Quarantine help

[TommyDelaney]

I am picking up a porc puffer from lfs tonight and am wanting to qt it. I have never qt before and am worried I will mess it up. I have a 20 gallon tank with hob power filter and ammonia badge. I was going to use water from my display tank with some prime. Would this work to keep ammonia down. Do I need to do water changes weekly on it. What do I treat with and for how long. I’ve heard porc puffers aren’t very tolerant of copper so maybe tank transfer method but can I set a qt tank up today for a fish tonight or is the time not enough to cycle? Thanks in advance.

 

[Big G]

I am picking up a porc puffer from lfs tonight and am wanting to qt it. I have never qt before and am worried I will mess it up. I have a 20 gallon tank with hob power filter and ammonia badge. I was going to use water from my display tank with some prime. Would this work to keep ammonia down. Do I need to do water changes weekly on it. What do I treat with and for how long. I’ve heard porc puffers aren’t very tolerant of copper so maybe tank transfer method but can I set a qt tank up today for a fish tonight or is the time not enough to cycle? Thanks in advance.

Using water from your DT is great as long as you have confidence that it doesn't have parasites or disease. It's Ok to use Prime with a chelated copper like Copper Power or Coppersafe. It's not safe with ionic coppers like Cupramine or Brightwells.

Consider adding a mesh bag of ceramic media like Seachem Matrix or Fluval Biomax to your HOB. Soak both the foam filter and the mesh bag with something like BioSpira, Seachem Stability, etc. for a few hours. Can pour the leftover liquid into the QT.

Adding a foam bubble filter where you soak the foam pad the same as above will help a lot to cut down on water changes.

I leave a set of all of the above soaking in my DT sump all the time. Builds a great colony of bacteria on the media.

A small powerhead aimed up at the surface so it's actively rippling the water's surface is a good insurance of healthy levels of O2 in the water column.

I've treated puffers with copper. Copper Power to be specific. There was no sign of parasites so I slowly, slowly, slowly raised the copper levels over 5-6 days, always watching for bad reaction to the copper like suddenly stopping eating, lethargy, etc. Small doses spread out throughout the day. Really small doses.
Make no mistake, puffers have a history of not doing well with copper. It's much safer to use CP.

 

[TommyDelaney]

Using water from your DT is great as long as you have confidence that it doesn't have parasites or disease. It's Ok to use Prime with a chelated copper like Copper Power or Coppersafe. It's not safe with ionic coppers like Cupramine or Brightwells.

Consider adding a mesh bag of ceramic media like Seachem Matrix or Fluval Biomax to your HOB. Soak both the foam filter and the mesh bag with something like BioSpira, Seachem Stability, etc. for a few hours. Can pour the leftover liquid into the QT.

Adding a foam bubble filter where you soak the foam pad the same as above will help a lot to cut down on water changes.

I leave a set of all of the above soaking in my DT sump all the time. Builds a great colony of bacteria on the media.

I've treated puffers with copper. Copper Power to be specific. There was no sign of parasites so I slowly, slowly, slowly raised the copper levels over 5-6 days, always watching for bad reaction to the copper like suddenly stopping eating, lethargy, etc. Small doses spread out throughout the day. Really small doses.
Make no mistake, puffers have a history of not doing well with copper. It's much safer to use CP.

Thanks for the great info. My display is empty so far so I’m pretty confident its parasite free, but for water changes should I do it weekly or daily or do I only have to when ammonia appears?

 

[TommyDelaney]

Would it be ok to add live rock to the tank to help with bacteria colonization. I understand they could never go back into the display. Just wondering if it could be one piece just for qt.

 

[Big G]

Thanks for the great info. My display is empty so far so I’m pretty confident its parasite free, but for water changes should I do it weekly or daily or do I only have to when ammonia appears?

That is a great question.

For ammonia issues, trust the Seachem Ammonia Badge. You get the best color view by shining a small flashlight on the badge from behind the badge. Testing with a reliable test kit is good too. But most test kits are "hobby grade" and will sometimes show very low levels of ammonia when in fact there isn't any. Red Sea and Salifert are my go to test kits.

Siphoning debris off the bottom each day of two will help keep big water changes to a minimum.

Stress is always a problem. Leave the tank lights off for a few days. Use ambient room lighting only. Add a few plastic aquarium plants. Consider wrapping the back and ends of the tank with paper (I paint my QTs with blue or black) to block out and create a kinda cave like environment. Helps the fish relax.

