Hypnosalinity treatment?!?

Has anyone ever done this? i have not but am reading up on it. I cant see how it would be ok for a fish to go from a salinity of 1.024 to 1.010!! My friends blue tang has an outbreak of ich and without a hospital tank her only option would be a freshwater dip. The Ich doesn't look very bad at all in my opinion just because it's maybe 3 or 4 specs of white spread over the whole body. it's not scratching or breathing heavy, and it still eats like a pig. any suggestions

 

FW dips are used more when introducing a fish into a tank not as a treatment. You can not fully get rid of ich by only dipping a fish. The ich is living in the substrate, rock and other fish in the tank. The only true way to get rid of it is to QT all fish with copper treatment for at least 6 weeks and let the DT remain fishless during that time.

 

With a tang, I personally would never do a freshwater dip and I wouldnt use a QT either just because of all the added stress for a tang. I have soaked food in garlic before and that has worked for me. Sometimes you just got let these things run its course especially if its not really affecting the fish.

 

i see you got a SWC add...i get my fish from SWC here in wininpeg...lol

 

I thought ich only lived for a few days without a host?

 

I'm doing Hypo on two QT tanks now for new fish for my DT. I'm running around 1.009-1.010. Drop salinity over a 36-48hr period. Becomes more critical when bringing salinty up, do over 6-8 day period or longer. Gotta watch temp & ph carefully and adjust as req'd througout process. I've never had a problem with Hypo and have never gotten an outbreak of ich in my DT since I started quarntine w/Hypo. I wouldn't do copper treatment, I've tried and fish seem more stressed under those conditions. And I agree, fresh water dips don't do anything for ich. If it's on the fish, it's encased in a shell which protects it from Hypo and copper treatments. That's why Hypo and copper are only effective in their free swimming stages and the reason you need to keep doing treatment even after you don't see the white dots on the fish.

Ich can live in a tank w/o a host 30+ days going from it's Mature-Tomont-Theront stages. That's why after you see the last white spot on your fish, you should leave in quarantine for about a month more. Typically, my fish are in quarantine for 6-8wks. Check out this pic of the ich cycle:

http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/C_irritansLifeCycle.gif

 

so if the fish seems fine and not affected by ich, even though it has it i should do nothing but wait and see??

 

If you just got a fish, I would just leave it in QT w/o any Hypo or other treatment and observe for rubbing or other stuff that may indicate some type of disease. I usually leave a fish in quarantine even though I'm not treating for any disease for about 30 days as a precaution. It also allows me to target feed the fish and make sure it's eating. I know other people just put it in their DT, but I had a really bad outbreak of ich over a year ago which took out my livestock, so I'm really cautious of what I put in the DT and always use a QT now.

 

There is a great article by Steven Pro you should check out:

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

 

that was great thanks for the article.