dipped tang but spots still remain, help!

[carrie]

My tank est. 1-1/2 yrs. Purchase powder blue tang 3 wks ago and put into main tank, when I brought him home, i did fresh water dip for 5 mins. two weeks later he has ich. I fresh water dipped him again for 10mins this time and the spots stil remain. I don't understand why. If it is ich, shouldn't the ich have fallen off since it's fresh water? Put him back into my main tank and now my flame angel also has ich. I've checked this site and looks like I should put both powder blue and flame angel in a hospital tank and do a hyposalinity on the hospital tank.
Q- why didn't the ich spots fall off my powder blue?
Q-for my hospital tank what do I need to set it up? I have penguin biowheel, air stones & heater. do I need anything else? Since it's a h-tank I know i'll have to check my ammonia every day and change the water if it's to high...and I will soak the food in garlic extract!
any help I'd really appreciate it!!! Thanks!

 

[carrie]

Thank you for your reply but to respond: who told me to FW my fish, all 3 of my local fish stores. I specifically called all of them up, asked for suggestions and that's what they all told me. It wasn't until I found this website that I even heard about hyposalinity...I thought If i called more that one fish store I might actually get a correct answer. Figures, it was the wrong answer answer. I'm very interested what will happen with the hyposalinity treatment.
thanks again for your support!

 

[bammbamm74]

YIKES!!!!!!!! I have the same problem. When I get home from work, the spots are almost gone. I woke up this morning and they are HUGE, BAD!!! <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" /> I can't afford a q/t right at the moment. What can I do? I another post, they said that garlic might not help. I can't copper treat because I have 2 anemones. HELP!!! can I just put him in a bag suspended in the tank and frequently put fresh water in there and copper treat him that way? <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />

 

[carrie]

In addition to me fresh water dipping my tang, I am also using a reef safe product(safe for annenomes and inverts) called "no ich" by Marineland. I called my fish store last night and said I still have ich on my tang and I've been using this "no ich" product for 4 days now. They said to keep using this product for the full dossage (14days in total). I have used this product previously and the ich did go away...
I have also heard of another product by Kent called "rxp" that is also reef safe, but i have not used this product so I really can't say either way if it's good or bad.
Good luck to you!

 

[beth]

Fish stores commonly dip incoming fish as a preventative measure. This is probably a good policy for a retail store that deals in mass retail of livestock Most fish going thru LFS probably do have ick and, via dips, they are temporarily able to eliminate the visible signs of ick [at least until they can sell the contaminated fish to customers]. Reputable LFS that care about customers as well as their live stock will also QT to their fish and likely treat them with formalin as a preventative measure for a period of time before the fish go onto the sales status.
The reason fish still have ick, or you see a reappearance of ick following a dip, is because the fish, as well as the tank that the fish are in, is contaminated with the parasite. It is necessary to treat all exposed fish, whether they show visible signs of ick or not. It is also necessary to treat the tank.
Hyposalinity and isolating the infected tank from fish is the best treatment mode. The fish are placed outside of the main tank into a hospital that is brought to hypo saline conditions. The fish remain in this environment for a min of 23 days after all signs of disease are gone. In the meantime, in the absence of fish in the main tank, ick will not survive, thus your main tank is decontaminated. If you have strictly a FO tank, hyposalinity can be performed in the main tank, thus treating tank and fish together.
As for the hospital tank that you want to setup, I think you are fine with what you have. Be sure to maintain excellent water quality, never letting the hospital tank go into a cycle. Additionally, in a hypo saline environment, you need to watch pH, as pH lowers as the salinity is dropped. Monitor all water parameters, including pH, daily.

 

[carrie]

Thank you to all who responded, I did a search on hyposalinity and that's the route I'm going to do with my tank when i get home. I'm still using the reef safe product in my main tank but after 4 days it biodegrades from my tank (that's what the bottle said) then i do a water change to pull any remaining traces of the product.
I've already set up my hospital tank(thanks to everyones advice). I checked my hydrometer and it only goes to 1.014 and per the BB it should be 1.009 so I have to find this refractrometer that goes to 1.009 otherwise I'll only be guessing on my salinity.
Since I have 2 emerald crabs, 2 blue crabs and 1 red crab I'll have to leave them in my main tank while treating the other fish in my hospital tank, right? Invertebrates don't get ich, do they? I know that invertebrates can't tolerate a salinity under 1.014 (from previous readings on another website).
I know this is a stupid question, I SHOULD put all my fish into the hospital tank not just the ones who have ich on them, right now only my powder blue and dward flame angel have the spots. I told my hubby all our fish should go into the h-tank but he doesn't believe me...he asked if all our fish go into the h-tank and it's not cycled our ammonia levels will just skyrocket. Then I said that's why we have to do 20% water change every day to pull our ammonia toxins from the water. So who is correct (naturally I think I am)
please help to settle our debate! Thank you in advance!!!!!

 

[beth]

You are CORRECT! LOL...I love it when the women are right--jk.
Seriously, ick is highly contagious. It is in your tank water and any fish exposed to it is at high risk. All fish need to go in the hospital. Inverts do not get ick, thus leave them in your main tank. You will need to monitor ammonia, nitrite and pH DAILY. And adjust accordingly. You will use water from your main tank [as long as the water quality there is good] to setup the hospital---this is aged water that has beneficial nitrifying bacteria and will help establish your hospital setup. Yes, it has the ick too, but you will be taking care of that with the hypo saline treatment.

 

[carrie]

Thanks Beth!