My Quarantine Disaster!

After the disaster with a white spot outbreak after adding some new fish I set up a quarantine tank for the new stock I'd bought.

2 weeks were up yesterday but I didn't have the time to move the new rummynose and cardinals into the main tank plus I wanted to do it after after I'd cleaned the main tank. However I'm so glad I didnt!

After main tank maintenance I went to the quarantine tank and couldn't believe my eyes!! Yesterday there were 12 healthy fish in there and this evening there were 11 and they were ALL covered i white spot  I'm absolutely gutted.

It was two weeks exactly yesterday, so in view of that I might leave it 3 weeks. What do you think Sue?

Both Sue and thanks  I think I'll leave them for another  4 weeks and do the same with any further new stock. There are bunches of plants in there so they do have places to hide. I know  quarantine is supposed to be relatively bare but I figured stress would impact fish health so added some from my propagation tank.

Sadly there's only 1 cardinal left this morning 

Sorry to hear that Fiona.

Very sorry to read of this too. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the last cardinal - let's hope that, like Anne's lone WCMM, he'll survive and be happy to join another shoal in the main tank in due course once he's definitely disease-free.

So sorry for your loss Fiona, I know how distressing it is watching them succumb one after the other.
Apart from the original disaster of my endlers I bought two more hasbrosus catfish to go with my lonely one. They were quarantined for two and half weeks with no sign of anything wrong.

I decided to put them in the main tank, I mean two and half weeks should have been fine eh? and they were for about a week, playing very happily with the lone catfish who thought it was Christmas to have friends again.

Sadly first one disappeared never to be seen and the other one died. I saw no sign of illness on either and the (again!) lone catfish was perfectly healthy.  No other fish were affected and I still have the original WCMM and Glowlight Danios that I started with, although my dear little catfish died just before Christmas, again no sign of anything being wrong.

It's all a bit of a minefield this fish Keeping lark.

I have decided, much as I am tempted, not to replace any fish that die. (Well - that's what I'm saying now of course !)

The shrimp are breeding apace. I had more new babies yesterday. Unfortunately they are very boring colours (or no colour at all) as I bought them cheaply before I went on to other more expensive and colourful ones. I have decided to leave well alone in that area too.  They seem to like where they are (the original idea was to practice with these and then put them in the main tank so I could specialise in the nano) and it seems a shame to disturb them. 
It's only me watching them and pretty or not they still fascinate me.

I wholeheartedly agree with the advice on increasing the numbers in any shoal.

All shoaling fish behave far more naturally and are more comfortable in greater numbers. In the wild,  Corys will live in shoals numbering hundreds or thousands of individual fish.

If only I had the space for a tank large enough for a couple of hundred Pygmy Cory's!