when bringing home a new fish

[|2ain]

when i buy a fish i use to acclimate and just put it in the display tank, i now have 2 qt tanks , how long should i keep my new fish in the qt tank and another thing im wondering is should i run copper in my qt tank to make sure that any parasites will die, thankyou for any info thats given to me. o yea, almost forgot, when buying crabs and shrimp, they can go directly in the display with no fear of ich or any other parasire right? please correct me if im wrong.

 

[|2ain]

when you say invert's dont that means they cant hold parasites such as ich?...thanks for quick response

 

[barry cuda]

It's my understanding that generally inverts don't carry fish parasites such as ich. Or that's what I've been told here, anyway...

 

[goldenboy]

It's my understanding that generally inverts don't carry fish parasites such as ich
That's what I used to think too. Until I lost all my fish ,to ich, in my 120 display after adding snails. Now I dip all my inverts in two different buckets before adding them to my display tanks. Better safe then sorry. I believe they can carry the sickness on them through the water on them.

 

[|2ain]

when you dip them what are you dipping them in, has anyone done a fresh water dip to a sick fish, how long do you do it for ??? is it recommended?

 

[scotts]

I would going to the disease forum and look at the first sticky thread. Beth wrote up a lot of information about QT tanks.
Scott

 

[goldenboy]

freshwater dips are for dying fish, not just sick fish. I did it to a blue hippo that was already in salinity treatment. It worked, but not everyone has such luck. Put it in water for 5 minutes. No more no less. Don't do this unless you think your fish is dying!!!!!

 

[goldenboy]

As for what I was talking about before, I set up 2 buckets of saltwater from the tanks. I dip the invert in the first bucket, then the 2nd bucket, then put in the display tank. It's tricky, because starfish shouldn't be exposed to air, so be careful.

 

[|2ain]

when dipping them , are you just trying to flush out bad water, or do you let them sit?

 

[goldenboy]

You just let them set in the freshwater for 5 minutes then back in the tank they go. It's pointless if you're not lowering your salinity in your tank though. Lower your specific gravity to 1.009. Read up on this befor you do it. Low salinity will kill inverts and screw up a reef tank. You can only do this in a FO tank or a qt tank.