This was written by a friend of mine he has bee nin this hobby for many years please read as there is a abundunce of information in this
Cryptocaryon irritans is a big problem in the marine ornamental fish hobby. It is so pervasive that it is really a matter of when you will have to deal with it and not so much "if" anymore. When I started the hobby back in the mid 80's it was not near the problem it is today. I cannot really account for why that is, but my supposition is that far less fish were being moved thru the custody chain and better specimens were being collected plus there were fewer vendors so the quality control may have been better....but I have no proof of any of it, just my opinion. I remember driving to Atlanta with my boss to pick out our fish and then drive them back to our store near Augusta. It was so much fun and mind blowing to see all those fish. Plus, being a poor minimum wage high school worker, I got to buy stuff at direct cost...great times. I have seen crypt on many fish in every store in the HR area.....and other areas. Many think that if they go to a LFSand see infected fish, that it is the store's fault.....some truth to that in a few cases....but it is not all their fault. Others think that if they go to a LFS and the operators are real nice, helpful and invigorating that their fish will also be the same way and that their attitude equates to healthy fish.....and that just isn't so either. Truth is anyone can experience crypt if they do not understand how NOT to experience it....at least in their display tank. Many times the problems begin well before the LFS owner placed his/her order for the fish in question. The way fish are collected and transported, it is quite easy to see how this parasite gets in to our tanks when the appropriate precautions are not undertaken. But there is great hope and cause for cheers, as it is something that we all can avoid. I refer you to the Quarantine thread.
Crypt is a protozoan parasite that many call "ich".....a leftover term for it's freshwater cousin Ichthyopthirius multifiliis. Many just kept the name because its appearance on fish is similar in presentation in both environments and they were already familiar with it. Actually though, it is more correctly referred to as crypt. This parasite has a specific and definite lifecycle. Knowledge of this lifecycle is paramount to understand how to get rid of it. It is nearly impossible to get rid of in a fully stocked reef tank that has fish in it.....at least in my experience and the experience of other aquarists whose knowledge and experiences I trust. I cannot stress enough that this parasite is an actual parasite...like fleas on a dog. It is not "caused" by temperature, poor nutrition, or an assundry of other causes. I even heard someone in one of the LFS say that "all bony fish have it and that stress just brings it out". There is an element to all of those statements, but to say that fish cannot be completely cured of the parasite and it cannot be totally eradicated from a system is just wrong....it just is. One can have a system where no matter what kind of stress a fish suffers, it will never break out with crypt....because they can create an environment where the parasite is just not present. Again, the key to this is to understand the lifecycle.
Some fish are able to live with the parasite and not die. If one visits Reef Chief and looks at the fish in the 210 as you walk in, there are a few fish in there that exhibit the parasite every week or so....especially the Powder Blue. RC has since moved and that fish did eventually perish but lived in the system with the parasite for several months. Some fish manage to not die from this parasite, but that is the exception and not the rule. Sometimes aquarists are able to provide great nutrition and a stable system so that the fish find a tentative balance between their immune function and the parasites invasiveness. Facts are though that crypt is probably the single biggest reason that hobbyists lose fish in a "cycled" aquarium. It usually weakens and stresses the fish to the point that they perish after 2 or three life cycles of the parasite. The parasite just reaches such numbers that it overwhelms even healthy fish.
Crypt is a obligate fish parasite. It cannot live without a fish host during it's growth portion of the life cycle. I will start explaining the lifecycle from the attachment to the fish host since that is how nearly everyone will bring it into their aquarium. When the parasite is attached to the fish it is termed the trophont stage. This is the stage where they feed and grow to the salt size particles that you can see with your eyes. When they attach initially you cannot see them...they are too small....that is how you are able to bring home an infected fish and not know it for a week or two. The trophonts borrow under the mucus layer of the fish to mature/feed/grow before they leave the host over the course of a few days...of course all these timeframes are temperature dependent. Higher the temp, the faster the process. Do not believe the forum gurus that tell you temperature does not matter. This info I give you is based on the research done by Colorni and Burgess. For some reason there is a guy on Reef Central that has done no research but fancies himself a fancy statistician that is telling people that temp doesn't matter. Anyway.....at the point they leave the fish they are called protomonts.
Protomonts fall to the substrate and release their cilia...usually at dawn or dusk....and there is a sinister reason for this. Once detached they inch along the bottom until they find a suitable attachment point on some form of calcareous material. Once attached they form a cyst and become tomonts. This occurs over the course of a day usually.
Tomonts are the stage where the parasite undergoes rapid fission and produces the doom that is to come. The tomont rapidly undergoes binary fission to produce a couple hundred new ciliated parasites.....per tomont. This process can take several days or just a few....it depends on the temperature. In any event, once the process is complete the cyst will rupture and release these "babies" to seek out a host to start the process all over. Oh, and this release usually occurs at dawn or dusk....so that hopefully the fish is just sitting right there where it tends to go at night......told you it was sinister. The released babies are called theronts. They look like our childhood drawings of the sun....heck they look like my adult drawings of the sun..LOL...and they have anywhere from 12-24 hours to find a host or their high metabolism gets the best of them and they die.
Theronts attach wherever they can but if too many attach to the gill lamellae, it really poses a threat to the fish. Not only does it interfere with gas exchange, but it can severely limit the fish's ability to excrete waste and excess salt....adding to the stress.
