Before our fish reach the showroom floor, nearly all of them go through our quarantine room first. This page walks you through exactly what happens back there, why we never set a release date, and what it all means when you are the one taking a fish home.

We keep this page up to date as our process changes, and it changes often, because every batch of fish teaches us something. If you want the story of how our quarantine room first opened to the public, start here.

Why Quarantine Matters

By the time a fish reaches any store, it has been caught or raised, bagged, shipped, sorted and shipped again. That trip is hard on a fish, and stress is exactly when hidden problems show up. A fish can look perfect on arrival and still be carrying parasites or an infection that does not show for days, or even weeks.

A sales tank is where those problems spread, and the next stop after that is your tank. Quarantine is where we catch them first.

• Fewer surprises at home. Problems show up in our tanks, not yours.
• Stronger fish. A fish that has rested, eaten and recovered from shipping settles into a new home faster.
• Honest answers. We track each fish from the day it arrives, so we can tell you what it has been through.

Why Most Stores Skip It

Quarantine is not standard in our industry, and the reason is simple: it is expensive. It takes a whole room of tanks that are there to get fish healthy, not to fill the sales floor. It takes good food, medication, testing and hours of hands-on work every day, tank by tank. And it takes patience, because a fish in quarantine is a fish that is not on the sales floor yet.

Then there are the losses, and we will be open about them. Some fish arrive weaker than they look, and not every one makes it through quarantine. When we lose a fish back there, that loss is ours. A tank in lockdown can mean weeks of care for fish we cannot sell yet. Honestly, it stings, and some months it stings a lot. But every one of those losses is a problem that never made it to your tank, and that is exactly the point.

We take pride in the health and quality of our fish over cost and sales. That choice shows up in a few places:

• Our prices sometimes reflect it. Some fish may cost a little more here. That covers the medication, the time and the care it takes to make sure the fish you take home is the healthy fish you paid for.
• Some fish take longer to reach the floor. We will not rush one out to make a sale.
• Some fish do not make it to the floor at all. If a fish is not right, we would rather not sell it than sell you a problem.

What Happens When a Fish Arrives

Every delivery is a little different, so these steps get adjusted for each group of fish. Here is what an arrival usually looks like:

1. Checked at the door. We count the fish and check every bag as the delivery comes in.
2. A tank ready and waiting. Each group goes into its own single tank, prepped ahead of time and matched to the right temperature, with hiding spots or catappa leaves for the fish that need them.
3. An acclimation matched to the fish. We float the bags and acclimate slowly. From there it depends on the fish and how it traveled. Some get a methylene blue bath, some get Fritz Guard for a protective slime coat and electrolytes to ease the stress of the trip, and some simply need time and darkness.
4. Lights down, on purpose. New arrivals settle in under dim light or none at all, so if you peek into our quarantine room and the lights are off, that is why.
5. Time to settle, then its own plan. Arrival day is about rest. If a fish's plan calls for any treatment, we usually start it after the fish has had time to settle. More on those plans below.
6. Daily checks, plus a full inspection before the showroom. Every day we check appetite, breathing, behavior, skin, eyes and fins, feed a varied, high-quality diet and log what we see. Before a tank moves to the showroom, it gets a full inspection, including a close look under the microscope.

None of this is set in stone. Every step bends to fit the fish in front of us.

Standalone Tanks, Cared for by Hand

Every tank in our quarantine room is a single tank of 10 gallons or more that stands on its own, not connected to any other tank in any way. Our showroom fish tanks are kept separate from each other too, with no shared water and no shared filtration, with a few exceptions. Our bettas, for example, live in individual cubes that share water, because we want them in clean, fresh water instead of sitting in stinky little cups. A lot of stores plumb rows of tanks together so they all share the same water, because it is faster and cheaper to look after. The catch is that whatever shows up in one tank can travel to every tank connected to it. With standalone tanks, a problem in one tank stays in that tank.

It also means a lot more work, and it is manual work. In quarantine, each tank gets its own care, one tank at a time:

• Water changes, done tank by tank.
• Treatments, measured and dosed for that one tank, when it needs them.
• Scrubbing and decontaminating, so nothing carries over from one group of fish to the next.

Depending on what a tank needs, that happens every day or before new fish move in. It is slow, hands-on work, and it is one of the biggest reasons quarantine costs what it does. It is also why a lockdown in one tank does not turn into a problem across the whole store.

Every Fish Gets Its Own Plan

There is no one-size-fits-all quarantine here. A hardy tetra and a delicate dwarf angel have very different needs, and so do two shipments of the same fish from different places. So every arrival gets its own protocol, its own timeline and its own health checks.

• Some fish are only watched. Hardy, healthy arrivals get close observation and no medicine at all.
• Some get a targeted treatment. When a species or a shipment is known for a specific problem, we treat for that problem, not for everything.
• Sensitive fish get a gentler path. Dwarf angels, cleaner wrasses and scaleless fish skip treatments they do not tolerate well.
• Everything else is decided by what we find. If something shows up, it goes under the microscope and gets the treatment that matches.

