quarantine, tank size etc

[Krelean]

Not sure this is the ideal place to post this, but here goes.

I'm thinking of buying directly from Hans. I have a 60 gal and 4 discus reside in it with neons/cardinals. I'm considering buying 3-5 more discus. I read that quarantine tanks area necessity, but here are my questions.

How big does the tank need to be?

Does it need a filter or just an air stone?

Would it make much difference just putting them in my existing tank and doing a full treatment of medication instead of a quarantine?

If I do a quarantine tank, isn't post quarantine placing into my existing tank the same as if I were to have not done the quarantine process...they still may be sick from whatever is different in the main tank?

[TURQ64]

I'm a fan of at least three weeks QT'ing, so in my line of thinking, a filter, etc. is necessary to thrive in a qt tank..I would hope your main tank is healthy, but that's a separate issue..

[discuspaul]

Krelean
First off, with 4 fish now in your 60 gal., you may be pushing it to add 5 more to that tank, depending on their size. 3 more should be ok, but not 4 or 5 more if all the fish are say, over 4" - that'd be overcrowding somewhat.

For 3-5 fish of 4" or less, you can get by with a QT tank of approx. 20 gals. It's just temporary, so should be ok.

Your QT tank needs to be cycled, filtered, heated, and of approx. the same pH and temp as your main tank.\

Putting the new fish into your main tank right away & medicating all in that tank is not recommended. Shouldn't medicate if not necessary.

Once your new fish have been observed in QT for a few weeks and appear to be doing ok & settled down from their move stress, add 1 fish from your main tank to the QT and observe for a couple more weeks.
Should your single main tank fish have something it's immune to but the new fish are not, and a problem develops, then you will need to treat all your fish, including the existing ones in the main tank. That's why some hobbyists use a second QT tank, and just add one fish from the first QT tank, and one fish from the main tank & see what develops in that 3rd tank. If the problem mentioned above were to occur, you then just need to treat your main tank fish & the 2 in the second QT, not all of them.
Hope this helps.

[Krelean]

Thank you!

[mmorris]

You may find this useful: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?86009-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Getting-Started-with-Discus