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Saltwater Quarantine Tank
More commonly known as a “hospital tank” but generally its purpose is the same to protect and cure marine fish from diseases.
The quarantine tank is a life saver and is recommended for beginners and veterans alike, if used properly can be successful in avoiding spread of disease that are often introduced when adding a newly purchased marine fish. Most fish die within two weeks of purchase and this can be caused by marine fish stress or poor water quality. Therefore its recommended to observe your new marine fish in your quarantine tank for at least seven days before releaing into your main tank.
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Setting up your quarantine tank is much easier than setting up aquarium, the process is quick and easy and fairly inexpensive, genraly a 10 gallon tank will do the job. Basic equipment required is a tank, filtration system, aquarium lighting and aquarium heater.
A quarantine tank should be set up a few days in advance and to speed up the process use as much water as can be spared from your main tank to get the aquarium biological filter going as fast as possible. Also use gravel from the main tank, place it in a nylon bag and place in the hospital tank. Do not open the nylon bag and place the gravel on the floor of the hospital tank as its a temporary set up, adding the gravel inthe nylon bag will help to start the biologcal filtration.
You may wish to permanently run a quarantine tank as long as the fish that go from the store into the tank do not develop or show any symptoms of disease. Simply change some water at regular intervals and it should always be ready to use.
If, however a fish becomes ill, and/or you treat a sick fish in the tank, then you must empty and clean the tank thoroughly before using it again.
This is a real good way to protect your current fish from the potential dangers of new fish introduction.
Preventing Fish Stress
Anything outside the required or behavioral needs of your fish will cause stress to your marine fish, stress to your fish will generally affect the fish health, reduce the life span and increase the chances of your fish having diseases.
Fish have a slime coat which is their primary defence system towards infections and stress is the main cause of the deteriorating of the slime coat. Fish can adapt to slightly different conditions in ther environment and understanding the factors that contribute to stress will reduce the risk.
By maintaining a balanced environment which include such things as our aquarium water parameter as this will elimate stress.
So what are the causes of stress for Fish?
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Aquarium Mates:
The key word here is compatibility, so the last thing you want is aggressive fish chasing around the timid fish, smaller fish with no hiding places will feel stressed when theres large fish around
Some fish require a shoal to feel safe where others might be happy on ther own, so know your fish and you can be ableto provide a better enviornment for them.
Most new budding hobbyists will go out and buy as many fish as they can squeeze in and at times will over popular their saltwater aquarium, the approx rule of thumb is 1inch of fish per 2 gallons of water but remember our fish will grow too. Again take note of individual fishes requirements before buying marine fish to avoid any over crowding.
Fluctuations of temperature should be moderate and controlled at all times. The optimum temperature for fish will vary from fish to fish, but too cold or to warm will cause stress to the fish. Keep in mind that a tank in direct sunlight will heat up during the day. The water temperature may also rise during the light-on period. This can be more of a concern with smaller tanks rather than the larger ones.
Aquarium Water changes can cause stress so its important that you have the same temperature of the water, and dont disturb the fish to much too, therefore its always better to change less water more frequently.
Water Parameters:
Poor water quality or toxic posioning is the most significant cause for stress. Most fish can survive sub-optimal conditions if not too far out of their range. But sudden changes within the water chemistry will cause severe stress. Adjustments in aquarium pH, salinity, or water hardness should be made gradually. Ammonia and nitrite are extremely stressful and can be detrimental if high levels persist.
Nitrate, not as dangerous as ammonia/nitrite contributes to stress at all levels.
Other Factors:
Stress is also induced by insufficient oxygen levels (fish gasping for air), old fish food, and an unbalanced diet.
Fish are not good travelers and can cause a lot of stress so good care must be taken during acclimation process.
Symptoms of Stress:
- fish hides
- fish does not eat or eats less than usual
- fish hovers at the surface or motionless at the ground
- wounds do not healing
- fish gets sick
A lot of contributing factors have to be considered but elimainating as many as possible will raise the resistance of your fish.
Keeping Your Aquarium Fish Healthy
Having healthy fish starts with buying healthy fish from your Local fish shop (LFS), so selection of the correct LFS is important, look at the size of livestock as well as the quality of the staff.
Look at the saltwater aquarium tanks themselves look for signs of well maintained, avoid tanks that are cloudy, have decyaing plants,dirty tanks or signs of ill fish or worst dead fish in them, all these are signs of poorly cared fish and maybe it worht going to the next LFS.
If you have a newly set up aquariumand the intial stocking of fish is very improtant and basic rules and guidelines should be followed regarding whta is suitable, if you have an doubt please discuss with your LFS.
Now you have brought your healthy fish from the LFS the rest is upto you, generally marine fish should be placed directly into a saltwater quarantine tank, this is practiced so any fish that arrive with any diseases will not give it to all your other maine animals in your saltwater aquarium.
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The next step to ensure healthy marine fish is good aquarium maintenance and care should be used to ensure your aquarium is maintained at the optium level for your fish.
While feeding your fish look out for signs and make sure all your fish are eating, swimming and generally look in good health. Check the marine fish for color, eyes,skin and fins as well there breathing much as you would when you are buying marine fish. Spotting something now could mean you have increased the chances of living due to early treatment.
If you do note any odd behaviour of anything, preform a water test to check the aquarium water quality as this can account for many diseases starting. Many odd behaviour can be fixed by imply just adjusting the aquarium water parameters.
Keeping fish healthy can be minimized by avoiding stress where posible, fish stress factors include tank mates, aquarium size, aquarium temperature and water parameters.
The fishes slime coat protects the fish from disease and will protect from bacteria and fungi, once the fish become stressed this coating is reduced and the fish are vunerable to disease.
The slim coat has three functons:
- Protective coat towards diseases
- Buffer in internal-external gas exchange (osmoregulation)
- Helps reduce a loss of energy while swimming.
Therefore to maintain any heathly fish in your saltwater aquarium the rules are simple, maintain good water quality and a stress free environment.
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