Ambition
New member
I thought I finally get around to posting my bit of help for the reefing community. The goal is to help others gain an understanding of this parasite as well as discuss anything people are curious about, so after reading fell free to ask any questions that you still have or that come up.
Life Cycle of Cryptocaryon irritans
Since that is out of the way, let's discuss the life cycle of cryptocaryon irritans. The stage in the life cycle most are familiar with is the trophont phase, or the feeding stage. This is where the parasite is attached to its host and feeding on the body fluids, skin debris, and whole cells. The cysts are formed during this stage giving the appearance of salt grains on the fish. The cysts become easier to observe over time as the trophonts grow and mature from feeding off of the host. Trophonts most commonly mature in 3-7 days, with a big peak at 4-5 days. Trophonts on the same host will also all drop off in a narrow time frame of 16-18 hours.
After the trophonts drop off, people commonly believe that ich is now gone or cured. This is false. Ich is not visible in any phase other than the trophont phase. Trophonts will drop off while the fish is sleeping, thus becoming protomonts (phase of exiting the host before encysting). Usually dropping off around 5am, or right before daylight. Protomonts will move along the substrate or rock for about 2-8 hours before encysting.
When the protomonts encyst, they enter the tomont (reproductive) phase of the life cycle. Daughter cells are then being formed within the tomont. Depending on the strain of ich, the number of daughter cells produced will be between 200 and 1000. The tomont will then hatch in 3-72 days (72 being the longest in a cold water strain) and become free swimming theronts.
Theronts are the free swimming phase, in which they begin looking for a host. They must find a host within 24-48 hours, or they die. Studies have shown that the number of viable (still alive and active) theronts decreases exponentially over time. The 24-48 hours is a window because various environmental factors such as temp., salinity, and host species are going to impact the amount of time.
A proront is the phase in which a theront has found a host and begun to dig into the skin of the host. Ich likes to infect soft tissues that are fairly easy to get to such as the gill tissue. Any fish you have may not have trophonts on the outside of the body, but may have them all over its gill tissue. This is why labored breathing is a symptom. The cycle will then be repeated until ich is either killed using one of the only three methods that are proven to work (hypo, copper, and tank transfer) or there are no more hosts.
This is why ich is a ticking time bomb. While you aren't able to see it, it is reproducing and creating more daughter cells each cycle. Once something happens in the aquarium that stresses your fish, ich is there in large numbers to infect. The gill tissue will be ich heaven, making it very difficult for the fish to breath. In the wild ich isn't very common at all, and is very rarely lethal. Our tanks are much more densely packed than the ocean is, and ich exploits this very well. In the ocean, ich has to travel quite a bit before if can find a host. Whereas, in our aquariums, we are essentially providing a free buffet.
Prevention
IMO, prevention is the best way to go about this. QT everything for 4-8 weeks (8 weeks being optimal). I know this is going to test patience, but patience is one of the biggest keys to this hobby. The fish you get will normally show signs of disease in this time. When you notice maladies (symptoms of any disease), take proper steps to treat it. For ich, use copper, hypo, or tank transfer (do not mix and match methods, just one). With brooklynella, do formalin baths and observe. For flukes and other parasitic worms, use PraziPro (I do two treatments regardless of there being flukes or not). If you get velvet, treat with copper. *Caution!* do not treat sensitive species using copper. Fish include dragonets, angels, puffers, and lionfish. Some of these may also not tolerate hypo well either.
Proactively treating fish for ich whether they show symptoms or not is one more thing you can do for fish. This is highly controversial, but has been successfully done by hobbyists. Proactively treating means treating every fish with copper, hypo, or tank transfer whether they are showing signs of ich or not. There is a plus to using copper (something it does that the other treatments don't do): using it will also proactively treat marine velvet. Before you try this, make sure you do your own research, as each method has its pros and cons.
To prevent ich from getting to your DT, a rigid QT procedure needs to be laid out and followed from the start. First fish is included, even they can carry diseases. I also suggest QTing everything going into the tank... Rock and sand don't really need to be QT'd if you are taking the time to actually cycle a tank, however. This would be 4-8 weeks depending on how much bacteria your rock and sand have from the start. 4-8 weeks is long enough to make the chances of ich on the rock or sand infecting your fish very slim.
Coral and invert QT doesn’t need much. Just a small 10 gallon tank where you won't be putting fish in, method of heating or cooling, proper lighting and flow for the corals you plan on having and you are set to go. Keep the coral or other invert in this tank for 4-8 weeks (time starts over if you add another organism).
Treatment
So you have ich in your tank already, so preventive work isn't going to help until your current stock is treated. There are only three methods that have been proven to work in treating ich. Those three are copper, hypo salinity, and tank transfer. So throw away the reef safe treatments and don't go get any. You are just wasting time and money.
