QT / Temporary Housing Duration?

[smfoister]

I understand the concept of QT and how long you should keep a fish in a QT before introducing it to the DT. This question is a little different... I'm moving a large tank in about a month and I'll be setting up a temporary tank so that I can move the fish about a week prior to the big move. I'll be giving the QT proper cycle time as I will be seeding it with water, rock and potentially even some sand from the bigger tank.

The two fish are a Flame Angel and a Mandarin Dragonet that have been living peacefully for going on 10 years. Yes, each of these fish are a decade old, so I'm playing it incredibly safe so that this move does not tragically kill one of them.

My QT/Temp tank is a 10 gallon.... how long would you think I could keep these fish in this 10 gallon before they start to stress to the point of potential death? Keeping in mind feeding will be proper (yes even the mandarin), tank is properly cycled. I'm experienced, so I know the right way to do things but I have never had to house a fish in a temporary tank for this amount of time... I'm fully expecting the DT to cycle again once it is moved so the fish could be sitting in this 10 gallon for UP TO a month.

thoughts?

 

[flower]

HI,

The dragonet needs copepods, and there is no way what it needs to eat would be in a QT...the problem is not the cycle it's the maturity of the tank. Do you plan to feed pods each day? The two fish should be fine for about 4 weeks, which is a normal amount of time for quarantine. Most people use a 10g tank for quarantine, I did....but a 20g would be better.

 

[smfoister]

You're correct, the pods are a potential risk. However I think I have that covered. The tank I'm seeding from has literally been breed pods for a decade, it's absolutely INFESTED with the things, and that's a good thing. Only the Mandarin has been eating them, no other "pod predators" so to speak.

That being said, the 10-15lbs of rock I plan to bring to the QT will be infested with them, and there's also a nice big chunk of cheeto sitting in the back of the tank that you can see them crawling all over at night using a red flashlight. I plan to harvest that and put it into the QT. These elements combined with daily feedings of live mysis and brine... this should cover him for a bit. If it becomes an issue I'll have some shipped overnight from a local supplier. I'm really intent on keeping these guys alive so I've done a lot of planning for this move. In the real world I'm a project manager specializing in risk assessment, my wife just calls it obsessive.

Thanks so much for you response flower, I'll move forward with my 10 gallon.

Edit: I'll use this thread as my official move thread. I enjoy seeing how people complete these projects and maybe in the future someone will come here looking for advice on a similar move.