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hey guys i just wanted to know a few things about this parasite,i understand how it multiplys,and its cycle.so
what makes it move around the tank,fins,current,or what?
how does it ancore itself to the fish?
how come not all the fish in the tank get it when it does pop its ugly head up?

thanx guys.

i belive they are free floaters they ride the current till they can attach to a fish they hatch from the custs in the sand so bottom feeders pick this up quicker and more often plus i have found fish that have contracted ich before tend to be more tolerant to it and contact it less.

1-Ancistrus triradiatus 4-Gymnocorymbus ternetzi 2-Danio frankei
2-Danio rerio 2-Danio Starfire 2-Chromobotia macracanthus 2-Erpetoichthys calabaricus 4-Ampullariidae 1-Mastacembelus erythrotaenia

It will usually only attack stressed fish or fish that have not been adapted to a new environment.

Here is a lot of info about ICH does this help you?

WHITE SPOT ICH

“White-spot” Parasite, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis

This disease is easy to recognise, as the skin of the infected fish becomes covered with white spots, each the size of a pinhead. Each spot represents the site of one, or sometimes two, parasites. All parts of the body gills, may be attacked.

The causative agent is named Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. It is a spherical and large by protozoan standards, measuring up to 1mm in diameter. Short, hair-like processes known as cilia are spread densely over the surface. A horseshoe-shape nucleus is also present which is clearly visible under the microscope.

By the means of the cilia the parasite rotates vigorously and burrows into the surface layer (epidermis) of its host. It feeds on skin cells and surface debris. The burrowing action causes a local irritation and the epidermis grows across the parasite to enclose it, thus forming a “White Spot”

Reproduction occurs away from the host. After maturing in the skin, which takes a few days to three weeks, depending on the temperature, the parasite bores out, swims away and comes to rest on a submerged object such as a stone, or plant. Here it forms a jelly-like cyst within which a series of rapid cell divisions take place. In a few hours, several hundred daughter cells or swarmers, are produced, which break out of the cyst to find a new host. Alighting on the skin, they burrow in to recommence the life cycle. If they fail to find a host within three to four days, they perish.

Symptoms
If the protozoan is introduced into a tank containing healthy fish, little harm may occur, other than a fleeting infection with a few parasites. If however, the fishes are already weakened for some other reason, e.g. lack of oxygen, the parasite will quickly cover the whole body surface, causing irritation and opening up wounds for secondary infections. The host mobility may become affected. In sever cases, death may result.

Prevention
If white-spot appears in an otherwise healthy tank, the parasite “must” have been introduced either as an adult on a newly acquired fish, or as the cyst form on, for example new stones, a plant or even added water. The only certain method of prevention, is to quarantine all new stock, including stones, plants etc; preferably in water at a temperature of 77F. Allow one week’s quarantine.

Treatments
There are too many treatments today to recommend any specific one. Many can be bought easily at aquarium outlets.


Several very interesting points to think about.

Very easy to recognise.
Its reproduction cycle.
No host they will die.
If introduced into a healthy tank little harm may occur.
Pay attention to all tank details.
Weakened fish, and lack of oxygen can/may and will cause sever deaths. All this is usually caused by poor tank maintenance and/or incorrect and faulty equipment.
Prevention is the best cure
A Parasite “must” be introduced into the tank.