So what do you treat your fish with?

We get asked this a lot, and the honest answer is: it depends. There is no single medication every fish goes through and no fixed schedule. Every treatment is chosen and adjusted as needed, based on the species, the tank and what we actually find. Medicine is stress too, and dosing every fish with harsh medications "just in case" can wear down a healthy fish and still miss the real problem. We would rather treat the right thing in the right tank than treat everything everywhere.

Here are some of the medications we reach for most often. This is not the full list, and every one is chosen for the tank in front of us:

Most of these are on our shelves. If your own fish needs something, ask us what we would use and why.

And we keep learning. Every batch gets notes on what worked and what did not, and those notes shape the plan for the next group that comes through.

Good Food Comes First

If we had to pick one thing that matters most on this whole page, it would be food. We are firm believers that good food is the most important thing for a healthy fish, and for a sick one. And it is not just a belief. We have seen it work.

Our fish get a wide variety of high-quality foods, and the menu changes every day. Their food is often boosted with Vitachem or another vitamin supplement. A fish that is eating well and getting real nutrition has a far better shot at fighting off whatever it brought in with it.

We have watched fish recover from ich without heavy medication, through good food, regular water changes and a gentle, invert-safe treatment. Results like that are why we keep testing, exploring and finding better ways to treat fish than heavy treatments that are hard on them.

There is a common way of thinking in this hobby: if a fish is too weak to survive a harsh treatment, it was going to die anyway. We do not buy it. We want to try to save every fish we can, not just the ones that are already stable.

A Closer Look Under the Microscope

Some of the most common fish problems are too small to see. Gill flukes are the classic example. They hide right where you cannot look, and a fish can carry them while it eats, swims and acts completely normal. By the time a fish shows signs, the whole tank may have them.

That is why we use a microscope. A tiny sample from a fish's skin or gills shows us what is really there, not just what we hope is there.

• Before the showroom. Before a tank moves to the showroom, we take a closer look. If it is clean, the fish are on their way. If it is not, they stay, and now we know exactly what we are dealing with.
• During the stay. Scratching, fast breathing and clamped fins can mean half a dozen different things. Seeing the actual cause means we treat the right problem instead of guessing.

No Set Timeline

We never set a release date. There is no standard number of days in our quarantine room, no minimum to hit and no maximum to rush toward. A calendar cannot tell you a fish is healthy. Only the fish can.

Every fish stays as long as it needs. A group that arrives strong, eats right away and stays healthy might be ready in as little as 5 days. Another group might need weeks, or even months. What decides it is each tank's health track record: how the fish are eating and acting, what we find under the microscope, whether anything needed treatment, and whether we have lost any fish.

Any single "no" keeps the whole tank in quarantine. Here is what every tank has to pass before it moves to the showroom.

Can I Take a Fish Out of Quarantine Early?

Sometimes. If you spot a fish you love in quarantine, ask us about it. There are two ways it can happen.

When its tank has already passed

The same checks that keep a fish in quarantine are what let it out early. When its tank has already passed every check, we can often move it out ahead of our estimate, and it goes home like any other fish that has cleared quarantine.

Straight out of quarantine, on request

Sometimes a customer wants a fish before its stay is finished, and in some cases we will sell it directly out of quarantine. If you ask, here is how it works:

• We always tell you where it stands. Before you take it home, we will walk you through the fish's current status: how long it has been with us, how it is eating, any treatment it has had and anything we have noticed.
• It is at your own risk. A fish that has not finished quarantine is not covered by our 72-hour guarantee.
• Sometimes the answer is a hard no. If a fish simply is not ready to leave quarantine, we will not sell it, and we will tell you exactly what we are waiting on.

Speed is the goal. Health is the gate.

Inspections Don't Stop at the Showroom

Passing quarantine is not the end of the watching. Our showroom tanks get a health check every day too, and every so often you may spot a tank with a sign like this:

That sign means something was off during our daily check. It could be a fish that skipped a meal, a loss in the tank, or anything else that did not look right to us.

When that happens, the whole tank locks down, the same way it would in quarantine. Because most of our showroom fish tanks do not share water, that lockdown usually stays in that one tank. We will not sell anything out of that tank until we can confirm the fish in it are healthy. We know it is frustrating when the fish you came for is sitting behind that sign. But it is the same promise as everything else on this page: if we are not sure a fish is healthy, it does not go home with you.

Curious what we are watching for? Just ask. We are always happy to tell you.

How to Tell What Is in Quarantine

• On our website. Fish still in quarantine wear an In Quarantine badge and cannot be bought yet. When they clear, they get a Quarantine Cleared badge and show up in the Just Out of Quarantine row on our New Arrivals page. Browse all of our fish to see what is on the way.
• At our customer kiosk. The New Arrivals screen in the shop shows fish in quarantine with an estimated ready date.
• In the room itself. Our quarantine room is open to customers. Ask to walk back, look at the tanks and read the logs.

