Treating ich with freshwater dip help

[AriMiko43]

I have a 350 gallon system currently cycling with all dry rock, dry sand and all new saltwater. I have no ich in the tank at all. I had a ich outbreak in my holding system so I tried taking half my fish out of the holding tanks and qt'd them in copper for a few weeks. I did have some deaths doing this. My question is can I take all fish and give them freshwater baths before placing them in the new system? Will the baths rid them of all ich on them? I will match the ph and temp of the freshwater. I still have about 8 fish in the holding tanks that have not been treated with copper yet. I know I will have to leave the holding tanks fallow for 6-8 weeks before placing any of the coral in the new tank. Any help or info will be appreciated.

 

[das75]

just dipping suspected fish before adding to display is a sure way to bring in ich. snorvich been doing a bunch of summaries (here's one)

 

[HumbleFish]

My question is can I take all fish and give them freshwater baths before placing them in the new system? Will the baths rid them of all ich on them?

No, if just giving a f/w bath cleared ich we'd all be doing it. You will need to treat the infected fish with copper for 4 weeks or alternatively, do tank transfer.

 

[AriMiko43]

So correct me if I'm wrong but if you dip them in freshwater then add them to a tank with no ich, they will not be free of ich? Doesn't the ich explode and fall off from the freshwater? I am not putting them into a tank that has ich in it. I'm not trying to be smart in any way just trying to obtain info to see what my remedies are. IME I have killed fish with the copper and would not like to do it again. Maybe I can do several FW dips before adding.

 

[HumbleFish]

So correct me if I'm wrong but if you dip them in freshwater then add them to a tank with no ich, they will not be free of ich? Doesn't the ich explode and fall off from the freshwater? I am not putting them into a tank that has ich in it. I'm not trying to be smart in any way just trying to obtain info to see what my remedies are. IME I have killed fish with the copper and would not like to do it again. Maybe I can do several FW dips before adding.

Whether or not f/w dips even have any impact on ich was hotly debated in this thread recently: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2410166