Why Quarantine New Fish?
It's very important to quarantine newly acquired fish for 7-10 days before introducing them into your pond or aquarium. A quarantine tank acts as a rest and recuperation station for new arrivals, allowing fish to "settle" after the trauma of being transported and to reduce bodily stress. Quarantining also breaks the lifecycle of any organisms with complex lifecycles, which rely on secondary hosts in order to reproduce.
Sick fish should be removed from the pond or aquarium to a treatment vessel (i.e. an old wading pool or aquarium), whenever possible, to prevent disease spreading to the other fish. Make an un-iodized salt dip by following instructions on salt packaging, adjusting its potency for the number of fish per square inch. Gently place fish in a soft nylon net, and lower them into the salt dip for the amount of time instructed on the salt dip packaging. As a result, 99% of microscopic parasites that kill fish will drop off the fish. Salt dips are the least toxic method and do wonders.
Most fish carry very low levels of infection at all times, which often go unnoticed because they're easily controlled by the fish's immune system. If diseases manifest, the quarantine tank provides an easily accessible and controlled environment to treat fish.
Disease prevention in newly acquired fish can be substantially reduced by careful acclimatization "out of the bag" and into the quarantine tank, paying careful attention to water quality. Fish need time to fully restore osmoregulatory, metabolic and biological functioning after a period of stress.
Fish that are introduced into a well-managed quarantine tank with excellent water quality and few stresses will be strong and keep sickness at bay.
Got this in a email today directly from tetra. It is a great reminder of how and why to Quarantine new fish.
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