Thoughts on ich
- Thread starter Paul B
- Start date
Paul you live in the tropics , LI is my my home ground as you know.-5 with -36 F windchill with lake effect snow here this morning. It's up to 3 degrees with -26 wind chill ;we are getting blizzard coniditions.I don't have any of those ich icles though , but that's a different story.
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RAJOD
Member
Paul another microbe that is very similar to ich in humans is Borrelia burgdorferi (AKA lyme)
Many people are infected and do not know it. Can lay dormant for years then come out from a depressed immune system. Use of prednisolone (steroids) can bring it out.
Its a low grade smoldering infection that can flair up much like your wifes MS.
Many cases of MS and alzheimers are actually borrelia infection or sometimes it triggers autoimmune reactions in the host.
I read a report on a reef expert of 40 years and his conclusions were that ich is in every system and depending on the water conditions stress etc will take hold.
Many people are infected and do not know it. Can lay dormant for years then come out from a depressed immune system. Use of prednisolone (steroids) can bring it out.
Its a low grade smoldering infection that can flair up much like your wifes MS.
Many cases of MS and alzheimers are actually borrelia infection or sometimes it triggers autoimmune reactions in the host.
I read a report on a reef expert of 40 years and his conclusions were that ich is in every system and depending on the water conditions stress etc will take hold.
That is a popular and long-held view! Logically incorrect, of course, as it must be possible to have a system without ich if taking the proper (and extreme) precautions, but I'd not be surprised if most systems have it.
Of course if true, if most systems do have ich, then it implies that the most important role for a QT process (if you do one) is to get the fish recovered from shipping stress, etc., rather than ensuring it is parasite free.
A bit of prevetnion and a little work can offer with very high probably an ich free tank. Whether or not you have ich in the tank is mostly related to the aquarists choice to have it by ignoring proven prevention and treatment methods.It doesn't move through the air like bacteria does. It has to be put in the tank,almost always by a fish carrying it in..
RAJOD
Member
I know its a bacteria, its similar in that the host (human or fish) can carry the disease and seem healthy.
Some think if you have it you are automatically sick which is not true.
A decrease in the immune system will allow the bacteria to get the upper hand. Which is similar to marine ich.
I know its a bacteria, its similar in that the host (human or fish) can carry the disease and seem healthy.
Not really. Crytocaryon irritans is only carried inside the fish for a reltively short period of time and moves out of the fish to a different stage in its life cylce ,the encysted phase to multiply and then out of the cyst to free swimming phase and then back into the fish. Bacteria don't leave the host and don't have a 3 stage life cycle.
There is no similarity.
Ich in the free swimming phase need to find a host within about a day or starve. They will get the upper the upper hand on healthy fish and sick ones. Some fish do develop a partial temporary immunity to a specific strain of cyrtocaryon irritans after and infestation .Probably as slime coat production increases but teh mouth nostrils and gills are still targets for the free swimmers. If just one makes it in the fish to feed and ut to encyst it can hatch 200 new free swimmer and 2 weeks later 200x200 and so on.If you kill them when they are free swimmers or abandon them without a fish host they die
Not really. Crytocaryon irritans is only carried inside the fish for a reltively short period of time and moves out of the fish to a different stage in its life cylce ,the encysted phase to multiply and then out of the cyst to free swimming phase and then back into the fish. Bacteria don't leave the host and don't have a 3 stage life cycle.
There is no similarity.
Ich in the free swimming phase need to find a host within about a day or starve. They will get the upper the upper hand on healthy fish and sick ones. Some fish do develop a partial temporary immunity to a specific strain of cyrtocaryon irritans after and infestation .Probably as slime coat production increases but teh mouth nostrils and gills are still targets for the free swimmers. If just one makes it in the fish to feed and ut to encyst it can hatch 200 new free swimmer and 2 weeks later 200x200 and so on.If you kill them when they are free swimmers or abandon them without a fish host they die
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