How do YOU quarantine?

[PaintGuru]

Ok I'm not sure I have seen a thread on this subject per say, but how do YOU quarantine your new fish? I'm thinking of mail ordering some fishies and really never quarantined until a little disease killed off my tank. Anyways, I would like to quarantine the new fish I get, at least the disease prone one, but I would like to know exactly how people quarantine? What I mean is do you just set them up in a small tank and watch them for X days and if all looks good you move them in? Or do you add Copper/medication/other chemical as a precaution? Basically what is your timeline and technique? Just curious as to what people out there use because I am really thinking of getting a larger tang, who I know are very delicate as far as disease goes, and I want to do it right with it. Hopefully this provides some good info for all.

[Doug1]

I suspect you will get several opinions on the subject. I havent bought fish in ages and then only from one store where I could have them held and watch them. I am not sure if treating for something that may or may not be there is a good idea, I chose to buy healthy fish and get them settled in quickly and easily, then pay attention to nutrition and aggression issues. I think thats the key to keeping tangs, tho some are easier than others

[Chris Witort]

If your tank is free from ich, I'd quarantine everything for at least a month. Use hyposalinity or copper to kill any parasites. A display tank free of ich and other parasites is important to protect. An outbreak caused by an introduced fish could cause you to loose many of your prized pets.

[Mrs Smith]

When we first started in the hobby, we quarantined everything. We also just about killed our first tang doing it. (You'll need a decent-sized tank to q any tangs - a 10 or 20g won't cut it.)

I hate to say it, but we don't quarantine anymore. Doug hit it on the head: choose well, keep the stress to a minimum, and nutrition is important.

I personally think that it's practically impossible not to have ich in a tank... the key is preventing fish stress which triggers an outbreak. We haven't had an outbreak of ich in years... and as many fish have come through our system, I'm sure it's in there.

Just my 2c,
Danielle

[PaintGuru]

Yeah I agree you can never really rid your system of ich, and honestly I never quarantined before and never really had any problems, until I got my last whitecheek tang who came down with apparently every disease known to man and killed off half my tank. Again I am planning on ordering online, which of course prevents me from inspecting the fish (of course that whitecheek looked great and was eating well when I got him). I guess part of my problem is I have a purple tang who will of course play chicken with the new tang, which will probably add stress. Here is a list of the fish I am planning on getting mailorder:

2-True Percs
1-Flame Hawk
1-Flame Angel
1-Bigger tang
1-Manderin
1-Midas Blenny

My system is a 180 and has been set up for quite a while, so I am not overly concerned about bioload shock. Really, none of those fish seem disease prone, except the tang (maybe the angel). I guess my method will have to be to keep an eye on them and if any show sign of disease, get them out and treat them. Again just trying to do everything right and minimize problems. Thanks