I do it for 5 mins now for any fish I add. It's stressful for them but so would treating them with anything too.

You can also add an ammonia remover additive.

I usually dip my fish for up to 15 mins, or unless they are showing signs of stress or laying on their sides.

Ken - BWA

ok this may sound silly but what is RO water? and how do I get it? can you use reg. tap water and just declorinated it? if so can they really live in fresh water for longer then 5mins?

reverse osmosis, it gets rid of everything, chlorine, phosphates, makes the TDS (total dissolved solids) 0 but conditioned tap water will work fine and yes they can live 15 mins. just take them out if they start gasping

Ok I did this kept them in for 5 mins Blue tang was ok, swimming around the whole 5mins but as soon as I put him back into the saltwater wow it swam to the bottom of the tank fall on its side, breathing very heavely and I don't think its going to live. :(

Hey Jenn, did you check your pH? If your pH is low this can stress the hek out of them as well. I ran into a problem with pH a couple months back and every fish died...

Whatever you do don't put them into pails. It will only make things worst by stressing them out and thus causing more ick. Did the emperor die?

Ok so I get home from work I had put them in the pail, everyone was alive and happy swimming in the pail when I got home. So I take some water into golds to have it tested ammona is fine no traces, Nitrite is fine nothing, everything is good. So I tell them the story of how it started off with ICH and then how everyone was breathing every so heavely yesterday morning and the fish that looked totally fine died.... SO I tell him how I had this new little ananome and it wouldn't open up and he said AAHHHHH that is the problem its leached its toxin into the tank cause it was stressed! so I come home do a 50% waterchange on the tank, put TONS of carbon in the filter and put all the fish back into the tank (no ananome) I had taken it out that morning with the fish, so just the fish go back in. OK well everyone except the blue tang cause of the freshwater dip I did looks good. SO I clean up everything thinking ok well that is good everything is going ok now. OK here is where it gets bad again, not even 2hrs later I look into the tank and OMG everyone is at the surfice breathing rappily again! I'm like What the Hell is going on here! so again I know I shouldn't have done this but went into panick mode, and made a new fresh saltwater pail and netted them all put htem in the pail and OH I expected them to all be dead this morning NOPE there all swimming around! even the blue tang... SO what the hell is going on. I have 30 pounds of live rock and nothing on it seems to be affected I don't have corals but like all the living little things on it are alive, like little tiny shrimps, feather dusters etc. even my porclin crab is fine in the tank. Its a 33gal been up and running for 4years no problem, I have a aqua clear 50 filter on it with just carbon, I have 2 aquaclear powerheads for water circulation and movement. I have the heat at 80 degrees. I have a UV starilizer on it, what the hell is going on oh yeah and about 30 pounds of LR 20 of which is new I got from a really nice Canreefer here. I am so totally lost on this :( and I don't know what the hell to do, if I put them back into the tank are they going to die I know they won't make it if I keep moving them that is stressful enough on them. I am trying everything I can to not loose anymore.

The way you describe just make me think some kind of parasite is attacking your fish rather your water quality because your feather dust, tiny shrimp are still doing ok. Any unusual appearance on your fish beside rapid breathing?

no its strange, but I took my fish into Gold's he is going to look after them for a few days, treat the ICH for me, He said its the toxins from the ananome. So just to load up on carbon do another water change and let the carbon filter the heck out of the tank. SO picked up some cheep damsels to be my ginny pigs and see if my tank is better by monday

The hang on aquar clear 50 isn't sufficient enough to remove waste for marine fish and live rocks in the tank and that's why you're seeing the ammonia. You need to get a good canister filter or a protein skimmer.