Quarantine Tank Specs

[hedylogus]

i'm setting up a qt and i'm looking for some input.

what size tank?
quarantine for how long?
what medications?
salt? if so, how much?
food?
water chemistry?
....and anything else that might be helpful.

thanks

matt

 

[Orchid]

If you have an outbreak of ich, then use plain, old garlic powder, NOT garlic salt. It is highly, highly effective against both the marine and the freshwater ich protozoa and doesn't harm the biological filtration, plants, or the live coral in my reef tank. I use about 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. per fifty gallons. It really does work, better than many of the meds at your lfs!

 

[Randall]

i'm setting up a qt and i'm looking for some input.

what size tank?
quarantine for how long?
what medications?
salt? if so, how much?
food?
water chemistry?
....and anything else that might be helpful.

thanks

matt

Dear Matt,

Quarantine...what a can of worms! I'll give your inquiry my best shot.

Tank size: 10 or 15 gallons depending on the size and number of fish to be quarantined.

Duration: 4 weeks or more as is necessary.

Medication: Only medicate if necessary. Medication utilized will depend on the symptoms shown, if any. I subscribe to the "less is more" school of disease treatment.

Salt: Only if necessary. Use one rounded tablespoon for each 5-10 gallons of water.

Food: Medicated food if symptoms justify it; otherwise, feed a variety of nutritious foods, as per usual.

Water chemistry: Comensurate with that to which the subject fish are accustomed.

Others may handle quarantine differently. The above are merely my opinions.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[Scooter]

Hi Matt. I pretty much agree with Randall on the QT specs. I would add that if you quarantine a fish and it shows any symptoms, the clock should get set back to day one starting with the first day it appears healthy again, imo. For me, the qt period is 4-6 weeks with no visual symptoms or signs of illness.

 

[rivendell_jw]

If you have an outbreak of ich, then use plain, old garlic powder, NOT garlic salt. It is highly, highly effective against both the marine and the freshwater ich protozoa ...

Can I have some bread sticks with my ich?

Seriously, I will keep this one in my arsenal now. Has anyone else ever tried this?

Good discussion. I was getting ready to start a holding tank of my own. I was going to use a 20 long but only because I have a stand that my 29 is on that will hold the 20 long underneath. I've kept fish too long and have gotten away from the holding tank. I should know better. You can really mess things up by adding straight into a perfectly happy tank.

Good luck Matt

- John

 

[Neil]

hedylogus,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

My qt proceedure is very similar to what Randall suggests. I usually set up a 10 or 15 for a pair, when that is all I am getting, to try and breed them. Quite often the appropriate water, food and general conditions for optimizing health lead to breeding. So i figure that I will use the time to try and breed them.
I am very anti-medication and would only medicate or salt the tank if there was an obvious problem. Medicating is almost an art when it is done with a high level of success and I am not an artist in that regard. Many times I have found efforts to medicate or alter other parameters are more stressful to a fish who will naturally fight off all but the worst problems.
Neil

 

[irishspy]

Garlic powder?

If you have an outbreak of ich, then use plain, old garlic powder, NOT garlic salt. It is highly, highly effective against both the marine and the freshwater ich protozoa and doesn't harm the biological filtration, plants, or the live coral in my reef tank. I use about 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. per fifty gallons. It really does work, better than many of the meds at your lfs!

That's fascinating -- I've never heard of this being used as aquarium medicine before! 8O How long have you used it and how long does it take to take effect?

--Anthony

 

[Orchid]

Irishspy and any others interested,

I have been using this treatment for almost two years, now. I learned it from some of my local fellow reef keepers when I worked at a lfs. I had some rams that had a bad case of ich and NOTHING safe for plants was working. When my discus in that tank started getting it I pulled out the garlic powder and poured it in. I did this for two days in a row. The stuff was gone just like that! I also had another ram that had these viral warty things, I forget the name of it but I was told by a couple lfs that the growths would never go away and I had previosly tried several meds to get rid of it. They disappeared with the garlic treatment.

I first saw the garlic powder treatment used by a fellow reef keeper. I went to her house to take pictures of her fantastic 82 gallon bowfront reef. She had a powderblue tang that was always getting ich, a requirement to being a tang , she was pouring some garlic powder into a measuring spoon and the top popped off and, SPLOOSH, a bunch spilled into the tank! Although her house reeked of garlic and the powder particles clouded up her water, none of her very expensive corals were harmed. A few days later she told me that the ich had finally cleared up off the tang. I even got a gorgonian coral cutting from her that night and it floated in my tank in its garlic powder infested water for several hours (I forgot it was there) before I put it into my reef, it is still growing in my tank these 1.75 years later.

I haven't had an ich outbreak in my reef since March 2000, but in all morallity and despite seeing this done in another aquarists tank, I couldn't recomend the garlic treatment to my customers without first trying it in my tank. So after much self debate, I added 1/2 tsp. to my reef for two nights and did a lot of praying. All was fine. If you think about it, the product Garlic Extreme by EcoSystems is garlic based and every aquarist I know who has used it swears by it.

 

[irishspy]

Irishspy and any others interested,
(snip!)

That's really fascinating. I wonder what it is about garlic that affect Ich bugs?

--Anthony

 

[Neil]

I am admittedly fascinated by this discussion because it goes to the heart of what I like to see applied as a remedy to disease. I seem to recall hearing about this before, but never payed it much attention. This is an outstanding piece of information. However, it should probably be discussed in a seperate thread. I would be most interested in a discussion of peoples use of unconventional methods of health maintenance and remedies. Although, Apistogramma are less prone to Ick outbreaks than many fish, other Dwarf Cichlids are not. Garlic is something I will definitely try the next time the situation arises.
Neil

 

[Orchid]

Neil,

Ethnobotany and herbalism is a fascination to me. Just about all the plants in the alium family are beneficial, onions, garlic, chives, when it comes to health. Garlic has been identified to help prevent stomache cancer and both onion and garlic help clean your arteries. I would love to know which molecule in garlic is so beneficial for fish because I have even read that garlic promotes their appetite.

I am sorry, I think the garlic product by EcoSystems I mentioned earlier is Garlic Elixer, oops .

 

[jvr]

garlic powder

Orchid wrote:

If you have an outbreak of ich, then use plain, old garlic powder, NOT garlic salt. It is highly, highly effective against both the marine and the freshwater ich protozoa and doesn't harm the biological filtration, plants, or the live coral in my reef tank. I use about 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. per fifty gallons. It really does work, better than many of the meds at your lfs!



That's fascinating -- I've never heard of this being used as aquarium medicine before! How long have you used it and how long does it take to take effect?

--Anthony

It looks like many of you have lots of reading to do and conventions to attend. I have read about garlic being used to remove many ailments in the aquarium, there are many foods adding it as an additive.

This summer I attended the ACA convention and Jack Wattley held a talk on Discus. He adds garlic to all his food preparation. He even mentioned that at one point he had fish with internal parasites and worms, he fed 50% beef Heart mixed with 50% raw ground up garlic and he erradicated all the parasites and worms in his fish, now mind you he also stated it did not work overnight it took a couple of weeks but he claimed that garlic could be used as a deworming agent.

So it has been a proven fact that it works.

Now would they still breed smelling like that I don't know, Listerine may help.

Thanks,
John

 

[Orchid]

Well, at least they don't have to worry about vampires. :lol: