Moving Fish from QT to DT

tdowning · May 8, 2018

Hey all,

So in a couple of weeks I'll be moving my (surviving) fish back from a QT to a DT and wanted to know if there was any steps I should take. The QT was being treated w/ Cupramine while the DT runs fallow for 76 days. I treated with Cupramine for 30 days at Therapeutic levels and when I started I had 11 great fish...I'm down to 6 now and want to make sure when I transition them back to the DT that it doesn't stress them out too much and I'm right back to square one with and Ich outbreak.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

DeniseAndy · May 8, 2018

Make sure the qt water matches the dt water in ph, temp, salinity and you should be good to acclimate and get them into dt. I am not 100% as I have never used copper to treat fish. Maybe someone will tag in...
@Humblefish

Humblefish · May 8, 2018

^^ Agree; you can move a fish directly from QT (with meds) to a DT so long as pH, temp & SG all match.

An extra step I take is filling a bucket with DT water, and immersing a fish in that before it enters one of my retail tanks. Just to make sure no QT water, pathogens get transferred over. I use a strainer (below) to submerge the fish, and then lift it out of the bucket and into the retail system. So far, so good with this approach.

cracker · May 8, 2018

I have used a short length of pvc pipe & pitcher. Mine is too big I think. I take everything out but the tube. I then ease the pitcher into the tank & lead the fish into the tube. It will hopefully swim in the tube to hide . one end of the tube is against the glass . fish hides in the tube pitcher slides over the tube then up righted ,tube removed. fish in pitcher. I pour out as much water as possible & add the the dt.
I "think" this is as little stress as possible. You are adding a little Q/t water to display but if all is good then there shouldn't be any entry of disease/parasite ? the fish doesn't touch a net.
How does this sound Humble Fish ?

Humblefish · May 8, 2018

cracker said:
I have used a short length of pvc pipe & pitcher. Mine is too big I think. I take everything out but the tube. I then ease the pitcher into the tank & lead the fish into the tube. It will hopefully swim in the tube to hide . one end of the tube is against the glass . fish hides in the tube pitcher slides over the tube then up righted ,tube removed. fish in pitcher. I pour out as much water as possible & add the the dt.
I "think" this is as little stress as possible. You are adding a little Q/t water to display but if all is good then there shouldn't be any entry of disease/parasite ? the fish doesn't touch a net.
How does this sound Humble Fish ?

I personally feel using this to transfer the fish would be a less stressful option: