Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkoD
It doesn't matter what it is. It's the method of transmission.
Air is to humans as water is to fish.
Virus is to humans as parasite is to fish.
If a deadly virus is in the air all humans around it will be effected.
If a parasite is in the water all fish should be effected.
But they're not, because healthy fish can resist and fight the effects of ich
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A parasite is a living organism. They need a host to feed off of in order to replicate.
A virus is not considered to be living therefore it does not need its host for "food". Rather it needs a specific host cell to replicate. It attacks the cell itself. Both Lytic and Lysogenic Viruses destroy the host cells in order to reproduce.
Parasites are more easily dealt with via medication if the parasite type is known. There are very few medications for viruses. Virus defense is generally vaccines which usually contain the dead virus' protein coat (immune system responds to this) creating antibodies to deal with that specific virus. Once your immune system creates these antibodies, it can fight off future infection before it makes you sick.
The above method of vaccination can work for parasites but it is not used much anymore. In the case of ich, there is even a theory (I stress theory) that fish can become "immune" to ich after fighting it off. I'd believe this more if we were talking a virus but to some degree it may be true. "From my experience" does not make something fact, just one observation in an uncontrolled environment.
Bottom line, of course a stressed fish is more likely to have a compromised immune system in which viruses, bacteria and parasites will be more successful in attacking and making your fish sick but saying a "healthy" non stressed fish will not get a parasite even if a lot of the parasite is introduced to a closed system is absurd. I'd like to know how the stress level of these fish is being measured anyways. I doubt many fish in our aquariums are NOT stressed to some degree, it's actually quite amazing how well they can adapt and survive considering what they went through and continue to go through in our aquariums.
Anyway, now I'm contributing to this thread getting off track.
Sorry to hear about this Marie. One of my favorite fish over the years on Canreef...