How to Quarantine Fish (A Microbiology Professor's Perspective) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00hello everyone this is Jason from Prime
2. 0:01Time Aquatics today I wanted to talk a
3. 0:03little bit about how we quarantine fish
4. 0:07and how we bring new fish into the fish
5. 0:09room so stay tuned all right so I guess
6. 0:11thing number one is why quarantine fish
7. 0:14we have a lot of fish tanks in our fish
8. 0:16room and if we introduce disease into
9. 0:18one of those tanks it could very rapidly
10. 0:20spread to other tanks so we want to
11. 0:22reduce that risk as much as possible but
12. 0:24even if you have just one tank and
13. 0:27you've got fish you care about in that
14. 0:28tank maybe they were expens expensive
15. 0:30maybe they weren't expensive but you
16. 0:32really like them the last thing you want
17. 0:34to do is go out and buy new fish bring
18. 0:35them into your tank and have them spread
19. 0:37disease and wind up killing the new fish
20. 0:39you just bought plus the fish you
21. 0:41already
22. 0:42have now first thing meds cost money all
23. 0:47right so besides introducing disease
24. 0:49into the tank if you have to treat that
25. 0:51disease it's going to cost you money to
26. 0:53do that the bigger the tank the more
27. 0:55money it's going to cost and so pretty
28. 0:57soon you might have gotten a great deal
29. 0:58and like oh wow I found Neons for 50
30. 1:01cents a piece and I bought a dozen of
31. 1:03them put them in your tank next thing
32. 1:05you know you're buying a 20 or $30
33. 1:06bottle of medicine and if that doesn't
34. 1:08work you try something different then
35. 1:10you lose half the Neons and some of the
36. 1:12original fish and pretty soon those 12
37. 1:15Neons that cost you $6 now it winds up
38. 1:18costing you $60 or $70 and you've got a
39. 1:20problem on your hand so it's just not
40. 1:22worth it to introduce new fish into an
41. 1:25existing fish tank unless you know
42. 1:27exactly where those fish are coming from
43. 1:29and and you know that the tanks where
44. 1:32those fish are coming from were disease
45. 1:33free for a long period of time the other
46. 1:37thing you have to keep in mind is if
47. 1:38you're buying fish from a pet store
48. 1:41often those fish are stressed many times
49. 1:44they're coming from a wholesaler and a
50. 1:45different part of the country they have
51. 1:47to be shipped it might take a day or two
52. 1:49to get to the fish the the pet store
53. 1:52they may sit in that new environment
54. 1:54with other fish for a couple of days and
55. 1:56there are people walking by and there's
56. 1:58noise and there's lights and all of
57. 1:59those things introduce stress and now
58. 2:02their immune system starts to go down
59. 2:04all right they become immuno compromised
60. 2:06and now you buy them you put them in a
61. 2:08plastic bag you take them home they've
62. 2:10got a new fish tank they've got a new
63. 2:12environment they might have different
64. 2:13water parameters from the time that they
65. 2:15were at the wholesal to the time they
66. 2:16were at the pet store and now they're in
67. 2:17your tank different inhabitants and that
68. 2:20all causes stress so how do we do it for
69. 2:24our fish room we generally set aside
70. 2:26anywhere from a 10 to 20 gallon tank the
71. 2:29size of the T tank is going to depend on
72. 2:30the fish that you keep if you're only
73. 2:32keeping small non-aggressive community
74. 2:34fish then a 10 gon may be more than
75. 2:36enough for what you need but if you know
76. 2:38you're going to be keeping larger
77. 2:39cichlids and some of those cichlids
78. 2:41you're going to buy as somewhat full
79. 2:44grown adults or maybe larger juveniles a
80. 2:4610 gallon may not be enough you may have
81. 2:48to step up to a 20 gallon or maybe even
82. 2:50like one of these 40 gallon breeders
83. 2:51behind me so tank size is going to
84. 2:53depend on the fish that you generally
85. 2:55keep now for us the vast majority of the
86. 2:58fish that we buy are very small
87. 3:00juveniles we like to see them grow up we
88. 3:03like to watch them color up over time if
89. 3:05they're cichlids so for us a 10 gallon
90. 3:07tank is going to be more than sufficient
91. 3:09to do what we need it to do the other
92. 3:12thing you have to consider is where are
93. 3:13you going to put this quarantine tank
94. 3:16let me tell you a really bad idea take
95. 3:18that quarantine tank and stick it right
96. 3:20next to the tank that you already have
97. 3:22established as we know when we're doing
98. 3:24water changes or we're fishing you know
99. 3:27we're taking fish out we're netting fish
100. 3:29stuff splashes all right water gets on
101. 3:32the floor water may get on the side of a
102. 3:35fish tank water may go into another fish
103. 3:36tank so
104. 3:38ideally you would want to take that
105. 3:40quarantine tank and space give it enough
106. 3:42space so it's not right up next to the
107. 3:44tank that you currently
108. 3:47have other things you're going to want
109. 3:50to have a tank that has a heater if
110. 3:52you've got tropical fish and the room is
111. 3:54not you know 75 to 80° you're going to