This information was collected from Fresh Water Tropical Fish

***********************************************************************************
Calilasseia
POSTED BY Calilasseia

Posted 24-Nov-2006 01:48
The key facts to remember about White Spot (and I'm sure Keith has covered these, but I'll repeat them just in case) are:[1] Only one part of the life cycle of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, the causative parasite, is susceptible to medication, which means that ...[2] Medication has to be applied even when the symptoms appear to have gone for up to 7 days afterwards, to make sure that all the susceptible stages of the parasite have been eliminated. The parasite in question has a three stage life cycle. The part that manifests itself is the trophont or feeding stage. This stage burrows through the fish's slime coat, attaches itself to the outer layer of tissue or epithelium, and starts feeding upon the fish. This stage is impervious to medication because it forms a protective cyst around itself. The next stage is the tomont stage. This forms when the parasite has ingested sufficient nutrients from the fish to begin reproduction. This stage is largely invisible in the aquarium, because it detaches from the fish, falls into the substrate, and remains encysted while it divides into daughter cells - something like 1,000 daughter cells for each tomont. Because it is encysted, it is impervious to medication again. The third stage is the larval or tomite stage. Each daughter cell becomes a free swimming tomite, which is microscopic and invisible to the eye. At this point in the life cycle, the parasite is vulnerable to medication. The trouble is, of course, that the swarming tomites are microscopic, and so you can't actually see them directly with the naked eye, which means you have to keep medication levels in the aquarium maintained at sufficient concentration to kill the tomites for as long as they are likely to persist. Depending upon temperature, the tomites could mutate into mature trophonts in as little as 3 days or take as long as 7 days. In an aquarium that contains solely Labyrinth Fishes, one means of dealing with the parasite is to increase the ambient aquarium temperature to 85 degrees Fahrenheit during the medication stage. This speeds up the parasite's life cycle, and ensures that the medication can destroy all the free-swimming microscopic tomites before they have a chance to attach themselves to a fish and begin the cycle anew. With NON Labyrinth Fishes, however, this could induce unwanted additional respiratory stresses - Labyrinth Fishes can cope with this because they are able to breathe atmospheric air to compensate for the lower concentration of dissolved oxygen at higher water temperatures, but fishes that rely exclusively upon gill-based respiration cannot do this. Some fishes such as Clown Loaches can be subjected to elevated temperatures as they experience these in the wild periodically, but it's not a good idea to do this with certain other fishes - Panda Corys spring to mind as one species that should NOT be subject to temperatures above 80 degrees F because they're inhabitants of cooler waters in their native Peru, and will die of heat stress if 'cooked' in this manner. So, depending upon ambient temperature, the tomites will appear in as little as 3 days, or you could be unfortunate and the tomites could take 7 days to appear. In cooler aquaria (e.g., a Panda Cory aquarium kept at 72 degrees F) you could be required to maintain medication for up to 14 days. If the fishes can be moved to a hospital tank for treatment, and medicated there, this is preferable because you don't have to subject your main aquarium's biological filter to adverse effects from the medication - you can just destroy the parasites there. Removing the fishes from the main aquarium also has the advantage that any free swimming tomites that arise in the main aquarium are left with no hosts to attach to, and thus starve to death. So, at the end of your medication period in the hospital aquarium, you are free to return the fishes to the main aquarium. Of course, your problem here is that you have to remember to add a small quantity of fish food to the main aquarium as if you were still feeding fishes so that the biological filter in the main aquarium is kept ticking over whilst the fishes themselves are temporarily rehoused. Once the fishes have been removed from the main aquarium, by the way, you can speed things up vis-a-vis destroying remaining parasites by increasing the temperature to 105 degrees F while the fishes are absent, which will speed up the life cycle considerably, and result in the accelerated production of tomites ... which then find themselves bereft of fishes to attach to. And, they starve to death quicker at the higher temperatures, because they use up their reserves more quickly. Get yourself a cheap plastic aquarium that you're never going to use as anything BUT a hospital tank, put your fishes in that, medicate them, then whack up the main aquarium temperature to 105 degrees while the fishes are in the 'hospital'. Once the fishes are free of parasites and have remained so for 7 days, you can return the main aquarium to its normal temperature and reintroduce the now treated fishes. Any watertight container that is safe to house fishes in (i.e., it hasn't ever been used to mix weedkiller or insecticide, and doesn't leach toxic material into the water) can be pressed into service as the 'hospital' for the duration, so long as it is possible to maintain aeration and some basic filtration (e.g., sponge filter) within the container during the medication phase. Oh, and DO NOT use activated carbon filtration or ion exchange resins in the hospital aquarium because that will remove your medication! EDIT : Almost forgot. I use Protozin. Protozin is somewhat expensive, but it is claimed by the makers to be formulated so as to impact as little as possible upon filter bacteria. And, upon the occasions I have had to use it, it works well

