Quarantine Question

[discuskeeper99]

Hello all:

I am a new member here. I just found your site and it is nice to know there are other people out there that are as passionate about discus as me.

About me:

I reside in the Sacramento area and I have been raising discus for many years. I also have other tanks as well. Question for the group since I seem to be getting a lot of conflicting answers.

I have a 135 gallon bare bottom driftwood tank with 12 nearly fully grown discus and one pleco. I have raised them since they were little babies. I wanted to add a school of rummy nose tetras and a school of about 50 cardinals. I have these tetras in my 55 gallon tank as a quarantine measure because the last thing I want to do is introduce ich or some other disease to my discus tank.

My Question(s).

The tetras have been in my 55 for almost 10 days and are showing no sign of illness. I planned on keeping them in there for seven weeks. What do you guys think is the appropriate amount of time? Longer? Lesser? Should I treat the water with meds anyway? I keep the temp higher (above 83) in this tank to avoid illness as it is. Right now the tetra tank is at around 88 degrees and the discus tank is at 90. The heat does not seem to bother the tetras. Water parameters for both tanks are almost identical. My discus PH is about 6.8, the tetra tank is about the same.

Any advice would be great. The last thing I want to do is let a 2.00 fish hurt my 200.00 fish!.

[ZX10R]

I have 8 discus in QT now and this is what everyone told me.

1. No meds unless the fiss show signs of illness
2. 6 week QT
3. Keep the temp the same as the tank you intend to put them in
4. Add salt at a rate of 1 teaspoon/ per 10 gallons after every WC

I am new to discus so no expert here just what I was told and what I have been doing for 2 weeks now.

[joanr]

Most here keep our Discus at 30 deg C or 86 F, 90 seems a little high. The Cardinals and Rummys would not live long at those temps. I think you should gradually lower the temp in the Discus tank over the next two weeks and get both tanks at 86 degrees. 90 degrees for Discus is usually only when we are treating for Hex. PH is ok, as long as it's a steady 6.8, fluctuations are what stresses out the Discus. 6 weeks QT should be ok.

[Harriett]

I mostly agree with Joan's advise.
In my experience, cardinals will let you know pretty quick if they are ill--they are very sensitive. For that reason, I too would just sit on them in QT and monitor. I would not treat prophylactically. Watch behaviour, appetite, visible signs of illness. 6 weeks is a nice QT for cards. If something is going on, you most likely will see it by then.
I also think that you might want to get that temp lowered in the discus tank. I raise babies in 86/88 degrees and lower to 86 when they are 3". I lower to 84 at about 6 months, and by the time they are adults/subadults, they are in 82-83 degrees only. I keep them warmer in the beginning because it increases metabolism and they eat and grow better. I lower it because when they are larger, it is a waste of energy, the fish don't need it, other fish I might want to put in there [BN, cards, etc] can't long handle that temp, and because I am a planted tank fan--most plants cannot flourish in such warm temps. At 82, I have a lot of plant options.
When I lower temps, I do it at a degree every day or two, never had a problem.

Best regards,
Harriett