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The small aquarium that I used originally as a spawning aquarium for the Panda Corys is about to be resurrected. This time as a quarantine tank.

It's been sitting outside for some time while the kitchen was rebuilt, and it's acquired a nice crop of green fur that needs removing, so that chore will take some time

However, once that is done, I'll have a more or less permanent quarantine setup ready to roll, whcih means that in future, I'll be able to arrest any problems at source without having to treat the main aquarium. I'll also be able to use the quarantine tank as a hopsital tank in case the existing inmates of the Panda Fun Palace™ ever need it.

So, watch this space.


Last edited by Calilasseia at 02-Dec-2005 14:43

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

That is great Calilasseia,

I am lucky to have set up a QT before I received my Pearl Gouramies two days ago as one died within 24h and I would have most likely had to treat the main tank (125G) with medication. Having a QT is really a good thing.

Unfortunately, I am not quite following the rules how such a tank has to look like (if there are any).

Ingo

Anyways, here is my 20G Long QT.

LITTLE_FISH attached this image:

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

So, Calilasseia, how are you going to set-up the QT? Are you going Ingo's way with substrate and plants or are you going bare bottom? After all, there are advantages, both real and aesthetic, to each approach.

If you go bare bottom, how are you going to establish your bio-filter? What do you feel is most important for a QT?

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Substrate and plants. In the belief that happy fishes are likely to adapt quicker to their new home, and a 'naturalistic' environment makes them happier fishes than a bare setup.

Of course the setup will be devised in such a way as to make removal of furnishings easier than a full-time occupancy aquarium, but I think that any new fishes finding themselves in my QT setup will be a good deal happier than fishes in a bare setup.

By the way Ingo, your 'quarantine' setup would shame quite a few full-time residency setups! I like it a LOT ...

UPDATE ; just cleaned the dratted thing out. Had LOTS of slimy blanket weed like algae to remove. So I had to resort to bleach to kill all traces of it off the glass. Which means the aquarium won't be ready even for it's first water holding test for at least 72 hours while I keep rinsing it out periodically over that period. Unless of course I speed the process up a bit with some vinegar and a dash of bicarbonate of soda.

Oh, you should have seen the absolute filth I've just washed out of the gravel. Oh, yuck. Awful. Still, now my gravel is nice and clean, so when it's ready to go in, I should be able to set this tank up quite attractively.

The bad news was that my small bogwood lump had that dratted slimy algae all tangled in with my Java Moss growing on it. Which means I had to get rid of all the Java Moss gwoing on it. And, I'll have to dry it out in the oven to kill off anything else living on it so that I don't end up putting blanket weed in the aquarium when I'm ready to roll.

Still, I have enough surplus Java Moss to populate a dozen aquaria in plastic bags


Last edited by Calilasseia at 02-Dec-2005 17:47

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Calilasseia,

Thanks for the compliment on the QT, I just couldn’t resist the urge to “style” it. Actually, I consider it the prettiest of my tanks.

I couldn’t agree more with you on the happy fish = adapting quicker theory. But I am also aware that I am running a risk of having to dismantle the entire setup in case of certain illnesses that might be introduced by new fish. That would be a bummer.

Glad you got all of the gunk out of the tank, I am sure it was a lot of work.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I appreciate it when someone puts the work in Ingo, and you look as if you've done so in spades with that setup. Like I said, it would shame some people's living room setups. Of course, as you said, having to dismantle it if something goes seriously pear shaped is going to be a thankless chore, but I'd like to think that your putting in the effort to make the quarantine tank look hospitable and natural to the fish will go a long way toward keeping that thankless task further at bay.

Anyway, the cleaning proceeded a LOT quicker than I thought - all the traces of bleach are now completely gone, and I'm now at the stage where I have an aquarium with a working heater and air pump humming away nicely. The fact that they're only keeping a volume of water and a layer of gravel warm and aerated is neither here nor there

However, I anticipate that in the next couple of days, I'll be able to start planting it with something. Ideally something quick growing like Water Wisteria. I'll feed the plants with the nutrients from the Panda Fun Palace™. I might also toss in a small sprig of Hornwort.

Should be fun once it's up and running.

However, since it's not intended to be a permanent home for any fish, one thought occurs to me. If I go through the usual aquarium 'fish readying' procedure, that will take time, and the problem thereafter is keeping it 'fish ready' while fish are not living in it. Any ideas what I could keep in there that would keep the nitrifying bacteria colony fed?

I suppose I could buy myself a single male Betta and let him have fun in there. He'd certainly be happier having 12½ litres of planted aquarium to himself than living in a glass in a dealer's. However, if I got one in the next couple of days, he'd be effectively cycling the tank.

Only trouble is, creatures such as those coloured shrimps that some people here love so much tend to be 'special order' exotica where I live (sigh). A male Betta on the other hand would be available immediately, and so long as I kept him at 78°F and regularly cleaned out, I think he'd be pretty happy in there even while cycling the tank. Of course I'm then left with what to do when I want to put other fish in there to quarantine!

