Freshwater bath for treatment of ich?

[charlestonfish]

LFS recommended it for fish that are less expesive and no qt tank.
Anyone ever tried it? Said to put fish in freshwater w/ same temp and ph for 20 minutes. This will kill/knock off any ich parasites. Obviously stress on fish could result in death but she said they had good results w/ clown trigger. Tks

 

[simm]

Personaly IMO I think it stresses the fish out more. Its a quick fix. You have to make sure the temp and PH in the freshwater are the same as in the saltwater. Best thing to do is a QT tank with hyposalinity. Even a 10 gallon tank will work.

 

[grateful1]

i've heard that freshwater baths are a temporary thing. They make the fish look good for a day or 2 and then the stress takes over, and your fish catches a secondary disease and dies. Some fish are more hardy than others though.
I've been recomended to not do a fresh water bath, but rather hypo your tank for 3-4 weeks. You see a big differnce once your SG is 1.009

 

[ags]

Fresh water dips are effective in killing ich that is on your fish but once you stick that fish back in the main tank the parasites that are in your tank will attach to your fish again, thus doing one is pointless. And like grateful1 and simm noted fresh water dips are extremely stressful for fish and could stress it out even more or kill it. Unless you have a QT tank where you can put the fish after administering the fresh water dip I don't suggest doing one.