Ich questions

Nice, I didn't know it had been looked into that much. Microbiology is something I never really go into during my degree.

Encysting is how a lot of parasites get by. In any ephemeral environment you see this kind of thing. A cyst is a remarkably sturdy biological structure. If you consider that it absolutely resists medication, including copper, until the cysts hatch, it's easy to realize that these are completely enclosed. Diapause and other biological methods exist all over the place for a cyst to persist (yes, I rhymed that) for ages and ages. Tardigrades are probably the best known example of an encysted organism surviving in extremes. Another example is how mosquito eggs remain dry and inactive for entire years, rolling out in phases- those from a single clutch may take 3 or more flood events to all hatch. I suspect a similar system is present in ich. It's tremendously common in parasites to take on a phasing system (I took parasitology in university.) It's why Malaria release from a liver rolls out randomly or sometimes not at all. Biology doesn't really like putting all its eggs in one basket, those strains that do have a tendency to get crapped on when times get tough. In an aqueous environment, those strains from ephemeral streams and ponds would almost certainly need a method of survival in the dry times else the population would simply die off or you'd get instant competition from all your siblings at once- which is bad if the goal is to parasitize and not outright kill off your prey. Ask yourself: Why would ich be an exception when the mechanisms are both cosmopolitan and easily adapted over and over?

Just analogy there from other parasites, you could totally be right but I am actually sceptical that what you've said is completely universal for a cosmopolitan protozoan like ich. Like I said, not a microbiologist but I did do freshwater inverts, zoology and parasitology among other courses that kinda talked about similar things sometimes but weren't necessarily centric to the discussion here.

The thing with this ich I had was that I never actually saw any of the cysts, which might mean it wasn't ich but maybe flukes. That said, why is it within 48 hours of exposure to this bucket did I start to see symptoms again? Nothing had been added for about 6 months prior to the tank. So unless it's from tapwater and coincidence, something is 'fishy' about the timing. Unless flukes survived a month and a half of 3X recommended copper treatment and then randomly start up again. The bucket in question never touched the copper but was used in water changes pre-copper, so again there is some interesting comparisons there.

I guess we will find out- I treated the tank for flukes today. Should know in a few days if symptoms worsen then it is ich.

I don't think you understand what encysting actually entails. Literally you don't need any other steps. I gave you a rather textbook example of tardigrades forming cysts to survive in vacuum and close to absolute zero, only to break out of the cyst and be completely fine.

To clarify, this is what I am talking about and this is what happens in Ich: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_cyst Note that there is a section on protozoans. While the cyst is more of a developmental one in ich, there is literally no reason why a totally sealed ich cyst (as demonstrated by basic immunity to medications while in the cyst stage) couldn't go through diapause like so many other protozoans can do.

Just so we are on the same page, because I really think you don't understand what it is I am saying. Also, the point of mosquito larvae hatch staggering in the presence of water is a pretty good example of exactly what I am talking about. I am not saying it was present in my tank, I'm saying it was present in the bucket and then hatched as soon as I used the bucket again, which is consistent with dormant cysts which are very common in protozoans.

and yes, you're right not exactly controlled. I am just saying the mechanisms are already biologically in place and it's a rather obvious adaptation for it to have is all. I wonder if anyone has actually looked at the cyst resiliency in any detail.

Ah okay, didn't mean to come off mean or anything just wanted to make sure we are on the same page. Nothing worse than internet slap fighting for 10 pages then realizing you were talking apples vs oranges!

I really don't think it's that big of a stretch for a parasitic protozoan to have a potentially dormant cyst. Again, I wonder if anyone has even looked at cyst resilience or even the potential for the dormancy, or if the "well it doesn't happen" is a byproduct of simply not having observed it in studies that weren't necessarily looking for it. Do you know if it's been directly looked at?