Does Ich affect inverts?

[fade2black]

I just noticed that the one and only fish I have is starting to show the signs of Ich. I've been following the thread "Treating for Ich" and have some good ideas on how to treat my fish. I was going to remove it and put it in a QT but seeing as it is a damsel I would probably go insane before I caught it! :) So I'll try the vitamin supp. and see how it goes. Now I'll get to the question. I have a peppermint shrimp and 5 hermits in the tank also. Will they be affected by Ich? And if not, why doesn't the parasite attach them?

Thanks.

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I need to win the lottery........

[rshimek]

Marine ich will not attach to hermit crabs, shrimp, snails, hydroids, corals, or any invertebrate simply because they are not the host that it is adapted for. As an analogy, humans have many specific parasites, including lice. So do birds. But, bird lice will not live on humans and human lice will not live on birds. The animals need the host they are adapted to.

Other animals often have very different physiology. For example, fish blood is red from the presence of iron-containing hemoglobin, while hermit crab, shrimp, and mollusk blood is blue from the presence of copper-containing hemocyanin. Differences of this nature can spell the differences between acceptable and not acceptable potential hosts.

Cheers, Ron