FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Yes, always use a quarantine tank. I've not had one but now that I have an extra tank (got it to use as a hospital) I will also be using it as a quarantine. You never know, as was stated before, what your fish may be bringing home with them. When not being used as a q-tine tank it may serve as a hospital, or a breeder or any number of things. Actually, I did get a q-tine tank shortly after my main tank, wound up using it as a hospital for an ill lookin molly, then as a breeder for the fifty or so offspring, then to house them as I could match the water conditions they liked much easier, and then as a smaller community tank. next adventure for it will be as a dwarf puffer tank. laffs... its bedtime so I'm rambling. see ya'll later

hmmm... this is also possible that it wasn't ich... whatever it was though, had no warning the night before i lost all my fish... they were all swimming happily with no signs of stress... which i found very odd... i'm not particularly experienced with fish disease, as i have never had issues with it before in 5-ish years of tropical fish keeping. however, whatever the disease was, i treated the tank with fung-ade which got rid of the infection... also i noticed, that the disease seemed to mainly infect tetras.. cardinal, rummy nose and black neon tetras were the only fish that i lost...

EDIT: i would have had warning if there were warning to be had, i watch my fish religiously for at least a few hours a day (they're alot more entertaining than tv) and if they are anything other than happy and healthy looking, i skitz out (even before the bout of "ich"

Last edited by pfaft at 25-Jun-2005 23:06

I never thought ich was a big deal. I've never lost a fish to it. A healthy fish in a healthy tank should recover. Ich is always present in aquarium water and it's stress that brings it on. Some fish are just more likely to get it. Whenever I get new threadfin rainbows or move them around they get ich from the stress of being caught, moved, and finding themselves in a new tank. It's not due to the stores tank maintenance or water parameter difference since my water is identical to theirs except they keep nitrates at less than 5ppm and mine is around 10. Half the time I don't even treat them because it goes away on it's own without doing any real harm. If I do treat I've always used rid ich plus even with loaches and otos without losing a fish. It's just a pain to remove my snails, shrimp, and clams from the tank so unless the fish look stressed beyond being coated in spots I don't medicate them. I definitely wouldn't consider a breakout of ich a reason to avoid a store.

i noticed that you said that you introduce fish over several hours. it could be that the way you introduced these fish led to them getting white spot. im not trying to blame you however it may also not be the shops fault. white spot could have been dormant in your tank when you introduced them(it is possible for white spot to lay `dormant` in your tank) and due to the fact that the new fish were stressed they came down with the infection. white spot can be equated with coldsores in humans - you tend to get them when you are run down or already ill, its the same for fish with whitespot, the are e to it under stress or when water temp is dropped rapidly. the other thing i noticed is that the fish died really quickly, whitespot is not usually a quick killer and compared with other infections / illnesses is relatively easy to treat. whitespot is usually inside of the fish before you see the telltale white spots and if you watch fish closely will usually see some telltale signs, for instance in clown loaches always watch for clamped dorsal fins (dorsal fins tight to their backs). most fish disease is white and usually roundish in shape and usually when people see white spots believe it is `ich` when it may have been something completely different. sorry if this took a while to read, it wasnt meant to be a lecture!

hmmmm... i shall take all this advice into my memory, but the real purpose of this thread was just to warn/remind people to be careful is all.

So, here's one good reason not to put LFS water in your tank.

The LFS has fish shipped to them (or buys from breeders, or whatever) so their water is potentially being contaminated by diseased new fish on a regular basis.

Let's say that you buy a fish, and that there are many ich parasites in the free swimming stage from the tank at the LFS. If you pour the water into your tank you are introducing not only the fish carrying the ich (which has not yet formed white cysts) but also all the free-swimming ich which can now attach to all your other fish. If you net the fish out you are only introducing the parasites *on* the fish, so it will be much easier to contain the outbreak when you see the white spots, start treating immediately, and kill the parasites as soon as they reach free-swimming stage.

And that's just one little example.

No, No, NO, never use fish store water. You never know if it is carrying any diseases. You already know you have good water at home, why take the chance with your fish?

Why cant i put the LFS water in my aquarium, i know its good water and i always do it...should i stop?

