Quarantining 20+ Fish at One Time Okay?

[Devinl3]

Hey Guys!

 

I have some new additions coming to the display tank and I am ending up with more in the QT than I initially expected.

 

I am running the medication trio approach on my new fish in a QT tank that is 20 gallons. I have a sponge filter running and the tank is currently cycled and ready from the previous QT as I never took it down.

 

I have 20 CPD's, an L201 Pleco, and 4 otocinclus that will go in the QT. All of them are juvenile and are not full grown so I was hoping that there would be no issues with quarantining this many fish.

 

Do you guys see any issues with a QT this big? Do I need to set up anything else?

 

I follow the medication trio and QT method for 4-6 weeks and follow the steps and methods outlined in the Aquarium Co-op article published on this. Seemed to work great on my 7 cory's but I'm not sure if it will be as easy with more fish.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Hi, Theoretically you can but you have to be even more careful about ammonia in an overstocked tank. I think it will work in your case because they are all juveniles and besides the pleco species they are low on the bioload scale.

Typically, I'd do daily water changes but isn't always possible when you do something like the med trio so it's something to keep an eye on. Now, ACO probably does this successfully in tanks that size (and probably larger) and have no issues. I've got a permanent tank that is overstocked (per the internet) so these things can be done. I'd maybe add extra air by adding a cycled sponge if you can. The CPDs are super small so they won't have much of a bioload and neither do the Otos (most of what is in my "overstocked" tank). My only issue would be if one of the species is especially sick they can transfer that illness to the others and if I was counting on them or one species in particular I might want to make sure they are separate of the population that appears or is healthy. 

I don't see any reason why a 20 gallon wouldn't be ok for these small species though. 

P.S. I'd add a few more Otos when you get the chance. :-) They are awesome.

[Devinl3]

On 1/18/2024 at 12:55 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Hi, Theoretically you can but you have to be even more careful about ammonia in an overstocked tank. I think it will work in your case because they are all juveniles and besides the pleco species they are low on the bioload scale.

Typically, I'd do daily water changes but isn't always possible when you do something like the med trio so it's something to keep an eye on. Now, ACO probably does this successfully in tanks that size (and probably larger) and have no issues. I've got a permanent tank that is overstocked (per the internet) so these things can be done. I'd maybe add extra air by adding a cycled sponge if you can. The CPDs are super small so they won't have much of a bioload and neither do the Otos (most of what is in my "overstocked" tank). My only issue would be if one of the species is especially sick they can transfer that illness to the others and if I was counting on them or one species in particular I might want to make sure they are separate of the population that appears or is healthy. 

I don't see any reason why a 20 gallon wouldn't be ok for these small species though. 

P.S. I'd add a few more Otos when you get the chance. 🙂 They are awesome.

Thanks for the advice! I love oto's too haha they are some of the best fish for sure.

 

Well maybe I'll have to get an emergency QT tank in addition to this one so I can separate if there ends up being some distinctly sick species to avoid the harm of the others. Or would that not be necessary if I am already proactively treating with meds?

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

If visually all seems to be ok it's probably fine since you say you're going to treat with the trio. The caveat to that is that the ACO recommends if someone is obviously sick the trio can be stressful and you'd ideally start with the med you think would help what the fish likely has first then do the other 2 meds separately. It truly is a judgement call! 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

If it was me, I wouldn’t hesitate to do that. Especially considering I don’t feed for the first 4 days of the trio, and then sparingly from there, ramping up over the weeks. 
 

Test often, but if you’re careful you should be fine. 

[govsfabshop]

I'm currently 2 weeks into 12 scissortails, 6 orange venezuelan cory's and a bristle nose in a 10gal. They were all young enough and small enough i figured the tank could handle it and everything has been fine, now i am changing water every other day but so far so good!

[Devinl3]

On 1/18/2024 at 3:10 PM, govsfabshop said:

I'm currently 2 weeks into 12 scissortails, 6 orange venezuelan cory's and a bristle nose in a 10gal. They were all young enough and small enough i figured the tank could handle it and everything has been fine, now i am changing water every other day but so far so good!

Did you do any medication as well? How have your levels been?

On 1/18/2024 at 2:56 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

If visually all seems to be ok it's probably fine since you say you're going to treat with the trio. The caveat to that is that the ACO recommends if someone is obviously sick the trio can be stressful and you'd ideally start with the med you think would help what the fish likely has first then do the other 2 meds separately. It truly is a judgement call! 

Ok sweet! I'll give it a go and will reach out if any questions come to mind. Thank you!

On 1/18/2024 at 3:03 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

If it was me, I wouldn’t hesitate to do that. Especially considering I don’t feed for the first 4 days of the trio, and then sparingly from there, ramping up over the weeks. 
 

Test often, but if you’re careful you should be fine. 

Ok sweet. That was the plan. Dose the meds and don't feed for at least 4-7 days. Then I'll do 50% changes each week to cycle out the meds and keep good levels.

 

Thanks for helping with all of my questions @AllFishNoBrakes

[AllFishNoBrakes]

No worries! Happy to help! Reach out if anything comes up 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/18/2024 at 11:35 AM, Devinl3 said:

I have 20 CPD's, an L201 Pleco, and 4 otocinclus that will go in the QT. All of them are juvenile and are not full grown so I was hoping that there would be no issues with quarantining this many fish.

 

Do you guys see any issues with a QT this big? Do I need to set up anything else?

I tend to QT based on source, not number of fish. You can see any aquarium store with a QT setup do so with 200 neon tetras and a variety of other setups constantly. QT just means these fish are removed from the main tank for X amount of time. It doesn't even mean to use meds or anything like that. It's so you have the opportunity to monitor for issues.

In my side tank that is acting as QT right now, there's 8-14 rainbows, 6-8 cherry barbs, 2 plecos.

If I had placed an order for fish and gotten in a bunch of fish, they would all go to one tank, preferably one species per tank, but either way, number of fish shouldn't really be a concern.

Basically, if your filtration is adequate, you ease the tank by cutting back on food and doing water changes, then it can adjust to the new load. I also tend to run an air stone/extra air in my QT setups.

[govsfabshop]

On 1/18/2024 at 3:23 PM, Devinl3 said:

Did you do any medication as well? How have your levels been?

 

I did melafix and have some salt in that tank, i generally play it by what type of fish and where they come from and keep a close eye on em. These i got from a real reputable source that quarantines everything and i've never had issues so i dont overdo the meds. I dont want to stress anything that doesnt need it. Now i do have a LFS that he's a great guy and brings in some really nice stuff, but he's also known for washing ich off and tossing them in tanks so anything from him i do the med trio on. And sure enough my last batch of geo's from him came in with ich!

 

As for levels, i was actually having nitrites jump up a bit in that tank the first 2 weeks, i keep the tank cycled and running and this was the first time i've encountered that. was testing daily and changing as needed. Never had an ammonia reading, and nitrates stayed fairly low but that nitrite kept getting a bit darker blue than i'd like. but just passed the 3 week mark and everythings seemed to stabilize!