Adding more fish to quarantine tank

[Myka]

Originally Posted by AdamsB

3 inches or a little under. It was either let him die in the fish store or take him home to what I can provide. Here's a pic of day one and one week later. Huge improvement on the dorsal fin.

If the tang police want to buy me a bigger tank I'm all for that, otherwise I'm doing the best I can

I agree that adding fish to the quarantine will prolong it but after one week does it really matter? I wouldn't do it If the tang was a month in. I'm not sure if quarantine is a good word, I won't be dosing meds unless there's a problem. It's more a holding tank to make sure they're eating. But anyway, this is why I posted the question, because I don't know if its a good choice. I understand tangs need room which is why I went for 30 inches of swimming length and sold my original 30 gallon half moon which was almost 30 inches vertical. I don't have room right now for a larger quarantine. I haven't bought the chromis yet because I'm not in any rush, but like most people sooner would be nicer.

Your tang is still in pretty rough condition and thus, very susceptible to disease. The tang has pretty bad HLLE (head and lateral line erosion) and will require very good care on your part to give him the best chance. If you introduced other fish to the tank at this time not only would that risk introducing disease to your already weakened tang, but it would also make water quality a bigger challenge for you. Water quality is one of the biggest factors in improving HLLE for your tang.

Your 20-gallon quarantine is "over full" already, you admit you're "doing the best you can", so continue doing the best you can by not introducing more fish to the already overloaded quarantine tank. At least your quarantine in a 20-gallon long tank, so that helps the tang have a bit more swimming room. "Quarantine" does not refer to dosing medications, it is simply "segregation and observation" with medications dosed as needed.

I would suggest you keep water quality very high for the tang, don't use carbon (it has been linked to HLLE), use garlic drops on the food, and feed a high quality, varied diet including pellets and frozen food. Hopefully you can get the tang in better condition soon. Kudos on you for trying to save the fish, but he definitely is not out of the woods yet.