Quarantine - Preventative Treatment Regime

[grahamu]

Hi,

I’ve been lurking here for a while soaking up as much information as possible but would now like to tap into the collective wisdom of the group.

I have been keeping fish (tropical and koi) for more than 20 years. I am currently in the process of combining some of my discus into a single tank and am keen to start keeping loach in the freed up tank.

I have learned the hard way over the years the importance quarantining new fish and now routinely undertake a 4 week quarantine period in a fully cycled 20 gal tank. However, up until now my approach to quarantining has been ‘reactive’ i.e. I put the fish in the tank, watch them and treat any conditions that show themselves.

Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, it seems to me that it is more common for fish to develop a problem nowadays than a few years ago. Also, no matter how quick I treat when a problem arises in the quarantine tank I invariably still lose one or two fish before the problem is contained.

I have therefore decided I would like to take a more ‘pro-active’ approach to quarantining and treat for the most common potential problems in the quarantine tank before they show themselves.

I have seen some such regimes in different threads but would very much like to collect any other ideas that people may have.

One such regime I have seen in a thread (sorry can’t find it now to give the author credit) goes something like this:

• Week 1 – Levamisole (to treat round worms)
• Week 2 – Prazi (to treat flatworms), salt (to treat external parasites?), antibiotic (to treat bacterial and fungal infections)
• Week 3 – slowly remove salt
• Week 4 – start acclimatization ready for move to display tank

I guess a few questions spring to mind:

1) Some of the worm treatments need repeating a week or so later. How does this fit into the above schedule?
2) Unfortunately I have failed to find any brand of Levamisole here in Canada despite many attempts at feed stores etc who stock sheep/pig de-wormers. I believe an alternative would be Flubendazole although I have also heard of bad experiences with this being used on Discus (which I also keep). One source of this is Jungle Labs Parasite Clear which includes Prazi, Flub and Metro. If I use this in Week 1 should I remove the Week 2 Prazi treatment?
3) For antibiotics I have seen suggestions of using both Maracyn (gram-positive) and Maracyn-2 (gram-negative). I also see that Mardel make something called Maracy-Plus. Does anyone know if this would be a replacement for both of the above?
4) Anything else that should be added into the above (or removed)?

Many thanks,
Graham

[chefkeith]

That was a quarantine procedure that I thought would be half decent. It's definitely not perfect as I didn't put enough thought into it. It could use modifications and more detail. There really is no simple or absolute way to do it though.

Each fish may require different attention. In some cases you may want to treat for ich 1st, but in other cases you may want to treat the internal parasites. Or you may just want to treat for somethings at the same time.

Also, the methods for treating ich is a choice for each to decide.


I think your right not to leave disease control up to fate . Prophylactic Quarantine Treatments will put you in control and eliminate the chance of the most common diseases or outbreaks.

[grahamu]

Thanks Keith and, again, my apologies I couldn't give you credit for the suggested procedure. I had looked at so many damn threads that I couldn't find it again so just had to try and remember what it said!

Graham

[Gary Stanton]

Another issue is water quality/matching. Finding out what the water parameters the fish previously were held in and how long. Wild caught or farmed. Quickly and safely getting the water to YOUR optimum final water will strengthen the fish considerably. Just getting the temp closer to their maximum helps.
I have found that these steps alone helps the fish overcome the stress of their previous few months more than anything else.
Good luck.