How to Quarantine

I am sure everyone has their own method to quarantining their fish for those that do it, but this is how I do it. Here is another website which has some good tips and advice on it as well. Since most of my fish aren't too costly in price and a lot of fish stores have a short return policy I'll generally quarantine my fish within a week's time (7 days).

Step 1: Have your new fish tank setup at least 24hrs before purchasing your new fish. This means your water is new and unused (no other fish in the tank), the decor has been cleaned and the filtration system, and you have put in the proper chemicals to treat the water for your new fish.

Step 2: Once bringing your new fish home place it into a plastic bag (if not already in one) and place it into your water-filled tank. This will let the temperature in the bag adjust to your aquariums temperature (important if you use an aquarium heater). I don't like to leave my fish in the bag for 24hrs since they're already a bit stressed, so I'll wait several hours before placing any new fish into the aquarium.

Step 3: Remove the bag from the aquarium and place it into an appropriate sized bowl. Cut the bag open and carefully pour the water and fish into the bowl. Next use a fish-net and scoop the fish out of its old pet-store water it came in. Slowly place the fish into your aquarium water and release the fish into the tank.

Step 4: Inspect your fish making sure it is swimming normally and seems in decent health, you may want to watch it on and off for several hours before proceeding to the next step.

Step 5: I then use chemicals and such to treat common fish diseases such as ich, slime coat, fungus, etc. Now is probably a good time to give your fish a little bit of food as some fish when under stress won't take to food right away and it will just become waste (Guppies, however are typically eager to take to food rapidly as they always beg for food even when they aren't exactly hungry at all). Be sure not to overfeed your fish or use too much of any chemical treatments.

Step 6: After watching the fish for a week, if all seems well with them I will do an entire tank cleaning of my current fish tank and place all of my fish in the tank together. Be sure to return any fish that do not look healthy (or dies) back to the store, if this is the case you may want to continue another week of tank quarantine on the fish you keep and repeat this process over. Once all your fish look healthy then proceed to place all your fish in a clean tank to live together.

Tip: When looking your fish over to insure its overall health look at its coloration, scales, gills, swimming pattern, fins, eyes, diet, behavior, etc. Remember that not all fish get along well with other fish and could possibly eat, kill or nip at other fish, be sure do research prior to purchasing new fish or keep them in a separate tank, use a divider or an in-tank box/net if necessary. This is also my method if I find any of my current fish seem ill as well.