Ich?

The longest observed duration of a tomont was 72 days (add a day or two for the released theronts).

Given that this was a single observation of a single stain I would consider the statistical confidence level for this to be the absolute maximum duration to be rather low.

Enough reportedly failed fallow periods suggest that there may be strains that can hold out longer.
 
Wasn't that 72 day period observed under very low temperature conditions that greatly extended that stage and more typical was something like 14-30 days at typical aquarium temps? (I don't remember off-hand what the regular temp duration was)

my guess would be fallow periods extending beyond 72 days with renewed ich was likely a re-introduction...
 
To my knowledge it was at normal temperature and not especially low.

There were cases reported here where people had it reoccurring in FOWLR tanks were nothing new was added, so reintroduction was not likely.

Also, if you have ever done a statistical evaluation of data and FMEA you should know that one single data point has very low confidence value. In this case all we can gather from the data is that at least on strain may produce tomonts that can last at a minimum 72 days.

There are also still plenty of open question. Do these long lasting cysts just hatch by time or have they some trigger like temperature, redox, presence of fish (chemical signature),...

For now all we can say is that the likelihood of ich being present after 75 days (never forget that there could still hatched theronts be swimming around and that the protomont also may add a day) fallow is extremely low.
But nobody can say that there will be for sure no cysts left after 72 days.
There will always be a remaining risk.
 
Wasn't that 72 day period observed under very low temperature conditions that greatly extended that stage and more typical was something like 14-30 days at typical aquarium temps? (I don't remember off-hand what the regular temp duration was)

my guess would be fallow periods extending beyond 72 days with renewed ich was likely a re-introduction...

68 degrees
 

Similar threads

Back
Top