Re: Whitespot Myths and Facts ...
#6
Yup thats good info, a lot of protozoa , sporazoa and fungi work on similar principles , which is why I recommend QT for 2 months.
The situation with hexamita infections are much the same, and I had to do some myth debunking of my own a few years back, and am constantly repeating myself.
When people start talking garlic, feeding, treating in situ without affecting the reef- just stop listening , its rubbish.All these groups have to be treated properly, and their life-cycle far exceeds most peoples estimations. Its not incurable, but it is bloody difficult to treat, and then theres a huge amount of confusion caused by misdiagnosis of similar ailments.
Even the taxonomy of the two major in infections that cause diseases both known as "whitespot" or "ich" are hugely confused. One was primarily fungal, another was mostly protozoan (though both defy those descriptive terms and reside somewhere between those two evolutionary groups) and at one stage in taxonomy they even had the same scientific name!
Then combine that with freshwater "ich" and thats recipe enough to confuse the hell out of most people studying the subject.
One thing is for sure though, no homeopathathic diet regime, or mild cure shifts any of them, none of the cures are reef or invertebrate safe, and protocols for treating all of them require on high levels of toxicity, long treatment times, and when necessary , segregation from the reef. You QT past the cycle of infection, and you treat afflicted fish, and thats pretty much all there is to know.
I think most people are made victim, because of common fishbuying culture, and the reliance on UV which does not provide real control in importers , shops, or in the home. Once this lie is exposed, and the idea of running a disease free aquarium on a small budget with short cycle times and no quarantine is exposed as being as impractical as it really is. Why so many people fail to run healthy marine aquaria ceases to be a mystery. Its because of lack of investment in infrastructure even in the home.
Ich is there to remind us that marine keeping hasnt been quite as democratised as many shops and industries would have us believe, and that you have to consider quarantine, multiple aquaria, and have a knowledge of LR free aquaria as well as your final destination aquarium.
Its a major bummer, but there it is. Marine aquaria remain very expensive if you want disease protection.Anything else is rolling dice. In the absence of decent diagnosis, and reef safe treatments, (and that really does appear to be the genuine current situation,) quarantine and segregated treatment is all you have to rely on.
Well done for pointing that article out howard. Seriously well done.