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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ok cool thanx everyone,especally keith,well done,i posted this because of me being lazy 3 of my fish paid for it,the other day,i went to a fish store that was not my normall shop that i use(my local 1 was closed),and i got some feeders,the whole fish setup,tanks,stands,stock,water,all looked a bit dodgy,and i was guna pass on the feeders.but instead i got em,and when i got home(stupid me,always taking ages in the fish stores)i realized i was running late for work,and as i already had a convict in my qt,i didnt have time to put in and ancor a divider,so i just chucked em in the 2 tanks and left for work,well the next morn when my lights came on,boom there is was, whitespot,out of all the fish only 3 got it,none of my bottom feeders have it,just 2 small blue acaras,and a small green terror,and out of the 2 tanks that got the feeders put in, only 1 of them became infected,that why i asked them questions,anyway thankz again guys,ive got the treatment in already and ive turned up my temp,this was a few days ago now,and i can see it clearing on the face of the gt,but it just goes to show the 1 time i didnt put them into my qt tank,they got infected,next time i wont be so bloody lazy

I am not sure if it is in that reply BUT remember to keep treating the tank for several weeks. It is even possible to introduce it via a fish (as you know) that even looks healthy. It only takes a few of them to get into the tank then its big Ich time.

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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yeah cool,i remember from last time,to keep treating for 7 days even if you cant see anymore,as to make sure you have killed all parts the cycle,does that sound about rite?

If you read that info carefully you will find that 7 days is not enough it only requires one little Ich to be alive and off you again. When I had the outbreak in the Betta tank Via one cardinal I treated the tank for an extra month.

Overkill may be BUT I don't have Ich any more.

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
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well you do have a good point there,ive got plenty of meds,so i mite keep on treating for longer then a?also perhaps you can tell me,how come both tanks got the infected feeders,but only 1 of the tanks had a outbreak?

ps,also jerrard,says above that bottom feeders get it first,because of where the parasite comes to rest,but none of my bns,or my big pleco,even got 1 little sist on em,please explain

There is a good possibility only infected fish went into one tank and the other fish were healthy enough to resist the Ich. Other than that no idea just the luck of the draw.

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
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ahhh ok thanx everyone

If the tanks are set up with different filtration systems then it's quite possible that one of the tanks had only that slight difference in paramaters that made it more susceptible than the other tank.

Some bottom feeders from what I remember are slitghtly more resistant to ich than others. I don't think any fish is immune (correct me if I'm wrong) but some are more likely to get it than others. Especially any fish that doesn't handle stress well.

Good luck with your treatment Hokese.

^_^

well its all cleared upnot a white spot on any fish,ill still keep on treating just to be surethanx for the help guys

Good luck!

Since you're continuing to treat, keep up with the water changes per the meds directions. And also test for ammonia, and nitrIte. After treatments you may see a small minicycle and I wouldnt want to see more stress (=greater chance of ich) on the fish after you've just finished getting them over a case.

^_^

ok cool,ill do some tests,and makesure that everything is ok

You can give your good bacteria a boost by adding Sera Nitrivec at a recommended dosage. I have been adding it to every water change and I double up when I clean the Eheim Pro11 canister filter. This makes sure the good and original bacteria is always in a healthy state.

You could also do a week or so of Melafix to help releive any stress.

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
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yeah cool ive already got the melifix in,and i also use stress coat,and i use cycle to keep my bio up to scratch,ive herd alot of people that say cycle is no good,but i rekon its great,ive never had a problem using cycle,what do you think of it guys?