Help,, 1st time with any disease??

[gupsterwantabe]

Hello, 1st this is my first time to this message board,, I usually go to the fish only message board but think I have disease...
I have a 75 gallon tank... been set up since March. I have some live rock, a peppermint shrimp, two damsels, a clown fish, a yellow tank, and a bat fish...
I know a bat fish in a 75 gallon tank,,, too small, once he grows we will have to put him in his own tank,,for now he is only about 5 inches big,,,,
Well, yesterday doing a water changes I noticed the bat fish had this weird white spot on his side,, it was notlittle white spots but looked like a patch of white dust,,, he is brown and the spot looked like he rubbed against something.. His eyes were also cloudy,, no other fish had any symptoms,,
I started reading the books I have on salt water aquariums, disease etc,,, and I noticed they said to try the freshwater bath.. so I did that for 2 minutes,, Well, after the two minutes in the fresh water the white on the bat fish , formed into what looked like salt minerals and literally started popping off his body...
I then had to put him back into the tank with the other fish as I do not have a hospital tank,,,
Now the questions please and help!!!!!!!
1) What is this? Ick? or no?
2) What should I do? I was going to take him to the local store and show him to the manager to see what he says he has.
3) Should I try garlic??
thank you sooo much

 

[charmin_fatcat]

Well, I am fairly new to this also. My boyfriend is the saltwater person in our house, but I am getting to know my way around fairly well. Doing research and reading this board definately helps!! Anyways my two cents are: Go and get a hospital tank NOW!!! You should have had one set up incase of an emergency like this anyways, besides for quarenteening purposes. It sounds like ick to me, but as a newbie I am unsure, let the other more experienced members help you with that.
If it is ick- We have tried garlic and has helped, but you shouldn't use JUST garlic. We treat with a copper based med in our hospital tank, and use garlic as an extra punch and also as a preventive measure. I would not take him to your local store, moving a sick animal as little as possible is best. Just try to treat at home. Until you get more responses about what this disease is on your fish I would go and get everything you need for a hospital tank. Which can be somewhat expensive unless you have extra equipment laying around. You will need to pull the bat fish out and start treating ASAP, and watch the other fish. I would start garlic with food for all the fish-see if it helps.
Good luck and keep us posted!