 

[Big G]

Would it be ok to add live rock to the tank to help with bacteria colonization. I understand they could never go back into the display. Just wondering if it could be one piece just for qt.

If it's rock from your parasite free DT, two big thumbs up. If it's coming from an outside source, hitchhikers are/could be a problem. Despite what someone or some LFS says, the only QT of fish, rock, etc. you can trust is your own.

 

[TommyDelaney]

If it's rock from your parasite free DT, two big thumbs up. If it's coming from an outside source, hitchhikers are/could be a problem. Despite what someone or some LFS says, the only QT of fish, rock, etc. you can trust is your own.

Thanks so much for the help. I will keep posted as I get started on the tank.

 

[Big G]

Thanks so much for the help. I will keep posted as I get started on the tank.

FWIW my puffer loved clams on the half shell. It would see me bring clams to the tank and would get so excited, just like a dog. LOL ;Happy

 

[TommyDelaney]

FWIW my puffer loved clams on the half shell. It would see me bring clams to the tank and would get so excited, just like a dog. LOL ;Happy

Do they eat every day or only a few times a week. I know I will need shell food for their teeth but how often?

 

[Big G]

Do they eat every day or only a few times a week. I know I will need shell food for their teeth but how often?

Ha! If the puffer had its way it would have eaten them all day long. I feed the chopped clams everyday in a mix of 7-8 different frozen food cubes made into a fish "smoothie". And then the half shell clams every other day or so.

 

[TommyDelaney]

Ha! If the puffer had its way it would have eaten them all day long. I feed the chopped clams everyday in a mix of 7-8 different frozen food cubes made into a fish "smoothie". And then the half shell clams every other day or so.

Thank you so much for the responses. I have been researching a lot about this and want to get it all right. The porcupine puffer is my favorite fish in the hobby and I finally have a big enough tank to get one. I’ve heard things about having to transfer them from tank to tank in a bucket so they don’t inflate with air. Is this a myth or truth, and if it’s truth then how can I do that without getting store water into my tank?

 

[Han]

Personally I would not use copper on the puffer, I have and they usually don’t last more than a few months in my experience. If you do opt to use it keep a close eye on the levels.

 

[Big G]

Thank you so much for the responses. I have been researching a lot about this and want to get it all right. The porcupine puffer is my favorite fish in the hobby and I finally have a big enough tank to get one. I’ve heard things about having to transfer them from tank to tank in a bucket so they don’t inflate with air. Is this a myth or truth, and if it’s truth then how can I do that without getting store water into my tank?

Do you have a Hanna HL Copper Checker? Big stress reliever on both you and the fish by knowing exactly the level of copper without guess on one of those color matching test kits. Zero chance of overdosing. Which is what I think has happened in the past and may have contributed to some fish being called "copper sensitive."

Yes, they do puff up and will get caught in a soft net. I use one of these:

 

[hans4811]

Good info Big g...thx...getting ready to do same as OP and this helped. when you say to siphon debris off bottom...how exactly are you doing this ?

Also, im getting a Seachem Tidal 55 HOB which has that Matrix and filter included. so are you suggesting to also get a sponge filter with an air pump on top of the HOB ?....or just another sponge and let it free float in tank ?

 

[Big G]

Here's a pic of the siphon tool I created. Works great for cleaning and water changes in a 10-20 gallon QT.

Inside my Aquaclear HOB,it comes with a foam filter pad. But there is room to add on top of the foam, a mesh bag of ceramic material (either Fluval BioMax or Seachem Matrix). I soak both in my DT sump 24/7, so they are ready if needed quickly.

The other filter I use is a foam bubble filter that's hooked up to an air pump. Also soak the foam for it in the DT sump.

In a pinch you can soak all of the foam pads and ceramic material in something like BioSpira. Recommend soak for 24 hours if possible. When done with the soak, just pour the liquid into your QT.

 

[hans4811]

Okay, gotcha on the siphon. I use something similar on my DT, this...
. https://assets.petco.com/petco/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,t_ProductDetail-large/78123-center-1

...but trying to use that to siphon out detritus, it moves water pretty quickly, so I can never really clean my sump well. May try a smaller one like you got...love the jerryrig !

 

[hans4811]

I follow ya on the soaking of the filters and such in the DT for a spell, but I'm trying to stay clear of that, as I just had a Brook breakout in my main tank, so I don't want to risk bringing that into my QT. Wiped out all of my fish save about 5...had about 15...ugh !

So I'll just do as you say and soak those in a bottle of bacteria I got still.

Thanks again Gary,
Ken