Fresh water dip?

[canadiandude]

I started treating my tank for ich about 18 days ago with Greenex. It worked great and I noticed a difference overnight. There was 2 spots on the fin of my sailfin tang that never went away and now I noticed a few more on the other fin(the spots seem to be a little bigger than the ich from before). I added some more greenex to the tank but I'm wondering if a fresh water dip would work and if so for how long. The rest of the fish are ok (there's only 2 more left, the others didn't survive the ich and a couple of unsuspecting aggressive fish). I've never had to deal with this before so any help is appreciated.
Chris

 

[beth]

Greenx obviously didn't work great, if you still have ich. FW dips won't cure ich either. You need to treat with hyposalinity. Are you dosing your main tank with greenx? What type of tank do you have?

 

[canadiandude]

Yes I'm dosing the main tank. I don't have a quarantine tank set up yet (I have the tank ) so I'm unable to put the tang in one.
I did however notice that the spots on the tang are bigger than the previous ich. They are only on the tips of the fins and no where else. Is it possible it's something else?
My tank is a 90 gallon SW 110w HO lighting, trickle filter, with LR, 2 condy anenomes, 35 hermit crabs, 10 snails, sailfin tang, scooter blenny, and a watchmen goby.

 

[saltfisher]

How long do you leave the fish in freshwater?

 

[beth]

The spots on the fish, ich, are fattening up on your fishs' tissues. Hyposalinity is your best solution. QTs can be setup for $50 or less, depending on your fish load. If you have a FO tank, you can treat the fish in your tank.

 

[canadiandude]

If I am to do the quarantine, do I need to continue to treat my main tank even though the other fish are not affected? How long would you recommend waiting to put in additional fish? If I do the hyposalinity, how long and at what salinity? I've heard 1.09 - 1.14.

 

[beth]

I would not treat your main tank at all! Particularly a system with LR, inverts, live sand!
The pupose of a quarantine is to, not only treat your sick fish & have an observation place for new fish, but to also avoid contaminating your display.
Have you read the FAQ section at the top of this forum?
All fish need to be treated for ich now, in the hospital/QT. All fish have been exposed to a highly contagious, potentially deadly disease that will not "go away" on its own, regardless if you "see" a problem or not. As long as your fish and your main tank are not treated, then you will have the problem. In the absense of fish [while your fish are being treated in a QT] the ich in your main tank will die off. The display must remain fishless for at least a mo.

 

[canadiandude]

Thanks, I'm setting up the Qt tank tonight. By the way I tried the FW dip the other day. I kept the tang in for about 5 mins but had to take it out as it was getting pretty stressed. Anyway it didn't change anything.

 

[beth]

FW dips are stressful for fish, particularly if you are not very familiar with the procedure.
They may relieve an immediate infestation that is on the body of the fish, but it will not cure any parasite problem---only temporarily alleviate the situation by killing some parasites on the fish. IMO, except in live or die situations such as where death is imminent, such as in velvet, FW dips are not worth the risk of extreme stress to fish.
There are no "short cuts" to addressing fish diseases. There are only tried and proven methods.

 

[canadiandude]

Once I move the fish to the QT tank, is it ok to leave the inverts in the main tank, and if so is it ok to add more inverts to the main tank while the fish are in QT. Also is it ok to use water from the main tank in the QT tank or will that risk transferring ich?

 

[canadiandude]

Beth,
I looked at the picture of lymphocystis and read your reply to majakarot about fungus/bacteria infection. The spots on the picture look like the ones on my tang. The spots have been on the fins for over 2 weeks now and are large (they're right on the edges). I have it in hypo right now is this still appropriate if it's lymphocystis and not ich?

 

[canadiandude]

bump

 

[beth]

The hypo will not hurt the tang, but if the tang has lymphocystis, then there is no cure. The fish in those pics are suffering from long term neglect and environmental issues that were not resolved. That is why they look like they are dying. That does not have to be the case, however, with lumphocytis. Good quality environment, quality foods that are soaked in good supplements like, garlic, zoe or zoecon will go a long way to "treat" this illness.
Lymphocystis is a viral infection. Once you have the virus, you always have it. Sorta like fever blisters in humans which is caused by the herpes simplex virus. Once you have it, you always have it. But you can certainly do not have symptoms all the time if you are generally healthy. Notice that when you are run down, or sick that you get those darn blisters in your mouth? Same with this disease in fish.
Take good care of the fish and the evironment he lives in, and he will more likely be fine, then not.

 

[dcr]

What is the proper mix for GreenEX?