I have experienced my first great epidemic. I moved all my fish over to the new cycled 100l tank and they are doing great. Unfortunately I then had the bright idea to go buy some new additions and for lack of harlequins at the LFS, bought five beautiful male guppies as well as three peppered cories to make a nice school for the existing three bronze cories and tankmates. In retrospect I should have thought twice and will never reason like a kid in a candy store again when buying fish. I quarentined the eight new additions in my old 30l and soon realised one guppy is ill. By the next morning his tail fin had been rotted away nearly completely (overnight) and I immediately started treatment with Baktopur and Mycopur as advised by the fishpert at OP. Unfortunately he passed away mere hours later. Today (2 days in) another one died from what looks like swim bladder disease (my vet concurs). For what it's worth I am taking a letter from my vet (the one I work and live at, not the OP specialist) to the LFS tomorrow confirming that he has examined the fish and that they have sold me infected livestock. I don't want a refund or anything, but I would like an apology and for them to refrain selling stock from or putting stock into their infected tanks until the water is safe again. That brings me to my actual question: if any of the fish make it (or even if they don't) how do I go about using the tank again for other fish without risking their lives in my own home?
Hi Ansu. If I am not mistaken, once you move the fish from the Hospital tank to the Community tank, you just need to leave the Hospital tank fishless for a number of days to get it "clean". Bacteria, parasites etc need a host and with no fish present they will die off. The number of days I would think varies as these things have varying life cycles, and also possible eggs will have to also hatch and die off. Maybe someone will correct me or give more info. Regards, Marco
Thanks for your reply Marco! It has been very informative and has calmed my panic stricken nerves... Does anyone have indications of the time it takes to rid hospital tanks of the more common virus and bacteria?
If you empty the tank and let it dry - it will be "decontaminated". These are all water borne pathogens - and therefore can't survive without H2O. I have never heard of any of the parasites going into a dormant stage when dried out - so I'm pretty sure you're safe parasite-wise too.
Remember also about the net you used to handle the fish, if you used a net. You can put this out in the sun for a while. Or if you want to make extra sure put it in a strong salt solution for a couple of minutes, then rinse it very well with fresh water and put it in the sun.
