[Delphinus]

That's awesome. Although you're not alone in the fish CPR department. I've tried this in the past too - sometimes with luck (once off the Glenmore docks, someone tried to catch and release a pike and had some trouble with his line getting tangled) - poor guy didn't know what to do - grabs a passing sailor and says "please help". I looked at the fish and did what you just did off the docks - eventually some life sprang into him and he lazily swam off.

However in my tank fish I've only tried it on fish that my old ritteri anemone killed with its invisible cloud of death. None were successful and I think now it's because their gills were damaged by whatever it was (shed nematocysts or whatever - I still think it was something else - but speaking to Calfo about it he kind of poo-poo'd the idea - "I'm Anthony Calfo and you're not" .. so who knows. All I know is all that thing had to do was burp and I'd lose a tankful of fish within half an hour .. as much as I love those anemones and their spectacular awesomeness, I'm done keeping that species in captivity!!)

Anyhow good luck with the cooties. Once he gets his strength up he should recover. FW dips are awful but sometimes they really do work (just as you said though .. it only gets the adults). After all I've read on flukes I've come to the conclusion that pretty much all new fish, and particularly angels and tangs, should be considered carriers if not outright infected. If in QT people will prazi their QT tank 4 times, one week apart. I have a theory, that if not already infected, that a healthy strong fish's slime coat will repel most if not all of the larva who try to attach and thus that's why we don't always see symptoms in new fish - but anything to stress the fish will compromise his immunity - in your case, the empty bag and near death experience - in my case, a rather severe case of hazing for the first 2 days .. and that's all the cooties needed to gain a foothold.