Home > How to Quarantine

How to Quarantine

1. Set up a quarantine tank (Q-tank): you can use any tank or plastic container that can hold about 100-150 gallon of water or more depending on how many koi you have or how big the koi is. Make sure it’s not too overcrowded. You can also use the q-tank as treatment tank for sick fish when you need it.

2. You will need a good dependable air pump and a fine porous air stone. Koi need oxygen to survive and stay healthy just like us human. So, plenty oxygenation is extremely important for your koi health and to prevent disease. Very important!!!

3. Set up your filtration system early. You need your biofilter to be ready and active to convert the ammonia, produced by the koi, to nitrite then to nitrate, which is not toxic to the fish at low level. Some hobbyists use fully cycled media such as sponge or mat from their main pond filter for bio-filtration which is fine, but be careful to make sure that it does not have any parasites or pathogenic bacteria. If you don’t have an established filtration system, you need to monitor your water quality more closely and do frequent water change to keep ph, ammonia and nitrite level down. Ideal ph level is 7.2 to 7.8 and for the ammonia and nitrite it should be zero.

4. Ideal water temperature for quarantine is 70-75°F. Some experienced hobbyists raise their water temperature to 86°F which can kill ich and KHV but it can also accelerate overgrowth of aeromonas. Therefore, you need to be very careful. A heater can be very helpful to control accurate water temperature but it is not necessary. If you don’t have one, keep your quarantine tank inside your home to keep the water warmer, especially during winter or in cold region.

5. Add non-iodized salt to your tank to make it 0.3% concentration (Use 3 lbs. of salt for every 100 gallons of water to make your water 0.3% of salt). Divide the salt into three equal parts and add each part into the water every 12 hours. The salt help the koi release stress, breathe better, and kill or suppress parasites growth.

6. Monitor all water quality parameters daily and more frequent if needed when you have many fish. Check for ammonia level, nitrite level, ph level, and salt concentration. Do microscopic exam routinely to check for parasites. having a microscope is highly recommended for every hobbyists. Microscope can help you diagnose more accurately and therefore treat koi disease more effectively.

7. Treatment for koi during quarantine depend on what parasites are found or specific problems encounter. Avoid general shotgun approach by treating the koi with every possible medications available. This can potentially cause more harm to the fish than necessary.

8. Feeding should began on 3rd day, not earlier. Don’t overfeed your koi as it can deteriorate your water quality rapidly and cause more problems with ph crash and ammonia spiking.

9. Cover your Q-tank with net to prevent your koi from jumping out. You can also use styrofoam float in your tank, which also work really well for this purpose. This is one of the common cause of death for koi, not to mention koi are quite expensive.

10. Quarantine process should be done for at least 3 to 6 weeks or whatever amount of time you are comfortable with. And don’t forget to add dechlorinator to the water before adding koi.

11. Add a few koi from your main pond to Q-tank on the 2nd or 3rd week and leave them in there for 1 week to see if any problems arise, hopefully not. Finally, you can release your new healthy koi to the main pond and enjoy them at last. Good Luck.