Disease? or what?

[1spotpooalot]

Ok...I have a 4 eye butterfly which i am pretty sure has lymphocystis. Not a huge problem right?. But he began to scratch for a couple of days than got so sick I was able to catch it and gave her/him a fresh water bath and right away it pulled out of the lull she was in and began eating(as well as a 4 eye does) and swimming normally again. I think this was a parasite of some sort but I see no ICH markings at all. now its been about a week or so and i noticed(in the process of hyposalinity approx1.015) the scratching began again. This only happened for 1 day and I quickly (24hrs) brought the salinity down to my destination of 1.011 (i wanted 1.0009-1.012. The scratching seems to have subsided and I still see no apparent infestations other than the Lymphocystis on one fish.

Questions:
1) opinions if this is Ich or not
2) possible flukes?
3) if it one or two will hyposalinity have a positive effect on both of these parasites.
4) has ayone had long term success with hyposalinity?...If so can you name spell out your process.

I have been reading up a bit on this and some of the experts, Bob Fenner in particular, are not big fans of this process stating it simply does not work. They stae that in theory it should but in a closed system you NEED to go fallow for 6 weeks to rid the tank of parasites.

This is not a good alternative for me right now...too much to list...but if it THE only way to go I guess I will.

Opinions PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

[jenajet]

I tried it once but seemed to take to long to ease the infected gramma's discomfort. I set up a med tank and treated him with formalin and he improved within 24 hours (brooklynella). I still treated him the full seven days and left him in qt for a month just in case. I have never had ich on sw fish so I don't really know how they respond. BTW is this a fowlr tank?

[1spotpooalot]

yes it is a FOWLR. I know I will loose all the microfauna not associated with the bacteria, but I should be able to keep the beneficial bacteria on the rock.

At this point it does not seem like I am ready to loose anymore fish.I lost a puffer unfortunately but even he had no signs of ich. I think he died from a secondary infection from scratching. he had a huge welt on his side which blew up like a balloon and died a couple of days later. This is why I am steering towards gill flukes but it is so hard to diagnose because they have some symptoms of one thing but not all apparent symptoms apply here. the only definite thing is the lymphocystis which should not cause this type of havac...or could it?

anybody else have long term luck with hyposalinity?
Ideas on what this may actually be?
I am kinda at a loss