Quarantine tanks

Just curious how many here have quarantine tanks set up for new arrivals? Do you just keep an empty tank cycled and running all the time, in case a fish starts looking poorly or you want to get more? How long do you keep new fish in quarantine for? Do you keep anything in it at all when it is empty of fish (snails, shrimp?). Or are you the type to just throw new fish into your already inhabited tank and hope for the best?

I get around the problem with having several tanks - I never buy a fish for an existing community. I don't run a quarantine tank. What use is it to put a stressed fish in a stressful, bare, unplanted and hardly cycled tank?
Ditto for disease - removing the fish from its tank for treatment is stressful enough to give the disease the upper hand, in most cases. When I treat fish, I do it in their tanks.
If I add fish, I have to have removed fish. When their tank is free, I can get new fish.
Quarantine is a minor issue with good stock. If you get wild source fish or fish from a local breeder, they rarely carry disease. When you buy fish originating in the Singapore or Thai farms, look out. They can be great fish, but the possibility of them carrying illness increases exponentially. Never combine pet shop, farmed fish with wilds - it is death for the wilds.
If you have one tank, study images of the common diseases, and you will have to take the risk. You could wipe your tank out, or it could be fine. It's rarely in between unless it's simple stuff like Ich. Have the meds before you buy fish, and study your fish closely before you buy. If you have any question, don't buy. Trust your mistrust.
Visit the shop a couple of times before you buy - use their tank for quarantine. Never buy a farmed fish the first time you see it.


That's how I work it.

I don't have a quarantine tank per say, But I can create one in a hurry if need be. However my best option is to pick a tank with very few fish in it and start them out there. I keep similar fish so most tanks have pretty much the same residents.

I will never put a fish directly in the pond or one of my large systems, at least that has been my rule. The three koi I got a few weeks ago went into a tank that was connected to another one with established koi in it, I didn't have any choice on that one.

I do have a 10gal salt water tank in my office that has become a stepping stone for my display tank.

Steve

I run QT tanks. It all depends on what type of fish you have. I have all Discus and would NEVER add new arrivals to my old stock. I usually QT for 6 to 8 weeks. Most LFS have a central system if one tank has sickness,they all do.
Then again I never buy Discus from an LFS.

Normally I don't quarantine. This time however, when I brought fish in, 2 fish had died unexpectedly in the tank I took them from (my own tank in Mexico). So, I put them in separate tanks for several weeks before I put them in their final home, just to be sure...

Quarantine : My practice is only fish livestock bought from LFS are quarantined.

Normally I do not accept fish outside of reputable breeders or known source. Even when I buy (rarely) from LFS, I watch them for at least two weeks at the risk of not having stock after the watch period.

Plants : I do not quarantine plants though I probably should since I do buy them from LFS. However, it is the hitchhikers which I am more concerned with like flatworms, hydra and snails. Though plants are put in only specific aquariums, they are in fact isolated from the rest.

Fish from Breeders: curently the recent imports are all in a 5g that had been previously inhabited by Endler culls. They are fed BBS each day as well as high quality flakes, and freeze dried tubifex every other day. In the summer I used mosquito larvae.

Snails : no quarantine though I probably should as well. Not knowing snails well enough to understand snail to snail transmissible diseases, I am unaware of the dangers here. Snail borne vectors are rare so I am not concerned about snails transmitting diseases to fish.

Regarding 'quarantining' of plants I have 2 types of practices.

The most common one is that I put all plants in with my loaches for a week or so to get rid of the pest snails that come with them... Very effective!

Plants from an 'outside' source whether aquatic or not, I always dip in a bleach solution for half a minute to avoid introducing pathogens.

Can you bleach dip mosses?

Yes, I have done it. I use about 10 ml of bleach for 1 litre.

Edit: Make sure plants are in the solution for about 30 seconds - 1 minute, not more.