Teresa Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Ok - lesson learned - my 3 week square back anthias died and now my lemon peel is looking/acting sick. I've never set up a quarantine tank before cause I didn't know where to put it and thought it would look nice - lame excuse I know. I'm thinking of buying a ten gallon tank at walmart and placing one of my many hang on the back filters on it. Do I need to include anything else (heater, lights, live sand, live rock)? Should I fill it with water from my existing aquarium or fresh saltwater? How often do I do water changes and again - is this with current or fresh saltwater? Any other information you can provide would be appreciated (I've already done water changes on main tank and dosing food with garlic). Teresa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Do a search here on QT tanks, we discussed them a few months ago. I have a 12g eclipse that has light and heater. You don't want live sand or rock in a QT tank, the goal is to isolate the fish so that they can be observed and proactively treated. Most treatments are harmful to sand and live rock. Get some pvc elbows and joints larger than the fish you want to QT so that they'll have a safe place to hide. I started mine with new saltwater. Since you don't have live rock for filtration you'll want to do regular water changes with new saltwater. I'm assuming you're having an ich outbreak? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 +1 although I'll use water from an established tank and to help with bacteria I'll also use pieces of rock from an established tank with the expectation it may be killed off with medications or at the very least will need to be rinsed well with fresh water and left in the sun several days to dry out before putting back in a tank. If copper is used the rock would need to be thrown away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 lost my lemon peel today . I told him I learned my lesson already, but he thought differently . I'm not going to get any more fish for a long time, but when I do, I will set up a 10 gallon quarantine tank. Thanks for all the info!! The anthias showed signs of ich so I did a water change and dosed food with garlic. He was still eating and some of the ich fell off, but then he died. He did not have any spots on him when I took him out of the tank. I knew the Lemon Peel would probably die - it started hiding more and being lethargic. It didn't have white spots, but instead a "redness" developed behind his gills. He had traces of red beneath his scales when i found him dead. Anyone know what this is? Teresa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 The redness behind the gills and under the skin was almost certainly a bacterial infection. It could have been a secondary infection brought on by an ick infestation or it could have been a primary infection. Once some red blotches or spots develop I've never been successful treating with antibiotics. The alternative is to prophylacticly treat with antibiotics in a quarantine tank. Even then you need to be careful and monitor your water parameters closely. To make sure I'm not misunderstood never treat your display tank with antibiotics unless you are very sure of what it's killing and not killing in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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