I listened to the LFS' suggestion! A long story.

[Whisperer]

My 2 baby hippos came up with white dots that started in the tail of one of them. I caught them that night, placed in the QT tank, and began gradual hyposalinity. After about 1 week into the hypo, the spots were worse and was covering their entire body including their eyes. I submitted myself into losing them eventually (they reaaly looked bad and gross). But not yet, I rushed down the nearest LFS and purchased QuICK Cure (formalin, malachite green) as per his suggestion after telling him my fish got "ick." So I began 1 drop per gallon treatment and anticipated result in a couple of treatments (LFS said it takes only that much to cure it). NOPE! The "ick" kept getting worse. The blue water clears up after a day. I must have treated over 10 times with not an hint of improvement :mad: By this time it was over 4 weeks into the hypo treatment and nothing happens to the "ick," if not worse. All this time the tangs were eating nori with gusto. One even had a deep wound that was infected (prolly got stabbed by the other). Their bodies were entirely covered with white dots and white slimey stuff. I felt helpless, frustrated and desperate. I didn't want to lose these little guys. They are my favorite. :( One day I happen to drop by the LFS again to check out anything new in stock. I happen to mention that the medication he recommended DID NOT WORK:mad: He goes..."Are you sure it is ick?" I replied with confidence "YES." Well, if it was ick, it should have disappeared after the second treatment, he said. I thought " what do you know" Then he goes, "maybe it is LYMPHOCYSTIS, a viral infection that has no cure but the fish will survive it, it's because of stress. Just scrape the dots off with a blunt object." I said to myself "you're nut's, I ain't touching those gross fishes." Then I went home not even planning to do what he suggested, "he's nuts" I said to myself again, now convinced :D . When I got home, I looked at my poor tangs, still grossed out though. Then I made my decision. It's not getting better with what I have done so far. So I began bringing the salinity back up close to that of the display tank (1.025). Then I took the half-empty loc-tite glue gel tube and began gently scraping their bodies with the blunt end (the folded end). I did not really see anything fell off. Actually, I even scraped off some blue pigments and left some raw areas in one side of the tangs. Then I placed them in the display tank after a short acclimation. I closely watched them, ready to remove them and all other fishes at the first sign of ick breakout ( I know, hey I was desperate). They began eating the hair algae as soon as they hit the water :D. Over the following 2 days the white dots have gradually disappeared. The deep ulcer on one of the tangs began showing signs of healing. I was relieved to see the white dots completely gone today, day 3 in the display tank. A happy ending considering I doubted my LFS.

Conclusion: It was stress that started the white dots. The first tang began showing it when I added the "replacement tang" for the one that I lost from shipping in the earlier shipment.
When ick-like lesions do not respond to hyposalinity and/or other treatments, consider other diagnoses. When the fish continues to do well, eat, swim around like usual, it's probably not ick (IME, fish with ick decline progressively and stops eating). Lastly, LFS may give you a good solution every now and then. :D

Just sharing a rather pleasant LFS story with you guys.

Here they were yesterday.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/jerrygarciamd/DSC_0080.jpg

Note the wound on the side of the smaller tang and the missing pigments on the side of the big tang (I scraped it off
:( )

Thanks for listening.

[Whisperer]

Sorry for the tiny pic above.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v413/jerrygarciamd/94d7f357.jpg

[ronjeremy]

OMG!!!! you scraped your fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! your lfs is in the wrong business..he should keep his advice to himself..how long were the spots on the fish???? you said it looked slimy as well..did your fish have a dusty appearance??? i would watch the fish closely over the next few days because you are most likely going to have another outbreak!!! i hope they come out ok

[DivaMan]

read the post, thats really the only cure for lyphocites, and when hyo and copper dont do a darn thing, theres no way its ich.

[Chad Vossen]

i had a clownfish with lyphocites.. i had him in a tank by himself so he wouldnt infect my other fish. i did take him out and removed the lyphocites. eventualy he died because it just kept coming back. i got the clownfish free because it was so heavily infected at the store. lyphocites is truely a nasty virus..