How long can Cryptocaryon survive on human skin?

GroktheCube

New member
This may seem like an odd question, but I'm a bit concerned that I may have inadvertently infected my tank. For the past couple days, a few of my fish have been acting kinda twitchy and itchy, and tonight just before lights out, I noticed a white spot that did not appear to be a grain of sand on my bristletooth tang's pectoral fin :-/

They only potential vector that I can think of would be hands. I've been helping my girlfriend treat crypto via TTM over at her apartment, and while I do always wear gloves and wash hands, I'm a bit concerned that I might have somehow introduced it to my tank.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid because of how unappealing the idea of ripping apart all my rockwork and setting up a long term QT large enough for all my fish is, but is there a chance that either free swimming parasites or cysts could survive for ~30 minutes on human skin?
 
Did you wash your hands (and arms if they were in the water) with soap thoroughly after fooling with your gf's tank? I don't see how fish parasites could live thru that.
 
Yes, I did. I'm always careful with that if only for the sake of preventing infections. That white spot is missing this morning, so it probably was just a grain of sand, and I'm being paranoid. He sleeps in a sandy hollow under my rocks, and often swims under there at dusk to clean it out.
 
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