When is safe to move my fish out of quarntine?

Question

I have my healthy fish in quarntine because I had more sick. I lost 4 out 9. Today was the last for treatment (body fungus) I also had one fish die today. The last sick fish has no more red lines in his tail, but still has white stuff on his face and fins and still slugish although better than a few days ago, he also ate a little. the healthy fish were also being treated just in case. how and when should I move the healthy fish back? The quarntine tank is too small for them so I guess I'm kind of in a hurry the fish are comet goldfish about an inch or two big in a ten gallon. Even though I have a filter in there for a 40 gal I still think it's mean to leave them in there much longer. I was treating with maracyn.

Answer 1

Image this. You just bought a brand new fish. It looks ok and it acts normal. So you decide to give it the textbook quarantine—a separate tank for about 40 days. When all looks normal, it gets added in with the rest of your stock. A short time later, you notice a problem in your tanks. The fish look sick and many are dying. What happened?

Answer 2

Do not break the quarantine until ALL the fish are cured.  Removing a healthy looking fish can move the pathogen into the new tank-- even healthy looking fish are usually carriers.  Finish the treatment, wait another week in the quarantine to make sure there isn't a re-infection, and then move them back into the main tank.  Also, I would suggest you treat with Maracyn 2 as well-- "body fungus" (columnaris) is a gram negative infection, and Maracyn 2 is far more effective against such infections.