Quarantine

The quarantine is a separate aquarium where new arrivals (fish, corals, plants) are kept under observation before entering the main aquarium.

Detailed explanation

Quarantine is the most important and most ignored practice in aquarium keeping. Every new fish can carry ich, velvet, gill worms, bacteria. Each coral can carry planarians, parasitic nudibranchs, Aiptasia. Each plant can carry snails, hydras, planarians.

The quarantine aquarium does not have to be large or beautiful. A 20-40 litres container with a tried-and-tested sponge filter, a heater and a dim light will suffice. No substrate, no decorations (so you can observe everything and clean easily).

For marine fish the standard quarantine lasts 30 days with observation and preventive treatments. The most popular protocol includes therapeutic copper (Cupramine) for 30 days to eliminate ich and velvet. Without quarantine with copper you are playing roulette.

For corals: bath in disinfectant solution (Coral Rx, Bayer) for 5-10 minutes, then observation in a separate aquarium for 1-2 weeks. Inspect with a nudibranch and planarian loupe.

For freshwater plants: soak in a highly diluted bleach and water solution (1:20) for 2 minutes or potassium permanganate. Eliminates slugs, hydra and parasites.

In ponds, quarantine is even more important because diseases spread rapidly in large volumes. New Koi should be kept separate for at least 4 weeks.

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