9/11/20

Quarantine Tank/Hospital Tank

Most hobbyists, even experienced ones, do not keep quarantine tanks available for their fish. Having one, or more, is an excellent idea however if you have a good deal of money invested in your fish. This section will discuss these tanks, their uses, and how to set-up and maintain one.

The hospital tank is usually used as a quarantine tank as well, though if you have a lot of room and a lot of extra money, you may want to buy two separate tanks. The point of a HT/QT is twofold. As a hospital tank (HT) the purpose is to separate sick or possibly sick fish from your general population, giving them a chance to recover in an environment where they do not need to worry about bullying and where they cannot infect your other, healthy fish. For sick fish, this tank allows you to medicate only the fish that are actually sick, and at the same time you don’t have to worry about killing your biological media in your main tank/tanks. This includes the ability to salt your sick fish if you have fish living in the community tank that cannot tolerate salt. As a HT, you should move fish into the tank as soon as you see something that makes you think the fish is sick, and you should keep them in there for at least a week or two after they appear to have recovered.

As a quarantine tank (QT) the purpose of the tank is to provide a temporary home to new acquisitions/purchases so that you can monitor your new fish for a few weeks to make sure they are healthy before introducing them to your community tank. If a fish you just bought is carrying a deadly parasite/virus/fungus/bacteria, the QT prevents you from introducing the disease into your general tank and killing off all of your fish. When new fish are being quarantined, you should keep your fish in the tank for 2 weeks or so, as you not only want to make sure they are not sick, but you want them to fully recover from the stress of being introduced to a new tank before moving them to yet another new tank. In general, an HT/QT is a good idea to have if you have the room and money. If you really like spending money, or have a ton of tanks, you may want to keep separate HT’s and QT’s, so you can treat sick fish while observing new purchases in a completely different tank.

When introducing your fish to the HT/QT, whether they are sick fish you have had for a while or brand new fish, you need to carefully acclimate them to the water in the tank. To do this, follow the same prodecures outlined for adding fish to your tank. First, fill a plastic bag 1/2 full of water from the tank the fish is being taken from, and add the fish to the bag (the fish will be given to you like this if you buy it from a store). Float the sealed bag in the HT/QT water for 1/2 hour to equilbrate the temperatures, then add 1/2 cup or so of water from the tank to the bag. Do not get any water from the bag into the HT/QT. Let it float another 15 minutes, then add another 1/2 cup of water, and repeat this for an hour. After an hour, net the fish from the bag and quickly release him into the tank.

Your HT/QT does not need to be large, and since it is a temporary home, you don’t need to follow the 1-3 gallons per inch of fish rule. If you have an Oscar or 1 foot algae eater that gets sick, you don’t need a 36 gallon tank as a HT, a 10 gallon is usually enough for your purposes. The tank should be at least 10 gallons however, unless you don’t have any fish larger than guppies and small tetras. The tank should have the bare minimum in equipment, meaning a power filter, a heater, thermometer and probably a light. The light is not essential, but it is very valuable to observing your fish, especially if you are trying to spot or monitor signs of external disease. The power filter is essential, as you need filtration to keep the water safe, which is even more important than normal to fish trying to recover from an illness. You need a thermometer and heater because many diseases can be treated by increasing the temperature of the water, and even if your fish’s disease cannot be treated this way, steady temperature is essential to reducing stress. You do not want gravel in your HT/QT as that would simply provide a substrate for bacteria/parasites to live, and it interferes with your ability to clean the tank. Decorations may be necessary for fish to hide and feel safe, but they should be non-porous decorations, made of resin is probably best, that can be disinfected easily when you are done using the tank. Do not use live plants, as you would have to kill them after each use of your tank, or you risk spreading disease from one batch of fish to another.

After use, whether as a QT for new fish or a HT for sick fish, after the fish are fully recovered and moved back to their homes/into their new home, you need to disinfectant the tank. This is the exception to the rule that an aquarium should never be sterilized. A QT/HT is the only tank that should be routinely after use. The reason for this is obvious; you just had fish that either were definitely carrying some harmful parasite or disease, or may have been carrying some harmful parasite or disease. Just because the fish recovered or didn’t get sick doesn’t mean the disease is dead and gone, only that the fish was able to fight it off. If you don’t sterilize your QT/HT, you risk infecting any new fish you add to this tank. To sterilize the QT/HT, empty all the water, remove the filter media from the filter and remove any other decorations/equipment. Add a dilute bleach solution, maybe 1 ounce plain Clorox bleach per cup of water (do NOT use Clorox with detergent, just use the regular old-fashioned bleach) and scrub the inside of the tank completely. Do NOT use soap on anything. Wash the inside of the filter in the same manner, as well as the heater, thermometer and any decorations in the tank. Throw away the filter media, as even if you succeed in sterilizing it, it is not worth the risk of having bleach remain in the filter with the potential to poison your fish. Make sure you rinse everything very well in warm or hot water (be careful not to ruin electrical equipment). Let everything air dry at least a couple days after being completely rinsed. At this point it is best to set up your tank with all the equipment and with water so the water is aged and steady when you next need the QT/HT.

Biological filtration poses a unique problem for a QT/HT. You need to sterilize the filter after each use, so you cannot keep a steady biological filter ready for use. You also don’t want ammonia or nitrite spikes in a tank if you are isolating fish for observation or treatment. In my opinion, the best way to have at least some biological filtration available for the QT/HT is to set the filter for that tank up (after it is sterilized as described above) on your most heavily stocked tank, and run it there along with that tank’s normal filtration. This allows bacteria to establish themselves in the filter and be ready for when you need the QT/HT.

The advantages to a QT/HT are numerous, but few hobbyists take advantage of them. I would say that it is pointless to have a QT if you have nothing more than a few guppies/tetras/white cloud minnows/goldfish, but if you have a large number of fish, especially if you have sensitive and/or expensive fish, a QT is a must when adding new fish to your community.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This was extremely helpful. I really appreciate you posting all of this essential information. It answered a lot of questions for me in one read vs. the 'fish lore' Q&A feed I've been attempting to use for information as a new freshwater aquarium owner. Thank you so much!
Lisa

Unknown said...

This was extremely helpful. I really appreciate you posting all of this essential information. It answered a lot of questions for me in one read vs. the 'fish lore' Q&A feed I've been attempting to use for information as a new freshwater aquarium owner. Thank you so much!
Lisa