1st quarantine, what am I watching for?

[nic]

I know for the most part there are those who quarantine with the med trio and those who quarantine and only treat meds if they notice a problem.

For the less experienced if I wanted to just observe during quarantine what am I to look out for to know whether I should treat with something?

[jwcarlson]

Any sort of spots, fuzz, discoloration... lack of appetite or always spitting out food.  Flashing (where a fish swims up to something like a rock or wood and dashes off of it quickly).  White, stringy looking poop.  Any general lethargy.  Any gasping at the surface.  Constant rapid breathing.  Some of these things can just be stress related, so it takes some figuring out.

My personal opinion is that I always worm my fish (with levamisole).  I don't use any of the antibiotics or IchX unless there's something noticed.

[Guppysnail]

I do not medicate unless I see something specific that needs medication.

You are watching for odd behavior. Making certain each fish is eating and going to the bathroom  

It takes time because usually it’s a fish I’m not familiar with their normal behavior.  Any individual isolating themselves. A fish hiding that would not have hiding as part of its behavior. Hovering at the surface, labored breathing or hanging on the bottom inactive.

Look for any spot, sore, ragged fins or cloudy eyes.  After 30 you you will have learned your new fish and healthy fish will exhibit consistent behaviors. 

[Jeff]

 

[nic]

For the life of me I cannot figure how to edit my post. On mobile and I somehow hit submit before I was ready and the edit box won't let me type anything new...

Anyway...

Thank you @jwcarlson and @Guppysnail

 

@Jeff appreciate the link, I hadn't seen that newer one.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/6/2024 at 5:17 AM, nic said:

For the less experienced if I wanted to just observe during quarantine what am I to look out for to know whether I should treat with something?

Everything I QT tends to at minimum get salt + ich-x but it's not a hard and fast rule. Basically you're watching behavior and recovery. It takes experience to understand when something is off, that's the tough part unfortunately.

[Guppysnail]

On 2/6/2024 at 5:10 PM, nic said:

For the life of me I cannot figure how to edit my post. On mobile and I somehow hit submit before I was ready and the edit box won't let me type anything new...

Anyway...

Thank you @jwcarlson and @Guppysnail

 

@Jeff appreciate the link, I hadn't seen that newer one.

You are welcome. If you hit submit accidentally and the last thing you typed was a tag you need to delete the tag to type.  You can always hit the three dots top right and hide a mistake post and redo.  

[nic]

@nabokovfan87  when you use salt are you going off this Co-Op article?

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/7/2024 at 4:42 AM, nic said:

@nabokovfan87  when you use salt are you going off this Co-Op article?

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

yes and no.  Cory has a video on the 800g and he mentions that they use 1/2 cup of salt per 10G which relates to near level 2 of salt.  I use that for just about everything apart from tanks with sensitive species where I will use 1 tbsp per 5g, which is the base directions on the API box.