Cirolnoid (sp?) Isopods

[Vehl]

Well I have found 2 isopods stuck to the tails of two of my firefish, none on anything else as of yet.

Now I have read all the posts I can from the search engine about them, but they all end with I found some in my tank and I have read you have to let it lie fallow for 6 months.

Now I know not all of you have done this that have them. I have also read about the Interceptor treatment for them. problem is I have a 125 gallon and getting everything out that I don't want to die would be a a hassle.

Now, I do have an empty 55 gallon aquarium. I have 1 gold head sleeper goby, 1 red-lipped blenny, 1 royal gramma, and 3 purple firefish. So far I have only seen them on the firefish and today is the first day I have seen them. I am guessing they came in on my LR I got.

So how would I go about treating everything. Set up the 55 gallon with my protein skimmer from my 125, load some of the "Texas Holy Rock" I have lying around in the tank and move my fish and shrimp over there, of course checking them before I move them and then dose my 125 with Interceptor? I have 180 lbs of liverock in there so getting the fish will be a hassle, but I can do it, and then I guess grab as many hermits and what not as I can as well. My LFS carries Bio-Spira so I can set the 55 up with that, the Interceptor is supposed to only hurt crustaceans I read.

So I rambled a lot, I guess my question is what would you all do in my shoes and what have you all done to the ones that you have found?

If I hadn't paid so much for the LR I would just QT the fish in my 55 and fill the 125 with non treated tap water for a few days, drain it, and fill it again. Yes I know this would kill everything on the LR, but wouldn't it kill the isopods as well? I could always get a piece of LR from my friends tank and some LS to re-seed the 125 while I let my Skimmer and an Emperor 400 filter the 55 with the fish in it.

 

[Brad]

That's a tough situation, to be sure. If you're willing to do the extra work, I would set up the 2nd tank and remove the fish to that tank. Don't take any of the rock from the main tank.

Leave the main tank without fish for 6 months or more, to make sure you've starved them out. I'm not a fan of using any kind of chemical to kill the isopods. I have trouble believing that any chemical can be that specific...it will kill all kinds of things you would like to keep.

That's what I would do, anyway.

 

[Vehl]

Well I appreciate your honesty, problem is that the tank is in our living room, and at 125 gallons, not small. I am not sure I could talk the "boss" of the house into leaving a 6 foot long tank of water empty with just rocks in it for half a year.

How long does it take a piece of liverock to 'seed' a tank of that size. It seems that it would be quicker to just fill the tank with fresh water, let all the rocks sit and basically dry out. Power wash them all off, and then put them back into the tank with a piece from my friends tank and let it do the work.

I figure that way I could do a fishless cycle and let the tank sit for a month or so getting the biological activity up to par, and then start re-introducing the fish and what not.

Any other ideas?

 

[bound_for_obx]

If you are interested in doing a reef, you could add corals while the main is fallow. I went the fallow route and went night fishing for the Isopods. They seemed to be somewhat phototropic and would gather on the glass in a corner of the tank that was nearest to a street light outside. I used a turkey baster to suck them out. To tell you the truth, I would probably attempt the Interceptor treatment if I had to do it again. I didn't find out about the Interceptor treatment until after I had gone thru the fallow period. I know from experience how disheartening it can be to find them in your tank and I wish you the best of luck in getting rid of them.

Also, I would not go the route of filling the tank with fresh water. You would end up killing off EVERYTHING good and bad. If you do attempt the Interceptor treatment please keep us informed of how it goes.

 

[Natterjak]

I had an infestation of cirolanids, and we ended up leaving our tank fallow for 8 months (mostly because I was too lazy to remove all the crabs and snails to try Interceptor).

You could try moving everything into your 55 and then using Interceptor in your 125 (I would say that nuking it with FW would be a last resort - you'd have to kill basically everything, those isopods are pretty tough, I had one out of the water for 10 or 15 minutes and it was still alive).

How big are the isopods you have? You might be luckier than us and have only a few. In our case, we had a broodmother that hatched her brood, and we just couldn't catch them all. I did manage to catch the broodmother, by attaching a pipette to some tubing and siphoning it out while the lights were out. Caught a couple babies that way too, but for the most part they were just too small.

If you don't have a heavy infestation, I've read some things about using a fish as "bait." I never purposely tried this, and it seems kind of cruel, but I did manage to catch a couple with my clownfish, because he'd tend to sleep near the sand at night, and he was really easy to catch. They'll then either fall off when you net them and bring them out, or you'll have to use tweezers to pry them off the fish.