10gallon: 8neons 5gallon: 1betta
1oto
2platys

well i must say i never considered a new LFS to be a threat but just one incident like that shouldn't paint the whole picture about new LFS and like i've read that that too often the LFS is blamed for selling bad specimens when it could be that you have a some what higher nitrate reading than the shop causing stress on the fish thus as said above white spot can be a result! cause generaly ne LFS want to make a good impresion to get their bisness going. for instance the newest LFS to me is so hygienic that the water in all the tanks is changed daily to keep the nitrate at a low level and each tank has a wet dry filter with a sump about half the volume of the main tank and i also know alot of well established LFS that are very lazy and don't take very good care of them (the fish)

How do you maintain the biological bacteria in a tank that you use specifically for hospital or quarrantine?

Are there fish that you can keep in such a tank that are survivors and can usually withstand illnesses and/or treatments with medications?

I have a 10 gallon that I will be moving to a 25 gallon this weekend and would like to keep the 10 for a quarrantine/hospital tank, but don't know whether to keep any fish in it or not.

Carol B

Couldn't agree with you more about NEVER pouring in your LFS water.

A quarantine tank is best, but if you don't use one (or even if you do) NEVER EVER EVER EVER pour the water from the bag into your tank. NEVER! ]:|

Net the fish out.

I repeat NEVER pour LFS water into your tank.

Thank you.

via my own experience a few weeks ago, i wish to warn/further reinforce the fact that BE VERY WARY WHEN TRYING OUT NEW AQUARIUM SHOP FOR FISH PURCHASES!!! I decided i would give a new aquarium a shot, all the fish appeared to be thriving, they all had nicely sized tanks and looked just generally happy and healthy... however, within a couple of days of introducing these new fish that i purchased, all my fish came down with *gasp* white spot. i lost 5 fish overnight while i was sleeping, all my fish seemed happy before i went to bed too... i also lost a coupl more fish during the day while the remedy took effect. so just be wary!! please!!! do it for your fishies!!

The only reliable and best method for both your new fish and especially your fish you have had for some time is a Quarantine tank. Use it and such painful incidents will be avoided

pfaft,

Where in Aus are you? If in Vic what fs was it? I know that *edited name* in Vic has disease ridden fish! and they also have the fish with fluro colours inserted into them!! It's terrible! They have beaut reptiles though hehe..A lil trick when intoducing fish, u shouldn't float the bag any longer than 15-20 mins any longer is totally unnessacary, sure add water from ur tank that helps alot..Also keep the light off and always add multicure or melafix to ur tank whilst floating the bag, this helps calm the fish and treats for diseases as soon as they enter ur tank! :%)

Last edited by Lindy at 23-Jun-2005 06:08

Have you contacted the lfs you bought the fish from? You never know, the remaining fish from the tank you got yours from could now be sick too. Its a bit hard for a lfs owner to know about some diseases and if they are a good shop will offer replacement ones. Calling is the only way to find out.
How do you acclimate new fish to your tank? Do you know the pH of the water they were in at the shop? Sometimes pH differences can stress fish enough to bring on ich. Even a temp fluctuation can cause it. What fish were they?

---

Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

It is definately best to use a quarantine tank, though like Theresa I don't usually use one either

You never know what it could have been that caused the ich, all you can do is move on and learn...I do usually treat my tanks with Melafix when introducing new fish, and do a good water change as I'm floating the new arrivals...so far I have had few losses (we won't talk about December's losses:#() do to sick fish.

Also something else to keep in mind ask the lfs when the shipment of fish came in...I usually wait a day or two to make sure that they are in ok shape, and are doing fine

heidi




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No regrets, but I wish that you
Were here with me
Well then there's hope yet
I can see your face, In our secret place
You're not just a memory
Say goodbye to yesterday
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

I bought a pim. pictus from my LFS a while back, and this fish store was excellent, a really successful chain, they knew their stuff and everything.

I looked it in the shops tank and it appeared fine but then I got it home and it was INFESTED with white spot. i felt so sorry for the little one, but it died - and endangered my other fish in the process. I think the lesson is to look really really carefully at fish before you take them home....

Try to buy from local breeders. I found it much cheaper than LFS & the water parameters are nearly the same as mine.


http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos
http://www.geocities.com/s8xi5heh/classic_blue.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buzaqq/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

It's not always the fault of the lfs, fish can easily come down with ick for a number of reasons that are stress related.

And of course using a quarantine tank is the best way to avoid problems in an established tank; I can't say much in that regard though since I don't use one

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean