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Quarantine is isolation to observe fish for disease before exposure to other fish populations, or to treat individual fish for disease or parasites. Quarantine is the best method to reduce disease introductions. The following is a quarantine facility and protocol you can use to protect your investment.
First, a large facility is required, 100-150 gallons is good. Round tanks are better than marrow tanks or tubs.
It should have a fully cycled filter sponge or other type of effective nitrification system, fully operational.
A quarantine with bad water is infinitely worse than no quarantine at all.
Temperature should be 72 to 78 degrees F. in quarantine. People heat their fish to 86 degrees to kill Ich and it ends up accelerating bacterial overgrowth and decreasing oxygen capacity of the system. PH should be supported with a neutral buffer dosed according to label instructions.
You should dose the quarantine with 0.3% salt (non-iodized salt at 3 teaspoons per gallon). The quarantine should be completely covered or you can float some Styrofoam on the surface. Koi like to jump out and that can be costly. The importance of cover is often under-estimated. If fish have cover, like a floating Styrofoam panel, you'll find that jumping is almost eliminated.
You should check ammonia and pH in quarantine each day. Ammonia should be ZERO, pH will normally crash in quarantine unless buffered. You could feed an antibiotic food during the time in quarantine. The facility can be safely treated with Dimlin while in quarantine, even with the salt, etc. This will stop the introduction of Lerneiid and Branchiurian parasites.
Once your new (or returning) fish are in the quarantine, if it's possible, the first thing to be done is to find someone with a microscope (see note below) to help you determine if there are parasites living on the surface of the fish. Even if you don't recognize what the "bugs" are, it helps to know from the onset that there is something eating at the fish. You can describe what you saw to someone later. Notice things like: How fast the "bug" moved, how big it seemed to be, how it moved, whether it had a nucleus or two in it, what shape the nucleus was, and whether it was armed with hooks, flagella, or what. What is the general shape of the thing? All this helps.
Finally, the quarantine should be of a 14-21 day duration, so long as water quality can be supported with changes, etc., as needed. This time period is the MINIMUM, some advocate longer periods (up to 6 months to one year).
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