# How long to quarantine



## OnePsychLynne (Jan 26, 2008)

We recently lost most of our precious saltwater fish through sheer stupidity-we didn't quarantine. We've never had any problems adding new fish and became complacent (please do not yell...we have dearly paid the price). Which brings me to the question(s) of the day...

1) How long should you quarantine new arrivals before adding them to your tank? 
2) What specifically should you look for over that period of time and should you "pre-treat" these new arrivals with anything (like possible bacterial or parasitic infections) before adding them to your tank? 
3)And can you quarantine fish together if they cam from the same place?
We've read the information and it seems like everyone says something different but I wanted to know from you guys what you've done and what's worked, or hasn't worked. I know that we need to leave the fish out of the tank for 2-3 months before the tank should be okay (we're not sure what our fish got...they all became covered in little white spots and slime and we assumed they had ich but copper treatments were unsuccessful and most of them died before they could recover). Our only survivors currently are our volitans lionfish we've had for the last eight months and a cardinal fish which are both in the same hospital tank being treated with Melafix since the copper wasn't doing them any good. (Note: we did not treat the main tank with copper or anything else as it contains live rock and a couple of emerald crabs)


----------



## bhone20 (May 4, 2008)

im not a saltwater kinda guy, but I would say quarintine your fish for at least 2 weeks to be safe than sorry.For me if you buy two different fish that came from the same display tank, then I would quarantine them together, if they came from two different display tanks, then I personally would sepereate them while quarantining them.


----------



## bhone20 (May 4, 2008)

And keep a keen eye on your water parameters EVERY DAY!!


----------

