freshwater dips?

[mr.p]

has anyone ever had any sucess with dipping a fish in freshwater? and if so can i have some advice on doing that? my Blue tang has Ich and it's getting worse her skin is starting to get rough and white and i've put copper in last week but i haven't seen any improvement at all. It actually is getting worse and i feel really bad for her and was wondering if maybe dipping her in some freshwater might help get some of the parisites off? if that does not work then i guess i'll try to reduce the salinity in the water. :help:

 

[elfdoctors]

Freshwater dips will reduce some of the spots but will not cure ich. The trophonts (life stages of the ich parasite when it is attached to a fish) live in the slime layer of the fish which protects them from the effects of the freshwater. FW dips can also be stressful for an already stressed fish.
Hyposalinity is a much more effective treatment. The directions for this are in the sticky at the top of this forum. This kills all of the stages of ich except for the trophonts. These will fall off within 5-7 days after starting hyposalinity.

 

[vanos]

Use the dips as last resort but keep in mind they do stress the fish out so do hypo. I've tried dips in the past and they have worked but I never had a qt tank to put them in do I just put them back in the main tank and they got ick all over again. Now I know better.