Cirolanid isopod...time to go fishless???

[ryshark]

Earlier today I left a post regarding longnose butterflyfish and that I may get one in the future. It may be the long future now. This morning I realized that both of my green chromis were missing. I looked everywhere and couldnt find them. Tonight I took a flashlight to the tank looking around and one of those isopods came swimming into my light area out of nowhere. The reason I know about these is from that Xtalreef hitchiker site. 2-big eyes, pill bug looking about 3/4". He swam off so I started looking for him with the light. Funny thing is I then found one green chromis in a rock. Normally he is very active and he didnt even come out during feeding time this afternoon. I noticed a few days ago my other green chromis was missing a piece of its tail, so I'm guessing maybe the injured one died and now the sole chromis is stressed because it is a schooling fish all by itself. However, by this time I was more concerned and freaked out about the isopod. I actually found it again and was able to get a net in front of him and trick him to swim into it. I quickly swooped it out of the tank and was careful not to touch it because of stuff I read about them. What are the chances there are more of these in there? I am wondering if I should take my 2-ocellaris, chromis, sgt. major and Blue Tang out and set up a QT. My blue Tang had white spots, ich, which seemed to go away but now its eyes have small white clouds in them. And now this Isopod problem. From now on I will QT everything! I figure leaving my main tank fishless should also help the isopod problem incase there are more. Hopefully not! I wish I would have listened to everybody on here about QT. But that still probably wouldn't have taken care of the isopod, unless I start QT for new live rock too?

 

[roka64]

Wow, that's strange that you didn't notice it on the fish. How big were the chromis? Trying to add a fish that MIGHT eat them is risky, as they have been known to eat their way out of the fish's stomach. If you move your fish to QT, you will have to keep them there for 2-3 months to try to starve them out. I have never dealt with them, but that is the little info I have read.

 

[ryshark]

I didn't catch it attached to a fish. I'm not sure if the isopod relates to the chromis issue or not. I'm almost positive its an isopod I caught. I will take a pic when I get home.
Thanks

 

[roka64]

They don't stay attached to the fish all the time. They will hide in the substrate or rock and pounce when a fish swims over them. I think they start at the tail (which you described) and then go for veins or muscle tissue.

 

[ryshark]

Oh that makes sense. I really hope that was the only one in there, but the way my luck has been with the tank lately its probably wishful thinking.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

There's never "just one" of anything in your tank - especially if you didn't put it there to start with!

All isopods aren't bad. While many are nasty little buggers, there are some that are not. Not sure how to tell one from the other... sorry. All I know though is that I had an "invasion" of them at one point in my tank. They never seemed to bother my fish. After several months of an "eradication program" (crushing/squishing them whenever I had a chance, and sucking them out with a siphon during water changes as they perched on the rock) they seem to be gone. Or at least I don't see them anymore.

I'm not sure if going fishless would kill them off. Seems like little buggers like that are quite adaptable to what they can eat. But it sounds like letting your tank go fallow would be a good thing, to at least treat the ich it sounds like you have. I'd sure get that taken care of before adding more (and bigger) fish.

 

[ryshark]

I took a few pictures of the actual Isopod I pulled out of my tank last night, but I wasn't able to attach them onto this website. I guess it was slightly too big. I cropped it down but it still wouldnt attach. However, I did find a picture on the internet that looks very similar to what I caught. I think it is the bad kind The one I caught was a little smaller than a quarter (25cents) in length Here is the picture I found of somebody else's