From the early response that I have received from the hobbyist who are welcoming our new baby ranchus in SG, I figure that I should at least write something about quarantine, in order to help out any newbies out there.
First of all it is very important for you to separate your fish for as long as possible. I do not combined old fish and new fish, until at least 3 - 4 weeks, or until I am sure that they are really well. If you have enough room, do not put new fish, and old fish together, ever. Fish, just like people, have all the bad germs in them already, it's when they get weakened then these germs will start to be troublesome.
Put .3% - .5% of salt in the water that you have prepared earlier, make sure that before you release the fish from the plastic bag into the waiting pond, you should float the bag for at least 15 - 20 minutes to slowly adjust the temperature of the water. To go from warmer to cooler, fish will react fine. But if the fish is going from cooler water to warmer water, the fish will automatically get sick. If the temperature change is really drastic, the fish will go into shock and die right then.
You, then, open the bag, by using your hand, check and see if the water and the bag have similar temperature. Put an air dispenser right in the bag, slowly pour a little bit of the water in the pond into the bag. Watch for the reaction of the fish to see if they are ok. Slowly increasing the amount of pond water in the bag. When you have added enough water slowly, and your fish is doing quite well, then you can release the fish right into the pond. Make sure that you take your time in doing this. A little patience goes a long way, here.
After you have successfully release your fish, please kindly do not feed your BBRs right away. You will have to fast the fish for at least 1-2 days after you have received them. For bigger fish the process will be fasting for 7 days. This is so that you will be able to evaluate the condition of your ranchu. If the fish is perfectlly healthy, you can easily notice. They will swim very vigorously, and do no sit still. They will continue to look for food. The fish should not develop any sort of sores or spots on the fish at all. If this is the case, please continue the fast and increase the salt content to .5% and keep it there for at least 1 week. You cannot feed them during this treatment.
For this group of BBRs which have successful arrived SG last night, the BBRs are in perfect health. I have already started to feed them a little bit prior to departure. This is so that all the new owners will not have to worry about the short quarantine which they
have to do before starting to feed the fish regularly. The extra fasting days will absolutely have no effect of the growth of the fish.
It is important that you feed the BBRs live feed such as dapphnia. The first 3 months of its life is most crucial that you feed live feed, this will ensure the proper growth rate in your fish. Do not start to feed thefish with any baby size pellet food until at least the fish change their colour first.
I hope that this will help you in your quarantine steps a bit. If any of you have any questions about any of these steps, please do not hesitate to contact us here or at
AbsoluteRanchu@yahoo.com. Enjoy your fish and good luck with your beautiful fish.
