Help something crawling on my fish

[noplac2hyd]

I was just looking at one of my Yellow tangs and noticed a white transparent looking creature crawling on dorsal fin (i thin dorsel is right) I have never seen this before nor do I know if it is bad or not if anyone knows what I am talking about let me know i am posting the pick of it its a little blurry but you can get the idea

 

[cj10488]

me personally I have never heard of something like that however I would probably try a Short FW dip or removing it with Tweezers if the FW dip didnt help.. It is most likely a parasite of some sort.. Someone else should be able to chime in a bit more and probably would have a better solution... How long has the tang been in the tank.. How recent was your last addition to the tank.. Are all fish QT for 4 weeks prior to being added to the tank..


James

 

[GrndHog]

Thats an isopod, a blood sucking one. I'm battling them also, Ive read that the only way to get rid of them is to capture or starve. To starve them you have to go fishless for 6 to 8 months.

Go to search and type in isopod, you'll find threads on here.

This is one I captured, by the way I have rock from Mike also.

 

[yaksplat]

This is what I have done successfully now for the past 2 weeks:

Every night I turn the light off for about a half hour then I turn it back on and check all the fish. If there are any isopods on them I do a freshwater dip and the pods immediately fall off. Although once there was a larger one on the fish that wouldn't let go so I put the fish on a wet paper towel and pulled the @$!! off with a pair of tweezers. The darker the isopod is, the more blood that he's sucked out of your fish. You can see the blood right through their shell(?).

I also did this every morning. In total I've captured and nuked 8 of them. (once I catch one I tend to leave it in the dish and throw it in the microwave for a few minutes. Just my way of getting back. I have not seen any in several days now, so I'm hoping that i got the last of them.


HTH
Jim

 

[TheMadNucleus]

Live Rock - You Gotta Love it

Makes me wonder

 

[noplac2hyd]

I looked at the tang this morning and what ever it was fell off i will make sure to keep an eye out.. im hoping a crab got whatever it was thanks again for the feedback

 

[GrndHog]

They will detatch when the lights come on. I have'nt seen any on my fish or in the tank in about 2 weeks. I started feeding flake food soaked in garlic, I'm thinking maybe the garlic is to strong for the pods liking. I'de like to know peoples thought on this theory.

im hoping a crab got whatever it was thanks again for the feedback

To my knowledge there are no predators for these things.

 

[yaksplat]

To my knowledge there are no predators for these things.

I tend to leave it in the dish and throw it in the microwave for a few minutes

I have just designated myself, offical predator of isopods.

 

[GrndHog]

I'll second that!!!

 

[scuba_steve]

are these all coming from the rock ya got from liverocks.com ???
if so i need to rethink what im gonna do with the 50 lbs i have coming to me !! i dont/cant be catching fish there is no way with out pulling out all the rock i have already !! my idea was i added another 55 gallon tank to my set up and was gonna let the rock sit in there for a few months to see what came out of it before i put in the main tank!! but its all on the same water !! might have to buy a rubbermaid and just run the 55 for awhile by its self :-(

 

[yaksplat]

I don't think that you'll have a problem if you do that. I would just keep sand out of the tank with the new LR. Also, from a bunch of reading that I did, I found out that getting isopods in your tank is on par with winning the lottery, probability wise. It is a rare occurance, and I don't play the lotto, so I guess we can say that these little @#$$!@!'s are my winnings. Anyways I have yet to see one in quite a while. So i'm assuming that they appear in finite numbers.

 

[jamal-188]

are these all coming from the rock ya got from liverocks.com ???
if so i need to rethink what im gonna do with the 50 lbs i have coming to me !! i dont/cant be catching fish there is no way with out pulling out all the rock i have alreadyquote]

I wouldn't worry too much about these. I haven't read/heard of many people having problems with these comming on LR. I got close to 200lbs from liverocks.com and haven't had any problems. Also dipping the LR in seltzer water w/ the same SG as you tank will often help to get rid of many hitchhickers.

 

[noplac2hyd]

im doing pretty good now i havnt had any more problems the only thing comming out of the rock now are good little things no more blood suckers

 

[ellisz]

I found one of these in my filter sock that I use occasionally. He was rather big and had beady eyes. I have never seen any on my fish though.

Mandarins won't eat these?

 

[yaksplat]

more likely, the isopod would eat its way out of the mandarin if one were ingested.

 

[Sati]

The darker the isopod is, the more blood that he's sucked out of your fish.

Eww.....

 

[ellisz]

more likely, the isopod would eat its way out of the mandarin if one were ingested

eww again!

 

[MiniReef2004]

I found one pretty much exactly like the pic on my Bangaii. The pod was on him for two days, now is gone. We attempted to net him out for a fw dip, but gave up when he got stressed. He decided the cave with the Peppermint Shrimp was cozy and took up refuge with them. This afternoon the pod is gone. Either the shrimp got it or it left. We'll be watching for it, the nuker is on standby.

FWIW I got my rock from Liverocks.com, Great stuff but maybe a hitchhiker haven.


Steve

 

[BONESTOCK]

I just found three on two of my percula clowns.....

They haven't touched my yellow tang and four blue reef chromis.....

Will they thing kill the fish?

I don't want to catch the fish with all the rock in the tank and stress them out.

These things let go during the day..but when the lights come on they are on the clowns. At least one of these bugs are on a clown.

On EDIT: I also got my 100lbs of rock from Liverocks.com. Beautiful rock though! And would most deffinatly use them again.

 

[GrndHog]

Did it look like this?