.
Cryptocaryon irritans is a big problem in the marine ornamental fish hobby. It is so pervasive that it is really a matter of when you will have to deal with it and not so much "if" anymore. When I started the hobby back in the mid 80's it was not near the problem it is today. I cannot really account for why that is, but my supposition is that far less fish were being moved thru the custody chain and better specimens were being collected plus there were fewer vendors so the quality control may have been better....but I have no proof of any of it, just my opinion. I remember driving to Atlanta with my boss to pick out our fish and then drive them back to our store near Augusta. It was so much fun and mind blowing to see all those fish. Plus, being a poor minimum wage high school worker, I got to buy stuff at direct cost...great times. I have seen crypt on many fish in every store in the HR area.....and other areas. Many think that if they go to a LFSand see infected fish, that it is the store's fault.....some truth to that in a few cases....but it is not all their fault. Others think that if they go to a LFS and the operators are real nice, helpful and invigorating that their fish will also be the same way and that their attitude equates to healthy fish.....and that just isn't so either. Truth is anyone can experience crypt if they do not understand how NOT to experience it....at least in their display tank. Many times the problems begin well before the LFS owner placed his/her order for the fish in question. The way fish are collected and transported, it is quite easy to see how this parasite gets in to our tanks when the appropriate precautions are not undertaken. But there is great hope and cause for cheers, as it is something that we all can avoid. I refer you to the Quarantine thread.
Crypt is a protozoan parasite that many call "ich".....a leftover term for it's freshwater cousin Ichthyopthirius multifiliis. Many just kept the name because its appearance on fish is similar in presentation in both environments and they were already familiar with it. Actually though, it is more correctly referred to as crypt. This parasite has a specific and definite lifecycle. Knowledge of this lifecycle is paramount to understand how to get rid of it. It is nearly impossible to get rid of in a fully stocked reef tank that has fish in it.....at least in my experience and the experience of other aquarists whose knowledge and experiences I trust. I cannot stress enough that this parasite is an actual parasite...like fleas on a dog. It is not "caused" by temperature, poor nutrition, or an assundry of other causes. I even heard someone in one of the LFS say that "all bony fish have it and that stress just brings it out". There is an element to all of those statements, but to say that fish cannot be completely cured of the parasite and it cannot be totally eradicated from a system is just wrong....it just is. One can have a system where no matter what kind of stress a fish suffers, it will never break out with crypt....because they can create an environment where the parasite is just not present. Again, the key to this is to understand the lifecycle.
Some fish are able to live with the parasite and not die. If one visits Reef Chief and looks at the fish in the 210 as you walk in, there are a few fish in there that exhibit the parasite every week or so....especially the Powder Blue. RC has since moved and that fish did eventually perish but lived in the system with the parasite for several months. Some fish manage to not die from this parasite, but that is the exception and not the rule. Sometimes aquarists are able to provide great nutrition and a stable system so that the fish find a tentative balance between their immune function and the parasites invasiveness. Facts are though that crypt is probably the single biggest reason that hobbyists lose fish in a "cycled" aquarium. It usually weakens and stresses the fish to the point that they perish after 2 or three life cycles of the parasite. The parasite just reaches such numbers that it overwhelms even healthy fish.
Crypt is a obligate fish parasite. It cannot live without a fish host during it's growth portion of the life cycle. I will start explaining the lifecycle from the attachment to the fish host since that is how nearly everyone will bring it into their aquarium. When the parasite is attached to the fish it is termed the trophont stage. This is the stage where they feed and grow to the salt size particles that you can see with your eyes. When they attach initially you cannot see them...they are too small....that is how you are able to bring home an infected fish and not know it for a week or two. The trophonts borrow under the mucus layer of the fish to mature/feed/grow before they leave the host over the course of a few days...of course all these timeframes are temperature dependent. Higher the temp, the faster the process. Do not believe the forum gurus that tell you temperature does not matter. This info I give you is based on the research done by Colorni and Burgess. For some reason there is a guy on Reef Central that has done no research but fancies himself a fancy statistician that is telling people that temp doesn't matter. Anyway.....at the point they leave the fish they are called protomonts.
Protomonts fall to the substrate and release their cilia...usually at dawn or dusk....and there is a sinister reason for this. Once detached they inch along the bottom until they find a suitable attachment point on some form of calcareous material. Once attached they form a cyst and become tomonts. This occurs over the course of a day usually.
Tomonts are the stage where the parasite undergoes rapid fission and produces the doom that is to come. The tomont rapidly undergoes binary fission to produce a couple hundred new ciliated parasites.....per tomont. This process can take several days or just a few....it depends on the temperature. In any event, once the process is complete the cyst will rupture and release these "babies" to seek out a host to start the process all over. Oh, and this release usually occurs at dawn or dusk....so that hopefully the fish is just sitting right there where it tends to go at night......told you it was sinister. The released babies are called theronts. They look like our childhood drawings of the sun....heck they look like my adult drawings of the sun..LOL...and they have anywhere from 12-24 hours to find a host or their high metabolism gets the best of them and they die.
Theronts attach wherever they can but if too many attach to the gill lamellae, it really poses a threat to the fish. Not only does it interfere with gas exchange, but it can severely limit the fish's ability to excrete waste and excess salt....adding to the stress.
.
