Originally Posted by
FishyScientist
http:///forum/post/3274949
If many LFSs or online sources treat fish with copper, then how can you assume that every fish always has ich? There would have to be a source somewhere.
According to that source, Jstvd8, the report of the tomont hatching taking 72 days was in cooler water. This stage is strain and temperature dependent. The article states that in marine aquarium temperatures that this hatching stage takes up to 28 days. If you add to it the trophont stage time where the parasite is attached to its host, then the total reasonable time to quarantine a fish would be 5-6 weeks. This makes the most scientific sense to me, anyway, based on that article, which seems to be referenced well.
correct this is a copy of that statment
The time frame in which tomonts may hatch can vary greatly from 3 to 72 days (Noga, 2000). The life cycle of Cryptocaryon irritans is temperature dependant so an extended period of 72 days is highly unusual and can only occur in cooler waters. At “reef-type” temperatures the tomonts take from 3 to 28 days to excyst (hatch) with the peak between 4 and 8 days (Colorni, 1985). This variance may be a strategy for survival. However, after two weeks in the tomont stage the number of theronts produced and their ability to infect are greatly reduced (Colorni, 1992)