112. 3:57need a cycled filter and this is
113. 3:59important there's no point in putting
114. 4:01fish in a quarantine tank if you're not
115. 4:03going to have a cycle filter in there
116. 4:04because all that's going to happen is
117. 4:05you're going to have an ammonia Spike
118. 4:06and you're going to wind up killing
119. 4:07those fish so whether it's a Sponge
120. 4:09Filter a small hang on the back filter
121. 4:11where you can just take the filter media
122. 4:13out of your existing tank and put it in
123. 4:15that new filter you need to have a
124. 4:16cycled
125. 4:17filter if you're going to have lights on
126. 4:19that tank and most people do I would
127. 4:22recommend getting a light that's maybe a
128. 4:23little bit dimmer right a lot of light's
129. 4:26going to stress fish especially when you
130. 4:28put them in a brand new environment and
131. 4:29and so maybe have a light that's not
132. 4:31going to be quite as bright as one
133. 4:32that's on your display tank you're
134. 4:35probably going to want to have something
135. 4:36in that's going to provide the fish some
136. 4:38cover and some security so whether
137. 4:40that's a cheap PVC or some type of a
138. 4:43decoration that's definitely going to be
139. 4:44helpful so we've got the heater we've
140. 4:47got the filter we've got some type of
141. 4:49cover what I think a lot of people
142. 4:50forget is you're probably going to want
143. 4:52to cover that tank again to avoid
144. 4:54splashing to avoid getting water that
145. 4:56could be potentially contaminated into
146. 4:58other fish tanks if they're going to be
147. 5:00anywhere in the same vicinity and new
148. 5:02fish if they're stressed out they may
149. 5:04jump so definitely have a cover on that
150. 5:07tank substrate is completely up to you
151. 5:10uh some people like to put a substrate
152. 5:11in their quarantine tank I tend to do it
153. 5:13just cuz I like the way it looks uh
154. 5:15other people don't so that is really up
155. 5:17to you now all right so the next
156. 5:19question is should you medicate your
157. 5:21quarantine tank I've heard people say
158. 5:23yet you should definitely ADD meds I've
159. 5:25heard other people say no where I tend
160. 5:28to lie on that
161. 5:30topic is this after having taught
162. 5:32microbiology for 10 years and
163. 5:34understanding the importance of
164. 5:36antimicrobial resistance I would not ADD
165. 5:39meds to the tank unless I had wild
166. 5:42caught fish that are prone to carrying
167. 5:45various infectious agents or I was
168. 5:47buying fish from a large pet store that
169. 5:50may introduce disease into your
170. 5:52quarantine tank at a higher risk level
171. 5:55if they are fish where they're coming
172. 5:56from a relatively trusted Source or a
173. 5:58local fish store you generally don't
174. 6:00have problems absolutely still
175. 6:02quarantine them but I would not add any
176. 6:04meds to that tank for a number of
177. 6:05reasons reason number one meds always
178. 6:08stress fish it doesn't matter what the
179. 6:10med is they will always stress fish
180. 6:12these fish may already be immunal
181. 6:14compromised they're already getting used
182. 6:15to a new environment so I would never
183. 6:17ADD meds unless I needed to or unless
184. 6:19they were wild caught two one of the
185. 6:22major concerns in microbiology is
186. 6:24antibiotic resistance every time you use
187. 6:27a drug there may be microbes or
188. 6:31infectious agents that are able to
189. 6:33resist those
190. 6:35medications over time it will make those
191. 6:38medications less useful but here's the
192. 6:40crazy thing some of the microbes may not
193. 6:43cause disease in fish they may not cause
194. 6:46disease in humans but they may have the
195. 6:48ability to resist the antibiotics you
196. 6:50put in that aquarium they may also have
197. 6:53the ability to transfer that resistance
198. 6:55to microbes who do cause disease in fish
199. 6:58and who do cause disease in humans so
200. 7:01unless there is evidence of a bacterial
201. 7:03infection I would never ever add
202. 7:05antibiotics to a fish tank unless I
203. 7:08needed
204. 7:09to now next thing how long should you
205. 7:12quarantine your
206. 7:14fish a lot of people say oh 7 days if
207. 7:16they look good throw them in your tank
208. 7:18or maybe a week and a half you should be
209. 7:21good usually if there's going to be
210. 7:24problems those problems are going to
211. 7:25arise over the course of 1 to 3 weeks
212. 7:28and often within the first first few
213. 7:29days you may not see any problems at all
214. 7:32and so some of these diseases that if
215. 7:34it's if it's due to the stress that
216. 7:38those fish experiened during
217. 7:40transportation and the immune response
218. 7:42that they had the the decreased immune
219. 7:44response it may take a week to 3 weeks
220. 7:46before those issues show up so if you
221. 7:49only wait a week and you take those fish
222. 7:51which probably look okay and throw them
223. 7:52in your tank and then a week after that
224. 7:55there's disease everywhere that's a big
225. 7:57problem so if you're going to quarantine
226. 7:59I know it's tough you've got these fish
