Fish with ich, contaminated curing vat?

[cmcoker]

So my clown goby, has what appears to be ich. Going to start tank transfer method when I get home from work today.
Question - I didnt think about the proximity of my QT tank to a curing vat, about 3 feet. I have some pukani in buckets that I am bringing phosphate down in before adding to display, only rock in there, no fish. Is it only the stage that is looking for a host that can be aerosolized?
I guess, I am trying to determine if I just can wait to add the rock to the display (phosphate still around 0.64 anyway) or if I should dry it out before using, bleach it, or what?

Thanks

 

[Lenny_S]

I'll be totally honest, I've never heard of aerosol concerns from marine ich... but sure enough when I did a little research it does seem to be possible. However, from this article https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164 and what I know of aerosolization, rapid air movement and force would be needed to encapsulate the ich into fine water droplets. As long as you didn't carry the fish over the vat while moving it around, hence perhaps having water from the fish drip into it, it just doesn't seem likely you have anything to worry about in your vat.

 

[cmcoker]

Yeah, the references I have seen say maybe up to ten feet.
In the stickies on fish disease, they discussed the study with velvet being aerosolized, and that led to believing ich could probably do the same. I think the study said aerosol transfer could occur up to ten feet away with air conditioner running IIRC.
And I did have air stone in there so definite bubbling.

 

[Humblefish]

The study on aerosol transmission can be found here, which I base the "10 foot rule" upon: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0044848606001785

The subject of the study was velvet's "free swimming" or dinospore stage. However, that is similar in nature to ich's theront stage so it is logical to conclude that these are transmissible via aerosol as well.

The good news is ich theronts are only infective for 48 hrs max without a fish hosting being present to feed on. The bad news is velvet dinospores can last up to 15 days without a fish to feed upon, due to it being capable of drawing energy from light as a dinoflagellate.

 

[cmcoker]

Thanks, Humblefish.

Ok, so >15 days after being moved away from possible transmission, the curing rock would be ok to go in the display, since it has never had a host in it?
It will probably take longer than that to finish leaching out the phosphates, anyway.

 

[Humblefish]

Thanks, Humblefish.

Ok, so >15 days after being moved away from possible transmission, the curing rock would be ok to go in the display, since it has never had a host in it?
It will probably take longer than that to finish leaching out the phosphates, anyway.

Yes >15 days fallow and you are good to go. No free swimming external parasite can survive that long without a fish host to feed upon. And they must feed before being able to drop off, encyst, begin their life cycle anew, etc.

 

[cmcoker]

Yes >15 days fallow and you are good to go. No free swimming external parasite can survive that long without a fish host to feed upon. And they must feed before being able to drop off, encyst, begin the life cycle anew, etc.

Great, thanks for your help