Unresolved Mandarin Dragonet covered in lice!

EDIT...as of now I have not come up with a treatment for the lice. Freshwater dip maybe??? What about the free swimming? Should I just copper the tank and go from there? Looking for somebody with some experience here cus I have none!

I have never in all my years of keeping both fresh and marine fish ran into this. This morning I went into my quarantine room and turned on the light on the tank currently holding my Mandarin Dragonette. The Mandarin was up near the front of the tank. As soon as the lights came on the fish' skin came ALIVE with hundreds of tiny little critters crawling all over him. Most ran for what I believe are his gills and hid. Ten minutes after the lights had been turned on none of the lice could be seen. I believe he has been eating flat worms in the live rock I placed in the tank and he appears to have gained a little weight. However, today he does not appear well. How do I treat this? Is this fatal? How infectious is this? (SO GLAD I HAVE A QT SYSTEM!) Thank you all for your advice I have no experience with this.

 

wetwebmedia has info on this. they say fresh water dip. and a meat trap in a clear tube with poly filter on each side of the tube... and some have went the copper route. look on that site for fish lice

 

Okay will check on this

 

im sorry i couldnt help more but i did see a lot of info on there for it. good luck. i hope your able get them off of the fish

 

here is the page on there i found Isopodcontr

 

Okay so after doing a little reading I still havent found a clear cut treatment for my fish having Sea Lice. Has anybody on here got experience with this?

 

Really looking for some guidance here people. I have read Clout will kill lice but its nots for scaleless etc.

 

Could it possibly be flukes? These guys can be seen VERY easliy crawling all over the fish. Either way I want them gone. He cannot go into my DT until they are eradicated.

 

Look into the use of Interceptor. It targets arthropods, and is reef safe. I personally have not used with a Mandarin, but I imagine if they had a bad outcome I would have come across it, but I would double check if I were you.

 

A positive ID would help. I've never heard of an infestation of lice, so I can't help there. Prazi Pro is very effective against flukes. I QT all of my big fish with Cupramine and Prazi.