Get Notified, Not Reserved

We do not reserve fish while they are in quarantine. A fish in quarantine is not ready yet, and promising it away before it clears is not fair to the fish, to you, or to the next person who has been watching it just as closely. Instead, you can get notified the moment it is ready.

1. Find the fish. Any fish on our website that is in quarantine or sold out has a notify box right on its page. Tap Join the waiting list.
2. Leave your email. Want any size or color form of that species? Tick the box and you will hear about whichever one is ready first.
3. Get notified. When the fish clears quarantine and is ready to buy, we email everyone who signed up at the same time.
4. Claim it. First come, first served. Order online for in-store pickup and it is yours. We hold off on bagging until you arrive, so it stays comfortable in its display tank.

We only use your email for that alert, unless you also tick the newsletter box. Live fish, inverts, corals and plants are in-store pickup only. Looking for a fish we do not carry at all? That is a special order, and we are happy to help. Just ask.

Plan Ahead with a Wishlist

Stocking a tank is a plan, not a single trip. Tap the heart on any product to save it to your wishlist.

• A list for every tank. Up to 12 named lists, like "Reef build" or "Nano tank."
• Hearts and notes. Rate each item from 1 to 5 hearts and add a note, like "only if the tang is still small."
• Easy to share. Every list gets its own link and a note for gift-givers. Sign in to share.
• Connected to notifications. If something on your list is sold out or still in quarantine, your list points you straight to where you can sign up to be notified.

Our 72-Hour Guarantee

Quarantine is the reason we can stand behind our fish. If a fish dies within 72 hours of leaving our store, contact us right away. Bring it back along with a water sample from the tank it was in, and we will test the water and work with you from there. Any replacement or store credit is up to our staff.

The guarantee covers a loss, not a change of mind, and it assumes proper acclimation and a cycled, stable tank. It does not cover fish taken directly out of quarantine on request, since those go home before their stay is finished. If you are not sure a fish suits your setup, ask us before you buy. We would much rather help you pick the right fish than lose one. Full details are in our refund policy.

Quarantine at Home, Too

Here is the honest part. No store can promise a fish is disease-free, and that includes us. Quarantine stacks the odds heavily in your favor, but a simple quarantine tank at home is still the best protection for the fish already in your display. It does not need to be fancy:

• A small, separate tank. A 10 or 20 gallon tank covers most small and medium fish.
• A heater and a simple filter. A sponge filter is easy, gentle and inexpensive.
• A head start on the filter. Keep a spare sponge running in your main tank so it is ready the day you need it.
• A hiding spot. A piece of pipe or a plant gives a new fish somewhere to feel safe.
• Its own net and bucket. Never share equipment between your quarantine tank and your display.

Watch new fish for at least two weeks before they join your display, and longer if anything looks off. Not sure where to start? Ask us and we will help you put a quarantine setup together.

Common Questions

Why can't I buy a fish I can see in quarantine?

Because it is not ready yet, so fish in quarantine cannot be bought online. Sign up on its page to be notified, and you will hear the moment it clears. If you really want it now, ask us in the shop. Sometimes we can sell it straight from quarantine at your own risk, without our guarantee, and sometimes the answer is no.

How long will the fish I want be in quarantine?

As long as it needs. Our kiosk shows an estimate, but fish move to the showroom when they pass every check, not when the calendar says so. Signing up to be notified is the surest way to know the moment one is ready.

What medications do you use?

There is no one answer. Every treatment is chosen and adjusted for the species, the tank and what we find. Some we reach for often are our trusted Rally Pro and Medic combination, Ich-X, PraziPro, KanaPlex and Maracyn, and we do not use copper unless it is absolutely necessary. See Every Fish Gets Its Own Plan above.

Why do some of your fish cost more than at other stores?

Because of everything on this page. Our prices cover the quarantine stay, the medication, the time and the losses along the way, so the fish you take home is the healthy fish you paid for.

Do all animals go through quarantine?

Almost all of our fish do. Bettas live in their own individual cubes and our inverts have their own tanks, so they skip the medicated stay. Corals are rested and dipped before they reach our frag racks.

What does "Did not pass daily inspection" mean on a showroom tank?

Something in that tank did not look right during our daily check, like a fish not eating or a loss. The whole tank is on lockdown, and nothing sells from it until we can confirm the fish are healthy.

What do you feed your fish?

A wide variety of high-quality foods, with a different menu every day, often boosted with a vitamin supplement like Vitachem. See Good Food Comes First above.

Can I see the quarantine room?

Yes. Ask anyone on our team when you visit, and ask as many questions as you like.

Does quarantine mean my fish is guaranteed to be disease-free?

No store can promise that. Quarantine stacks the odds heavily in your favor, our 72-hour guarantee backs you up, and a quarantine tank at home covers the rest.