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can an octopus get the "ich" parasite?

Tomeczek

Cuttlefish
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Nov 12, 2009
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All of my fish died in my 55 gallon due to ich, i was too late to catch it. :/

so im thinking about getting an octo to put in there for a year or so since they live about that long.

can they catch ich?
 
Octopuses have been found to host some parasites but the ones I have seen reported are in the gills and not visible on the outside. The ich parasite is not often hosted by scaleless fish (like mandarins) and we have not had a reported case of an octo hosting any observed parasites during my entire time on TONMO. The combined information makes me think an octopuse is unlikely to host them, however, ich is not a virus, it is a parasite, a living critter that feeds on its host and I don't know that there is ever a guarantee.
 
ohh man not even the experts know for sure? :/ i guess ill get one and find out? an octopus is an invertebrate and ich supposedly only affects vertebrates

i dont know if i can wait 6 weeks for the ich to die, with a boring tank full of crabs and snails.

kick ich sucks by the way, the stuff just doesn't do what it says it does.
 
It depends on what type of ich is present in your system. There are three main salt water types - Cryptocaryon, Oodinium and Brooklynella. If you leave your system fish-free for the next 4-8 weeks, you should be safe. It appears that these parasites only have a fish host, not an intermediate host (like an invertebrate), so you should be ok. If it was my tank, I would wait 8 weeks - it may take you that long to locate an octopus anyway.

Diagnosing and Treating Saltwater Ich (White Spot Disease)
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/fishdiseases/a/aa102797_3.htm

Signs and Symptoms of Brooklynella Disease in Fish
 

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