I know it really sucks, but unless you can catch them all, the best bet is probably just to keep the fish in the 55 for 6 months (don't bring over any rock or sand from the 125) and let the isopods starve.

 

[Vehl]

Well since they appear so far to be focused on only 2 of my firefish I am going to try to get them off tonight with a FW dip.

Basically gonna fill a couple 30 gallon trashcans with my LR and Saltwater from my tank. Once all the LR is out I will try to catch the Firefish, I know that will be fun in a 6ft long tank. Do a quick FW dip to see if that gets em off. If not I will use tweezers while the fish is help on a wet towel.

This is of course if they are still on the firefish. If they are not, well, it looks like I will set up the 55 and transfer the fish over there with some PVC piping, etc... and run the skimmer and Emp 400 for filtration. Then try to catch all the crabs/snails that I can and then use interceptor on the 125.

I would attempt the fallow with just corals, problem is I would want to make sure that the pods had nothing to feed on. So would I have to remove all the snails/crabs. What about the starfish in the rocks and the anemones? Featherdusters? I mean what do these things feed on, just fish?

Again thank you for the existing replies and if anyone else has ideas or ways to cheer me up I am always game!!!

 

[Natterjak]

As far as I know they just feed on fish. When we left our tank fallow, we didn't remove any of the snails or hermits or anything, just the fish. It's been over a month since we started everything up again, and so far (knock on wood) I haven't seen any isopods.

Best time to catch them is at night. They don't usually come out when the lights are on. They'll swim up to latch onto your fish. I think if you use red light you can see them better without scaring them back into the rocks/sand.

 

[Vehl]

Alrighty, I will check the fish and the tank tonight.

If not my friends father is a Vet so don't think I would have a problem getting Interceptor.

If I DO go the Interceptor route, I will keep tabs and let everyone know how much die off, etc.. I have.

Once again if anyone has used Interceptor in the past please let me know.
I don't really mind losing a few hermits/snails that I can't get out of the tank, but the featherdusters, anemones, etc...

Anywho, once again feel free to post just to say good luck!

 

[Vehl]

Well, now home from work and no iso's on any of the fish or shrimp. Can't find them anywhere. After the lights go out tonight I am going to watch under the moon lights and see if I can find any.

I did find a sac type thing in the sand, partly buried, looked like an egg sac. I syphoned it out and tossed it just in case.

Looks like I am gonna be setting up the 55 this weekend and starting a cycle in it to get ready to hold my fish.

I have yet to decide if I am going to use Interceptor or just leave it fallow and focus on Corals in the tank for the next 6-8 months.

I am just a little worried that the Interceptor may do unseen harm to the tank that might come back to bite me at a later date.

If I move my skimmer from my 125 to my 55 at the same time I do my fish should I soak the skimmer in FW overnight first to kill any would be hitchhikers?

Also, should I just get a new skimmer for the 55 because the corals would benefit from having it on the 125?

Again, looking for anyone that has used Interceptor or knows someone that has. I would love to get firsthand exp from them.

If not I will prolly be the guinea pig for the site and keep a record and all that good stuff for others to follow.

 

[lando]

If taking the fish out is not an option, then supportive care will be needed. Inspect your fish often and remove and isopods you see. You can also go "night diving" in your tank. After lights-out at night take a flaslight and look at the LR and substrate. If you see an iso, suck it up with a turkey baster. You can consider adding a six-line wrasse or something similar. they are known to eat isopods. I added one to my nano and have not seen an isopod since. Good luck...Lando

 

[Vehl]

I was under the impression that there was nothing that would eat the bad isopod types.

Does anyone else have any experience with using 6-lines to remove them from a tank?

It is not a huge problem to move the fish, I have an empty tank, just would like to not have to go that route if I could.

 

[Vehl]

Well after going night diving last night all I found was a shiny black, oval on the LR, which I got a pic of, couldn't suck it out with a Baster, although it also didn't run when poked and smashed, sitll haging on by a thread on the LR.

Also found a "bag" of something connected to the sand bed. I have sucked one of these things out before, it is actually connected down into the sand bed.

I am kind of hesitant to remove it incase it is something worth while.
Porbably will remove it later today just in case though. I will upload pics in the Identification forum later today.

So looks like a wrasse is in my future!