Posted by @Chris_Lewis · 1h ago
If you adopt one habit from this whole forum, make it this: quarantine every new fish before it touches your main tank. It is the difference between losing one new fish and losing your entire display.
Why. New fish routinely carry ich, velvet, internal parasites, or bacterial infections that a stressful store/shipping environment kept hidden. Add them straight to your display and you can wipe out a tank you spent years building.
A basic QT setup:
- A small, cycled tank (a sponge filter seeded from your main tank works great) with a heater and a hiding spot.
- Bare-bottom is fine and easy to keep clean.
- Keep it dim and low-stress.
The routine. Observe new arrivals for 2–4 weeks. Watch for spots, clamped fins, flashing/scratching, labored breathing, or off behavior. Treat only what you actually see. Feed well so they recover from shipping stress.
Bonus: QT doubles as a hospital tank when something goes wrong in the display, and as a safe spot to fatten thin new fish before they compete for food.
Symptoms and treatments live in the glossary; if you are unsure what you are seeing, post a photo and a clear description.
Your turn: do you quarantine? If you ever skipped it and paid for it, tell the story — those cautionary tales convince new keepers better than any lecture.