Decisions, decisions ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Would a 5g be enough for a quarantine tank. It is a minibow, not a hex. I am thinking about planting it and putting my new Betta in it until it needs to be used. Whenever I needed to use it I would move the Betta temporarily to a 1g setup.
The only fish I would put in there are smaller, such as tetras, and cories.
Right now the 5g is my hospital tank, but I don't feel the need to keep it. I will clean it really good before I convert it to the Q tank. It will most likely be just the Betta's home for awhile, until I get my 48 gallon tank.

Sorry to butt in on this post...I just didn't feel the need to make a post that was so similar.

*Kristin*

The betta would cycle the tank nicely and they can be placed temporarily in a smaller container when the QT is needed. Is the panda palace(?) just pandas? Because they are compatible with bettas and he could move in with them temporarily as well. Then after a carbon cleaning he could go back in to the QT in the case of having to medicate fish in it.
Just an idea. I have also thought about having a QT but ran into the same question. Knowing me I'd make the QT just another tank and keep it fully stocked!

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

My quarantine tank is just a random collection of excess plants. Baby amazon swords, crypts, excess chunks of moss that fell off my moss wall, some duckweed, the hornwort I trimmed off the chunk in my 90g... It's planted well enough I don't really worry about cycling it but lately it has a few excess guppy fry in it to go with the excess plants. Nothing in there is a huge loss should an illness hit and I didn't put much effort into aquascaping that jungle.

I know what you mean, my 10 gal started out as a "hospital" tank for my mollies. They just needed a little warmer water and a dash of salt and they perked up like nobody's business. within a week it was full of mollies (funny how that happens with mollies), then housed a few other fish. Then a pair of dwarf blue gouramis were added (after most of the mollies were gone). Then after a puffer thing that went south it went back to being a hospital/qtine and now it holds zed, my male betta. I also have a small 5 gal that I can set up in a flash should the need arise. Oh, just a note I also went with the sculpted look. gravel and plants. A happy fish is a healthy fish.

Well, it's up and running now.

It isn't 'aquascaped' yet because my piece of bogwood is still awaiting the full algae removal treatment, but once I can put that back in, along with some Java moss growing on it, it should look quite homely.

Oh, and I now have 14 Cardinals in there. They're tiny - around 3/4 of an inch - and they're going to be on my power feeding and fattening up diet of 10 feeds a day till they start looking more robust!

After 2 weeks, I reckon they'll be able to join the Pandas and the lone Cardinal in the Panda Fun Palace™ - whereupon my current lone Cardinal will have LOTS of playmates to keep him happy ... I think a shoal of 15 Cardinals should be a decent grouping ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

This is my QT, though I haven't really had anything "new" in it since the adolfi pair was settled into the 20L. Planted primarily with remnants from my main mossed setups (frontinalis, java, an unidentified vesc., and Christmas). Not as well scaped as others', but I'm not really concerned with placement--function over form, I guess. It currently holds a trio of L-262 that I was planning to move to another tank. However, it looks like they're gonna be in there for a while, as they seem well settled, and my largest, and *very* gravid female waiting outside the male's cave ;D. With any luck, they'll hit it off tonight. The smaller indivdual is apparently visible beneath the focal piece of wood covered in Christmas moss.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/Kleevage/Picture135.jpg

Good luck with your fishes--I've NEVER seen wild caught cards at 3/4", wow!

I am the guy whose main tank is being put to shame!

Those QTs look amazing, and I wish you the best of luck with them.

Dave

OK, first of, I miscounted my Cardinals. Easy to do when you have a swarm of 100 or so of them in the wholesaler's bag and you're attempting to catch a specific number before the LFS puts the rest in the dealer aquarium! A measure I asked to implement in order to minimise the shock of transfer: bascially, if they only had one water change to deal with, they'd be less stressed than if they had two. Anyway, it transpires (when I set about counting them properly at home) that I actually had 12, not 14. Which, since I only set out to buy 10, still means I had something of a bargain because the LFS only charged me for 10!

First, the bad news. One runt in the litter didn't make it. But then, based upon his appearance, i didn't expect him to. I tried feeding him up by using an eye dropper to dispense food close to his mouth, but he was too far gone. The remaining 11, however, seem to be thriving nicely on my 'power feeding' régime, which involves powdering parts of my flake food collection down to near-fry food size and feeding them that in small quantities up to 10 times per day. Thus far, the remaining 11 Cardinals seem to be doing fine. Pics will follow in due course.

Oh, and yes, they are tiny. But they seem to be welcoming my feeding régime, which I suspect is probably due to the fact that they are still only one step removed from fry. I suspect they're probably only 12 weeks old if that. Which means that raising them on their own in what is, in effect, a species aquarium/nursery as well as a quarantine tank, will prove beneficial. I suspect they're captive bred specimens too - they seem to be perfectly at home in my local water. Though my local water is reasonable for South American fishes, even 8°dH is probably a LOT harder than the native waters of the Rio Negro!

Anyway, thus far, fingers crossed, the rest look fine. Give them some time to fatten up, and they can join the menagerie in the Panda Fun Palace­™ and provide some much needed playmates for my current lone Cardinal in there!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Double Post-ish.

Pics of my QT and the new Cardinals can be found here in Photo Booth.

Enjoy!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002