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Well thats just fantastic isnt it? Still at least it was made public.Do they realise this means i'll have to boil about 300 gallons between here and the new year?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/01122005/344/boil-tap-water-order-bug-strikes.html

Anyone buying in a round of uv filters?

Last edited by longhairedgit at 01-Dec-2005 07:22

bleh! we had that and giardia in 03, it was the pits. Alerts went out fast though, and only about 14 people got sick.

I just delayed water changes and used bottled/boiled water for a week or so until levels came back down.

What effect does this bug have on fish and aquatic life?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Depends on the strain, but sometimes in fish it causes wasting and debilitation.It might cause fry die off,or illness in any fish without a mature gut culture .Its a major heads up for the reptile keepers too, it can lead to gastroenteritis that can be so severe it kills.The gastroenteritis can last many weeks.It probably has a more onced effect on reptiles than any other genera.

It also causes immuno depression for at least a short time.The immuno-suppressing part of the infection is actually the scariest bit, and in a huge number of tanks it could lead to other infections by bacteria,fungi and protozoa that many keepers may be unaware are almost omnipresent in their tanks, and thats where the deaths come in.Infections of crypto could mean that your fish dont die from crypto itself, but from being made vulnerable to all the most common aquarium diseases.


Birds can get it too. In most cases its just a nasty case of food poisoning symptoms that just about any higher organism can get,but it will kill a proportion the the small creatures it hits. Humans need not really fear death from it unless theyre already ill,very young,very old, or got aids or something. Invertabrates as usual are largely unaffected by it but might act as host.Cryptosporidium is a parasite so effect is often dependant on the level of infection, obviously the more parasites the sicker a given creature will become. The cystic reproduction could cause some fairly radical swelling in the gut and other tissues.

Fish are generally pretty immune to crypto that occurs where they live naturally, but obviously a tetra in the uk for example, may have no defence.Cryptosporidium parva is the one that has the most noticeable effect on human beings, and is probably the strain least likely to make fish sick, but again that depends to some degree on whether the fish has any evolutionary history of exposure. Its probably fair to say that it wont hurt most fish, but it will make a small proportion ill, and kill a small proportion of those. Its probably better not to take risks than to find out that your fish can be killed by it, or suffer radical immunosuppression.

Theres not really a cure yet , although a number of antibiotics have a limited effect, so prevention is definitely the best option.





Last edited by longhairedgit at 01-Dec-2005 22:56

All I can say that you are lucky they notified the public.
At least you know how to deal with the problem. That is going to be one big water boil. Will it be worth it? Would it be better to buy the water or try to get some tank water from some where.

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I have some really huge water buckets, I might just run them from our (very) hot tap, and leave them in the garage (its a bout 0 f outdoors), hopefully that level of temperature change will kill most of it and buy a big uv filter to nail whatevers left. I cant actually think of an easy way to boil all that water.It might not be completely effective, but it will minimise the risks a hell of a lot.

I suspect an RO unit will also be effective here for those who have one for, say, marine keeping. After all, if it separates out small molecules such as dissolved minerals from the water, it'll definitely separate out Cryptosporidium, which has a particle size a good few million times that of a small molecule.

EDIT : I suppose that means that those in the affected area will also face increased concentrations of treatment chemicals in their tap water too while the water suppliers try and knock this on the head. Which will NOT be removed by boiling. Given my recent experiences with the results of excess treatment chemicals in tap water (i.e., a 50% plus attrition rate among my fishes when I thought I was doing the right thing by them by changing the water) I'd issue a BIG warning to anyone affected to be VERY careful about water changes now that this is out.


Last edited by Calilasseia at 02-Dec-2005 15:42

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002