Can sea turtles serve as ich carriers?

[Castaign]

This is a bit of a weird question, but I'm hoping someone has the expertise to either answer or at least point me in the right direction.

I do some volunteer work at a local wildlife preserve; they have a 1600 gallon tank that currently houses a squirrelfish (Holocentrus rufus), a sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus) and a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta). The tank previously had quite a few other fish, but there was a rapid die-off. The necropsy from the local university's vet department indicated ich (plus a few opportunistic bacterial and parasitic issues).

We'd like to remove the remaining fish from the tank and let it lie fallow for 12 weeks to kill off the ich, but there is not other reasonable housing for the loggerhead turtle. My question is this: is it possible for marine reptiles such as sea turtles to serve as hosts for the ich, or will removing the fish (but leaving the turtle) and letting the tank sit for three months terminate the ich life cycle?

If anyone either has experience with this issue, or can point me in the direction of a reputable resource, I would be hugely grateful.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

I recommend calling or emailing the Waikiki aquarium. They should be able to help. There are plenty of sea turtles (Honu) in Hawaii. The aquarium would probably know more about them than most people. Good luck.

 

[Sapelo]

My husband works at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. He will try to get an answer from their veterinarian this morning. Please hold.

 

[Sapelo]

We're hoping to get more information from another veterinarian too but what I have so far is the opinion that while no one at the center has heard for a sea turtle being an ICH carrier, there's no reason to believe that it's not possible. In the same way that we do not think of clean up crew members as carrying ICH, it's certainly possible that introducing anything that lives in water can also introduce ICH.
If I learn more, I'll pass it along. Good luck!

 

[Castaign]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the information!

 

[Sapelo]

Ok, one more response. This is from my sister who is also a DVM but works with salmon hatcheries now. She's done her share of marine work. I'm just going to paste her response below:

I've never heard of Ich infecting reptiles - I know it can (and does) infect a wide range of teleost hosts. I did a quick scan of the literature and don't see any evidence supporting infection in reptiles.

I would think that leaving the turtle would be fine, and still break the life cycle of Ich since the parasite requires a fish host to reproduce. The turtle might carry Ich for a while (highly doubtful, but possible, similar to CUC potentially carrying the parasite for a bit - more like the turtle would have a cyst 'stuck' to it by accident, not really 'infecting' the turtle), but the parasite (most likely) won't reproduce on the turtle, so the life cycle would still be broken eventually. (We leave our CUCs in reef tanks when leaving it fallow for Ich...).

And, if they do find that the turtle carries Ich, then that would be the first documented case, as far as I know - totally worth publishing!

Hope this helps!

 

[Deinonych]

The turtle cannot act as a host for Cryptocaryon, although it is possible for a tomont (cyst) to be attached to its shell. If fish hosts remain in the same aquarium as the turtle, the life cycle would continue if this were the case.