AHHHHH !! ISOPODS !!!

[Reefguide]

Came home, took a quick glance at my 5g, found one of my quivinile percs with his tail sucked into the filter intake ! Turned filer off and he swam away happy dandy ! He even ate ! Anyways about 3 hrs later I see him being feasted on by 2 hermits. Oh well, he's a gonner no biggie. Anyways I look at the other perc and think to myself man I think this is the one that was sucked into the filter, he's all scared up ! Taking a closer look I notice they are ISOPODS !! I pulled him out and the pods crawled off him then returned him to the tank. Now, these clowns are from my grow out tank so they must have aquired the pods from the LR... right? Another thing, could the pods have killed the opther guy? ( btw, just to toss a wrench in things I think there might be a mantis in this 5g too... I see puffs of sand from time to time coming out of the holes in the LR)

So what do I do about the pods? He has none on him now but I'm sure they are still some in the tank... Medicate maybe? or wait till he gets more on him and either do the same or dip him? BTW, tank is a newly cycled 5g with a chunck of LR in it and an Anemone !

BTW, theres a dup post in New Reefkeeprs Forum, habit of clicking on second link... Admins, pls kill the other post ! TY !

 

[Reefguide]

LFS told me that the medication they have is not reef safe. That I would have to move anemone, hermints, ect and then medicate tank but it probably kill of bacteria and LR so I would have to re-cycle..!! So what now...?

 

[Emperator]

i have heard that cuban hogfish are natural predators of isopods.

 

[Reefguide]

Thats a $60.00+ fish ! ummm, any other options

 

[Anemone]

Unfortunately, bait and catch is about all you can do...and hope you get the adults before they make (many) more babies....

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

Umm...I don't have the links handy, but you might want to do some research on Isopods. Some of these things are real nasty and starvation is about the only way to get rid of them. Certain types can kill fish quickly and even bite you. Dr. Ron has a good description of them and I think there is several good threads here in the archives about them.

I (knock on wood) have never experienced them.

Good Luck.

 

[Reefguide]

...and even bite you.

8O

Doh, sounds like I'm gonna have a hell of a time with these guys...

 

[Anonymous]

Its usually only very young Cuban Hogfish that will eat them.

 

[Reefguide]

DOH² !!!

 

[Anonymous]

good luck

 

[Reefguide]

poor gillie.... (has a gill abnormality) Are pods small enough to be unseen? He's been breathing rather rapidly for a while now...

 

[Reefguide]

Well, late last night well after lights out, I went to check on gillie... he is still clear of isopods, but the tank walls were crawling with them !!! I used a turkey baster and removed 5 of them. There were still some smaller ones running around... Something tells me this is going to reach plague proportions rather quickly... What do I do?? The baiting method is going to surely stress the hell outta the clown !!