Ich in the Ocean

[oonycxwilloo]

Might be a stupid question but I been up for more than 30 hours right now and strange things are coming to mind as of now.

Since there is no copper in natural sea water or hyposalinity, if fish in the wild are infected with ich, won't that mean ALL fish are bound to have ich?

My opinion would be more towards the yes side.

Since water is surrounding the world, won't it spread throughout?

What's your opinion?

 

[jay1335]

I think certain types of fish breed and die so fast that ick may not have the chance to take hold the way it does in a fish tank. The ocean is so large that I cant imagine all of it being infected at the same time. Although another interesting thing is that there is no one doing water changes in the ocean right? Maybe there is some sort of natural way we dont know that controls ick. My .02

 

[Jzhou]

Well the issue with ich in an aquarium is that the confined space makes the probability of ich finding a host sky rocket. In the ocean, because there is so much more space, they kind of just die if they cant find something.

 

[oonycxwilloo]

But don't you think in the ocean there is WAY more fish, and judging from some videos I have seen on youtube of people diving, if I was the parasite, finding a host wouldn't be hard at all.

 

[Jzhou]

lol, but the ocean has even more water. The fish to water ratio and the height of water from surface to floor is extremely high.

 

[ming]

Ich can't really swim against the current, so its where ever the current takes them. If you think about it, the ratio of fish to water in the ocean is like 1 fish per olympic size swimming pool. Although in the videos you see, its because they're all schooling together and there are thousands of gallons above and around the fish. The water current is moving so fast, its like getting an 100% water change every minute.
There are also schools of cleaner wrasses, cleaner gobies, or cleaner shrimps which also help.

 

[oonycxwilloo]

lol, but the ocean has even more water. The fish to water ratio and the height of water from surface to floor is extremely high.

Good point...

Ming, you brought up some very strong points as well... I guess I gotta google my way out of this one..

 

[jay1335]

Think about this we have only explored something like less than 5% of the ocean.....

 

[Jzhou]

lol think of it like this. A shark poops in the ocean, there is enough water so that it doesn't make a difference if both him, his father, mother, third uncle, and sister were to defecate at the same time. Now if that same shark poops in a 400 gallon tank. Poor shark, he's swimming in a toilet.

 

[jay1335]

Haha yeah def I think its hard for us all to actually realize the enormity of the ocean.

 

[OzoneParkGuy]

I wouldn't go as far as to say there isn't any copper in the worlds natural oceans... what was once above ground is below and vise versa. Tectonic plates constantly shifting. If you look at some of the salt brands... they include copper. How much I don't know. Its a natural resourse. Time for you to go to bed Will. LOL!

 

[oonycxwilloo]

another good point!!

LOL, thats why I reserved the right for the stupid question... I blame it on the lack of sleep.. haha

 

[OzoneParkGuy]

LOL!!! Laterzz!!

 

[Domboski]

All fish in the ocean carry parasites (more than people may want to even think about). The key point is there are many more hosts available in the ocean so healthy fish and parasites usually live in a manageable balance. When confined to a glass box, parasites tend to overwhelm its host because of the lack of options and the stress of an unnatural environment.

 

[reefs247]

I agree..taking a fish from the ocean is kind of like banging a hooker you never know what they are carrying so you take the proper precautions or bad things might happen.

 

[Aquadicted]

All fish in the ocean carry parasites (more than people may want to even think about). The key point is there are many more hosts available in the ocean so healthy fish and parasites usually live in a manageable balance. When confined to a glass box, parasites tend to overwhelm its host because of the lack of options and the stress of an unnatural environment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8

 

[basiab]

There are a lot of diseases in this world that are infectious, yet most of us are not sick. Even colds that just about everyone gets at one time or another, at any one time only a very small percentage of people have it.

 

[Domboski]

There are a lot of diseases in this world that are infectious, yet most of us are not sick. Even colds that just about everyone gets at one time or another, at any one time only a very small percentage of people have it.

Diseases is one thing, parasites is something else. Almost all wild fish have parasites. I would say they ALL do but I don't have time to find the paper I read on the internet that actually put an average number to the amount of parasites a single marine fish carries. Its a crazy high number.

 

[kroman]

The other thing to keep in mind is that in a reef there are many cleaning stations set up by various critters. Also most fish can survive the initial infection then as the parasite matures and drops off the chances of that fish getting it again is slim to none. the problem with our glass boxes is that once the parasites drop odd multipy and reinfect the fish.

 

[jaa1456]

In all my years fishing, snorkelin anf diving I have only seen one fish in the wild with Ick. It was a Striped Bass I caught in the Raritan Bay. Maybe 12 lbs or so, It was covered head to fin with it.