227. 8:01you just you want to see them in their
228. 8:02new environment you want to see them
229. 8:04interacting with other fish in that
230. 8:06Community wait 30 days if you really
231. 8:09want to do it right wait 30 days make
232. 8:12sure there is no visible disease they're
233. 8:14acting right they're eating they're
234. 8:16swimming properly there's no bumps no
235. 8:19spots uh the fecal matter looks the way
236. 8:21it's supposed to look and then add those
237. 8:24fish if at any point in those 30 days
238. 8:27they develop some type of Paras
239. 8:29infection whether it's ick or a
240. 8:30bacterial infection you have to restart
241. 8:33the time you treat the tank you
242. 8:35eliminate the disease and that 30 days
243. 8:37starts from the time you eliminated that
244. 8:39disease so if you're going to quarantine
245. 8:42wait the 30 days do it right otherwise
246. 8:45you still run the risk of introducing
247. 8:47disease into your
248. 8:49tank next thing isolate that tank and I
249. 8:52don't just mean from other tanks I mean
250. 8:54anything you put into that quarantine
251. 8:57tank make sure that equipment is not
252. 9:00being used in other tanks in your fish
253. 9:01room I have been guilty of this uh
254. 9:04earlier in my fish keeping career the
255. 9:06pump that we us to get water out of the
256. 9:09we used to use a bucket and a sump that
257. 9:11pump I knew better I put it in our 150
258. 9:15galon and then I transferred it to
259. 9:17another tank that had recently gotten
260. 9:18some fish and sure enough I wound up
261. 9:21with three or four tanks that all had
262. 9:23ick and the reason for that those I
263. 9:25parasites wound up in the pump I put the
264. 9:27pump from one tank to another and it
265. 9:30spread all over the place not fun
266. 9:32because those tanks were larger volumes
267. 9:33it was a 150 it was a 75 and it was a 55
268. 9:36gallon tank that cost a lot of money to
269. 9:39fix and we wound up losing a few fish in
270. 9:41the process so please if you're going to
271. 9:43quarantine your fish the Nets that you
272. 9:45use the siphons that you use for water
273. 9:48changes anything that's going into that
274. 9:51tank use that equipment only for your
275. 9:54quarantine tank if you have to use those
276. 9:57pumps for other tanks one
277. 10:00wait don't do it on the same day let
278. 10:03those things dry out two make sure
279. 10:06you're using some type of a disinfectant
280. 10:09whether that's a dilute bleach solution
281. 10:10now on Nets that could be tough because
282. 10:12over time your nets will disintegrate if
283. 10:14you use bleach but use a disinfectant
284. 10:16that's appropriate for fish and make
285. 10:18sure there's no disinfectant left on
286. 10:19that equipment before you put it in
287. 10:21another tank but one of the most
288. 10:22important things you can do is let that
289. 10:24stuff dry over the course of a couple
290. 10:27days before you use it in another tank
291. 10:28and still do the the
292. 10:30disinfection last thing uh you're going
293. 10:32to want to watch those fish daily in
294. 10:34that tank make sure they're eating now
295. 10:36one of the things that a lot of people
296. 10:38experience is new fish don't always want
297. 10:40to eat right away sometimes within the
298. 10:42first day or so depends on the fish I've
299. 10:45had fish you bring them home and you
300. 10:47feed the fish and they're eating within
301. 10:50a half hour I've had fish where it takes
302. 10:52a day or two or three where they're
303. 10:54stressed and they want nothing to do
304. 10:55with food okay so that's how we
305. 10:58quarantine uh again we try to be very
306. 11:01careful that we're not spreading disease
307. 11:02to other tanks with as many tanks as we
308. 11:04have if we had an outbreak of ick or
309. 11:06some bacterial infection or some other
310. 11:08type of protool infection it would be a
311. 11:11major problem and if you've got live
312. 11:12plants or invertebrates in some of your
313. 11:14tanks and all the sudden now you've got
314. 11:16an ick outbreak it's not impossible to
315. 11:18treat it just it's more difficult so
316. 11:21hopefully you found this interesting it
317. 11:22gives you something to think about I
318. 11:24realize everybody's kind of got their
319. 11:25own way of doing quarantine This Is How
320. 11:27We Do quarantine with a relatively large
321. 11:30fish room and we want to make sure that
322. 11:32we don't introduce disease all over the
323. 11:34place uh look forward to future videos
324. 11:37we will talk more about the meds that we
325. 11:39use when things do arise which is very
326. 11:41rare simply because the vast majority of
327. 11:44fish that we get come from other
328. 11:47hobbyists through our clubs and so when
329. 11:48you raise fish in a tank and they're not
330. 11:50really exposed to other fish in
331. 11:52different environments and then they're
332. 11:53just immediately brought to someone else
333. 11:55in the club very low risk of getting
334. 11:57some type of of outbreak of infection so
335. 12:01again if you like the video subscribe
336. 12:02and we'll see you in the next one