Should I put gravel in a q-tank

fisherman · Post by **fisherman** » 13 Oct 2003, 08:22

I'm planning on ordering six adlofois in the near future and intend to quarantine them for four to six weeks before adding to my 80g community. I have a 5g q-tank and am running a sponge filter. The q-tank has been cycled for approximately three months. The tank has a "cave type" ornament and a plant in it but since the sponge filter provides no mechanical filtration, it has no gravel to make keeping it clean a little easier. My question is will this tank be suitable for the corys with no gravel in it for the period of the quarantine? I will be feeding them daily with algae wafers and/or shrimp pellets along with fresh veggies and maybe the occassional helping of frozen bloodworms. I do 50% water changes at least once a week, more often if dictated by water parameters.

TIA!!

Pectorale · Post by **Pectorale** » 13 Oct 2003, 09:07

I would not recommend it, if it's only for quarantine. Gravel can damage Cory barbs and is a substrate for bacteria. If you are going to use anything, use washed out riversand, it's very fine and has well rounded sand grains so the Corys will not harm themselves. It's cheap too.
You can also use sand used inr children's sandboxes for the same reason.Wash it first naturally.

fisherman · Post by **fisherman** » 13 Oct 2003, 17:50

Pectorale, thanks very much for you reply!! But...my question is will the corys be OK in the q-tank with no gravel for the period of the quarantine - 4 to 6 weeks?

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 13 Oct 2003, 18:04

For quarantine, I would recommend either a bare bottom tank, or a substrate that can be replaced often and discarded.

A few handfulls of sandbox type sand work well for this as it can be siphoned out and replaced at each water change.

Many parasites (gill flukes and Ick in particular) shed eggs or spend some part of their reproductive cycle on the substrate. Gill flukes shed eggs that settle to the bottom then hatch into a free swimming larvae that reinfects fish. ICK, drops off infected fish, encysts on the substrate, then through cellular division divides into thousands of free swimming tomites.
Either way, the more often you siphon/change out the substrate, the better off you fish will be in quarantine.

Sincerely,
Paul E. Turley

Post by **Coryman** » 13 Oct 2003, 19:42

Your C. adolfoi will be OK in a bare bottom tank, but they will not like it. As Paul says a fine layer of sand that can be siphoned out with each water daily change.

The diet you propose is not really suitable, forget the vegie stuff, Cory's may naturally graze amongst algae growths but they are searching out insect lavae and small crustrations, not actually feeding on algae. Bloodworm, tubifex, Daphnia, Cyclops are ideal live or frozen foods.

Ian

fisherman · Post by **fisherman** » 13 Oct 2003, 20:54

Thanks very much for you replies. I will secure some sand for the soon to be new arrivals. I don't even know what a cyclops is but I'll google it. I'm a little nervous about tubifex because of everything I've read on possible diseases. I always have frozen bloodworms and freeze dried daphnia - is freeze dried comparable to frozen foods?

Thanks again!