It's almost like saying your tank could have ich right now and you might never know it if your water is pristine, but once something goes south with your parameters boom all of a sudden there's an outbreak
Ick from earthworms
- Thread starter freak78
- Start date
1) Ich does not have a dormant stage. However, it can survive for extensive periods due to having a potentially very long life cycle (up to 10 weeks) due to many factors including the immunity of the fish to which it is attached, the temperature of the water, etc. Ich was found that would not cycle for 72 days, although most will cycle on ideal conditions in 4-8 days.
2) Fish can acquire a degree of temporary immunity, although the success of this varies according to many variables and most fish dies when heavily infected. As a result, a fish that "looks" fine, may harbor ich for some extended length of time (many weeks.)
3) Fresh water ich is attracted to chemicals excreted from fish mucus. While marine ich can infect marine turtles, there does not appear to be any study or reported case of freshwater ich infecting any animal other than fish. Indeed, studies universally descrive freshwater ich as a parasite of fish, not a generalized "water" parasite. Naturally, that does not preclude ich being in the water that is passing through or around an earthworm, but earthworms have not been reported as hosts for the ich parasite.
4) Ich do not swim very far inside a tank to locate a host. The host has to be relatively close to them as it's ability to track host chemical trails is fairly limited. Because of this, it's likely that most of the ich in an infested tank die, having never found a host.
5) Ich appear to only search for a host between 2 am and 9 am, local time, regardless of lighting conditions. The reason for this is speculated as fish are naturally least active during that time range.
2) Fish can acquire a degree of temporary immunity, although the success of this varies according to many variables and most fish dies when heavily infected. As a result, a fish that "looks" fine, may harbor ich for some extended length of time (many weeks.)
3) Fresh water ich is attracted to chemicals excreted from fish mucus. While marine ich can infect marine turtles, there does not appear to be any study or reported case of freshwater ich infecting any animal other than fish. Indeed, studies universally descrive freshwater ich as a parasite of fish, not a generalized "water" parasite. Naturally, that does not preclude ich being in the water that is passing through or around an earthworm, but earthworms have not been reported as hosts for the ich parasite.
4) Ich do not swim very far inside a tank to locate a host. The host has to be relatively close to them as it's ability to track host chemical trails is fairly limited. Because of this, it's likely that most of the ich in an infested tank die, having never found a host.
5) Ich appear to only search for a host between 2 am and 9 am, local time, regardless of lighting conditions. The reason for this is speculated as fish are naturally least active during that time range.
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