Quarantine Tank Salinity and Treatments

[Chris918]

Hey guys,

In regards to the salinity in a quarantine tank is it most appropriate to keep the salinity the same as the display, to keep the salinity the same as the place you buy your fish from, or is it best to keep salinity low to help eliminate possible ich parasites and then gradually increase it to the display's salinity?

Also is it best to treat fish assuming they have a disease? If so would Copper be the medication of choice? Prazi? Do you treat no matter what or do you observe and treat accordingly?

Thanks!

[Mark Bianco]

Most reputable places will have their water at 10.25 to 10.26 and thats where you should keep your Qtank when introducing a new fish. If you see or suspect a parasite issue like ick and you want to try low salinity as a cure then slowly lower the salinity by a small amount each day. Salinity difference will stress out the fish and can kill a fish.

Before too many people chime in I am aware of fresh water dipping of fish. However I consider that an extreme measure.

There is no sense of putting anything in the water including the chemicals you listed above unless necessary. It just put the fish under more stress IMHO

Mark

[JustinM]

I sterilize my tanks after each batch of fish. A lot of places like live aquaria keep their salinity at 1.019 and divers den keeps it at 1.025. My qt usually runs at 1.019.

As for meds, it depends on what kind of fish you’re going to keep. Wrasses, anthias, and blue hippo tangs can’t be treated with CP so copper is better here. Then you have choices with copper as well, chelated and ionic. Chelated is usually easier on fish than ionic. Examples are coppersafe(chelated) and cupramine(ionic)

I prophylactically treat all my fish for flukes and ich/velvet, brook, uronema. I like to get them eating first, then I run two rounds of prazipro. After prazi is done I run copper for 30 days and observe for bacterial infections. If no bacterial infections arise, then they get an acriflavine bath prior to going to the DT which treats brook and uronema.

Everyone does their QT different but I have lost too many fish to just observe and treat if necessary. A lot of LFS’s run low levels of copper which mask symptoms of diseases and parasites, which will come out around 4-6 weeks.

[Chris918]

Thank you for your input Mark. Solid advise imo. I hope to hear more people chime in and offer additional view points.

[JustinM]

A neat trick for checking salinity if shipped fish is to use a pin needle to puncture the shipping bag and check with your refractometer and cover the hole with scotch tape. Any adjustments can be made then.

[Chris918]

I sterilize my tanks after each batch of fish. A lot of places like live aquaria keep their salinity at 1.019 and divers den keeps it at 1.025. My qt usually runs at 1.019.

As for meds, it depends on what kind of fish you’re going to keep. Wrasses, anthias, and blue hippo tangs can’t be treated with CP so copper is better here. Then you have choices with copper as well, chelated and ionic. Chelated is usually easier on fish than ionic. Examples are coppersafe(chelated) and cupramine(ionic)

I prophylactically treat all my fish for flukes and ich/velvet, brook, uronema. I like to get them eating first, then I run two rounds of prazipro. After prazi is done I run copper for 30 days and observe for bacterial infections. If no bacterial infections arise, then they get an acriflavine bath prior to going to the DT which treats brook and uronema.



Everyone does their QT different but I have lost too many fish to just observe and treat if necessary. A lot of LFS’s run low levels of copper which mask symptoms of diseases and parasites, which will come out around 4-6 weeks.

Thanks for another take on this. The two perspectives I've seen are salinity at 1.019 with medications just in case. The other side is more observation with the end goal salinity of 1.025. Of course some people do parts of both.

[Chris918]

Justin how do you sterilize your tank after a batch of fish? Is chelated copper just as effective as ionic despite it being easier on the fish? Do both have a good track record or is one more effective?

[JustinM]

They are both equally effective as long as kept at therapeutic levels. Wrasses are very sensitive to copper so a lot of people recommend chelated vs ionic. I personally have only ever had one wrasse react poorly to ionic copper. I treat with cupramine. The risks of not treating fish far outweigh the risks of what some people call “poisoning” fish.

As for sterilizing the qt tanks, I run a bleach water ratio of one tsp of bleach to one gallon of water and let all equipment soak in the tank for 24 hours. Then I drain it all and let it sit till it’s 100% dry. This has worked very well for me.

[allendehl]

TTM is easy, effective and as fish friendly as it gets to prevent Ich. I am new to the hobby but I have established my protocol to reduce the risk of getting a massive headache if I happen to bring a fish with it.
TTM for 12 days, QA (at normal salinity(1.025-1.026) since ich should not be a concern now) and DT at the same salinity.
No need for copper treatment since I've learned it is super stressful for fish and some plainly do not tolerate it. Also, hypo-salinity is very tricky to deal with since fish may not take a huge swing very well.
With TTM being so easy and proven, I don't see the need to get into more complex/risky methods.

[hotdogmj71]

A neat trick for checking salinity if shipped fish is to use a pin needle to puncture the shipping bag and check with your refractometer and cover the hole with scotch tape. Any adjustments can be made then.

I do this also. I start with 1.024 & adjust if needed. I've only ever had 1 fish that came in at 1.026 and 1 at 1.019. Most have been 1.025 or 1.024

[thegrun]

I also match the salinity of the saltwater the fish is shipped in and then top off with saltwater until my salinity rises to 1.026. I use the TTM on all new fish, with a PraziPro treatment in the 2nd and 4th tank transfers. I find this this methodology to be the least stressful to new fish.

[SAT]

Assuming we are just talking about fish, a useful fact is internal fluids are hyposaline. It costs the fish energy to pump out excess sodium and chloride. As long as you keep the saline levels above ~1.009, most saltwater fish can live pretty much indefinitely at that level. There is some reason to believe that salinity levels below normal seawater can help mitigate the stress levels associated with handling.

Fish can tolerate rapid drops in saline quite easily as long as other factors (temperature, pH) are constant. Increases, on the other hand, are somewhat stressful and should be done slowly, preferably not more than .002 per day.

I suggest you set the QT salinity level to be less than or equal to the water in the bag. Test the water in the bag. If it's less than the QT, dilute the QT with freshwater to match. If it's higher than the QT, leave the QT alone. If the QT is now lower than your display tank, increase the QT salinity level slowly to match over a period of days.

One warning: don't use copper in a tank with very low salinity levels. Copper is more toxic in freshwater than seawater.

[Uncle99]

I have had great success using cupramine at half the recommended dose in water that is 1.009. Ich gone in 4 days....it actually took longer to bring him back up to 1.025 at 2 ppt per day.