How to manage a quarantine tank

[Kirsten]

So I've recently quarantined a batch of new fish, quarantined a betta for fin rot (that water was clean, officer!), and now I think I saw a speck of ich on some livebearers in my big tank, so I'm prepping the qt tank yet again, with (clean!) tank water, a seasoned sponge filter, heater, a few hornwort cuttings and several baby snails that get everywhere.

What I'm wondering, maybe not for Ich-X alone, but probably while giving the quarantine trio, how do you keep your bio-filter working despite the biological assault on all fronts? If you get new fish by mail that have been hungry & in the dark for at least 2 days (if they were fasted before shipping) or more, can you really go a whole week without feeding them? If you feed them, how does the waste get processed? The medications say not to change the water for several days.

Should I just keep a QT tank cycled, relatively empty, and strong and ready to go for any illnesses that pop up? Fritz Complete detoxifies ammonia and such, but it warns against overdosing and many medications say not to use chemical agents. I'd love an in-depth look of how to keep a good short-term 10g tank healthy to give sick or new fish the best treatment.

[FrozenFins]

I just dont do the med trio, I live in Canada so I dont have access to any of those three meds (ich x saltwater is on amazon.ca, but I dont do saltwater)I just quarintine for 4-6 weeks and if they seem and act healthy with no symtpoms I will add them to the display. So for that I cant answer, but If it would me I would feed them for the first one maybe two days before I start th treatment.

I have some filter media in one of my established tank that I use for my QT tank. This will help so that there is the benefial bacteria in the tank. I bleach the filter media after each quarintine with a ilness and move it to the pre-established aquarium.

Hope this helps!

[Janelle]

Ah good questions. I am wondering the same thing!

[Ken Shan]

Hi James black. Thanks for the details. I will follow your QT filter media trick. My display tank fishes have come up with ich and fin rot. Will have to clean that huge tank anyways. Do you have any tips to treat my two goldfishes in a 75g tank for ich fin rot or flukes and I have one fish in 10g qt tank that’s almost recovered? I plan to transfer all three after complete recovery into the 75g tank but don’t know how to clean it off disease first.