First off, you are going to need a hospital tank. This tank is going to need to be able to hold your fish for at least 10 weeks. Places to hide, water movement, and heating are going to be needed. Lights are optional, but will make assessing your fish easier. These are all things you should already have, IMO in case something like velvet or brooklynella set in from a new addition (all fish need to be pulled as well).
You may be wondering why I said the tank needs to be able to hold your fish for 10 weeks. Well that is because the display needs to be fallow (fishless) for 10 weeks so that the ich in the display will die (remember, it can take 72 days for the last protomont to hatch...).
Your options:
1) Copper- Great read here, written better than I could.
2) Hyposalinity- Great write up on how to use it here (I don’t have experience using it, so I’m going to differ to that). It is difficult to do, but if you know how to do it, it is a great way to treat ich.
3) Tank Transfer- This is my favorite method, and one that won’t stress your fish out too much if done correctly. You can use Rubbermaid totes, aquariums, and other items that will hold a large enough amount of water to your fish to be comfortable (have enough room to swim, not too crowded, and enough dissolved oxygen for breathing). The tank should have hiding places made out of PVC or other materials, means of temp. control, and an air stone w/air pump or power head for gas exchange. Need 2 of everything for 2 places (more of everything if you have lots of fish).
Here is how you do it:
Day 1- Set up tank (or other item) and bring to same params as the water the fish are coming from. Once ready add your fish and dose an ammonia neutralizer. Since there are no meds to interfere, you won’t need to worry about ammonia.
Day 4- Move fish to other tank (after it is set up of course) in the early morning. They should be moved before they get up so that they can be caught easily and to keep stress to a minimum. Don’t use a net to catch them. Use your hand and a small container. Once fish are moved out of the first tank soak everything in a very mild bleach solution (vinegar might work as well). Then rinse thoroughly and let everything completely air dry. Set up tank again about a day before next transfer.
Day 7- Repeat Day 4, but back to the first tank.
Day 10- Repeat
Day 13- Repeat by moving fish to a cycled QT for observation for at least 4 weeks to be sure you have effectively treated them.
During the whole process be sure to watch the fish carefully, as well as feeding properly. This method of proactively treating can be used on mandarins if you have a culture of pods going to dose to the tank several times per day. This thread is a great read on the whole method. You can ask questions if you have them after reading through it.
Life Cycle of Cryptocaryon irritans
Since that is out of the way, let's discuss the life cycle of cryptocaryon irritans. The stage in the life cycle most are familiar with is the trophont phase, or the feeding stage. This is where the parasite is attached to its host and feeding on the body fluids, skin debris, and whole cells. The cysts are formed during this stage giving the appearance of salt grains on the fish. The cysts become easier to observe over time as the trophonts grow and mature from feeding off of the host. Trophonts most commonly mature in 3-7 days, with a big peak at 4-5 days. Trophonts on the same host will also all drop off in a narrow time frame of 16-18 hours.
After the trophonts drop off, people commonly believe that ich is now gone or cured. This is false. Ich is not visible in any phase other than the trophont phase. Trophonts will drop off while the fish is sleeping, thus becoming protomonts (phase of exiting the host before encysting). Usually dropping off around 5am, or right before daylight. Protomonts will move along the substrate or rock for about 2-8 hours before encysting.
When the protomonts encyst, they enter the tomont (reproductive) phase of the life cycle. Daughter cells are then being formed within the tomont. Depending on the strain of ich, the number of daughter cells produced will be between 200 and 1000. The tomont will then hatch in 3-72 days (72 being the longest in a cold water strain) and become free swimming theronts.
Theronts are the free swimming phase, in which they begin looking for a host. They must find a host within 24-48 hours, or they die. Studies have shown that the number of viable (still alive and active) theronts decreases exponentially over time. The 24-48 hours is a window because various environmental factors such as temp., salinity, and host species are going to impact the amount of time.
A proront is the phase in which a theront has found a host and begun to dig into the skin of the host. Ich likes to infect soft tissues that are fairly easy to get to such as the gill tissue. Any fish you have may not have trophonts on the outside of the body, but may have them all over its gill tissue. This is why labored breathing is a symptom. The cycle will then be repeated until ich is either killed using one of the only three methods that are proven to work (hypo, copper, and tank transfer) or there are no more hosts.
This is why ich is a ticking time bomb. While you aren't able to see it, it is reproducing and creating more daughter cells each cycle. Once something happens in the aquarium that stresses your fish, ich is there in large numbers to infect. The gill tissue will be ich heaven, making it very difficult for the fish to breath. In the wild ich isn't very common at all, and is very rarely lethal. Our tanks are much more densely packed than the ocean is, and ich exploits this very well. In the ocean, ich has to travel quite a bit before if can find a host. Whereas, in our aquariums, we are essentially providing a free buffet.
Prevention
IMO, prevention is the best way to go about this. QT everything for 4-8 weeks (8 weeks being optimal). I know this is going to test patience, but patience is one of the biggest keys to this hobby. The fish you get will normally show signs of disease in this time. When you notice maladies (symptoms of any disease), take proper steps to treat it. For ich, use copper, hypo, or tank transfer (do not mix and match methods, just one). With brooklynella, do formalin baths and observe. For flukes and other parasitic worms, use PraziPro (I do two treatments regardless of there being flukes or not). If you get velvet, treat with copper. *Caution!* do not treat sensitive species using copper. Fish include dragonets, angels, puffers, and lionfish. Some of these may also not tolerate hypo well either.
Proactively treating fish for ich whether they show symptoms or not is one more thing you can do for fish. This is highly controversial, but has been successfully done by hobbyists. Proactively treating means treating every fish with copper, hypo, or tank transfer whether they are showing signs of ich or not. There is a plus to using copper (something it does that the other treatments don't do): using it will also proactively treat marine velvet. Before you try this, make sure you do your own research, as each method has its pros and cons.
To prevent ich from getting to your DT, a rigid QT procedure needs to be laid out and followed from the start. First fish is included, even they can carry diseases. I also suggest QTing everything going into the tank... Rock and sand don't really need to be QT'd if you are taking the time to actually cycle a tank, however. This would be 4-8 weeks depending on how much bacteria your rock and sand have from the start. 4-8 weeks is long enough to make the chances of ich on the rock or sand infecting your fish very slim.
Coral and invert QT doesn’t need much. Just a small 10 gallon tank where you won't be putting fish in, method of heating or cooling, proper lighting and flow for the corals you plan on having and you are set to go. Keep the coral or other invert in this tank for 4-8 weeks (time starts over if you add another organism).
Treatment
So you have ich in your tank already, so preventive work isn't going to help until your current stock is treated. There are only three methods that have been proven to work in treating ich. Those three are copper, hypo salinity, and tank transfer. So throw away the reef safe treatments and don't go get any. You are just wasting time and money.
First off, you are going to need a hospital tank. This tank is going to need to be able to hold your fish for at least 10 weeks. Places to hide, water movement, and heating are going to be needed. Lights are optional, but will make assessing your fish easier. These are all things you should already have, IMO in case something like velvet or brooklynella set in from a new addition (all fish need to be pulled as well).
You may be wondering why I said the tank needs to be able to hold your fish for 10 weeks. Well that is because the display needs to be fallow (fishless) for 10 weeks so that the ich in the display will die (remember, it can take 72 days for the last protomont to hatch...).
Your options:
1) Copper- Great read here, written better than I could.
2) Hyposalinity- Great write up on how to use it here (I don’t have experience using it, so I’m going to differ to that). It is difficult to do, but if you know how to do it, it is a great way to treat ich.
3) Tank Transfer- This is my favorite method, and one that won’t stress your fish out too much if done correctly. You can use Rubbermaid totes, aquariums, and other items that will hold a large enough amount of water to your fish to be comfortable (have enough room to swim, not too crowded, and enough dissolved oxygen for breathing). The tank should have hiding places made out of PVC or other materials, means of temp. control, and an air stone w/air pump or power head for gas exchange. Need 2 of everything for 2 places (more of everything if you have lots of fish).
Here is how you do it:
Day 1- Set up tank (or other item) and bring to same params as the water the fish are coming from. Once ready add your fish and dose an ammonia neutralizer. Since there are no meds to interfere, you won’t need to worry about ammonia.
Day 4- Move fish to other tank (after it is set up of course) in the early morning. They should be moved before they get up so that they can be caught easily and to keep stress to a minimum. Don’t use a net to catch them. Use your hand and a small container. Once fish are moved out of the first tank soak everything in a very mild bleach solution (vinegar might work as well). Then rinse thoroughly and let everything completely air dry. Set up tank again about a day before next transfer.
Day 7- Repeat Day 4, but back to the first tank.
Day 10- Repeat
Day 13- Repeat by moving fish to a cycled QT for observation for at least 4 weeks to be sure you have effectively treated them.
During the whole process be sure to watch the fish carefully, as well as feeding properly. This method of proactively treating can be used on mandarins if you have a culture of pods going to dose to the tank several times per day. This thread is a great read on the whole method. You can ask questions if you have them after reading through it.
