Cirolanid isopod …how to know how many and eradicate?

Reefer Dan

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Hello. I purchased maricultured live rock about a month ago. I fairly quickly saw a cirolanid isopod and tried the stinky water method and bottle trap method…which was unsuccessful. I eventually caught one and haven’t seen another for two weeks until my rock work fell and I ended up redoing it this morning.

I felt a weird sharp pain sensation and noticed a different one had latched on.

These things are crazy… I had one in a tiny bit of stagnant water for 4 days and it didn’t die and consumed a bristle worm larvae that was in the same bowl.

I can’t in good conscience put a fish in there knowing that could be in there. Any extra ideas on how to ensure I have eradicated them all and/or ways to do it that actually work?
Pics: green background was this morning, others were a bigger one I found a few weeks ago.

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Isopod80

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Manual removal (obviously difficult ) and starvation are really the only safe ways to deal with them. I've had some success sucking them up individually at night with a turkey baster and a red flashlight. (Headlamp) I'd leave the tank fishless for a few months. You can still enjoy adding certain other creatures in the meantime. Preferably herbivores as some harmful isopods can be both parasites and scavengers. You don't want to be unintentionally feeding them. I don't believe the truly harmful varieties will scavenge plant material.
 
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Reefer Dan

Reefer Dan

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Manual removal (obviously difficult ) and starvation are really the only safe ways to deal with them. I've had some success sucking them up individually at night with a turkey baster and a red flashlight. (Headlamp) I'd leave the tank fishless for a few months. You can still enjoy adding certain other creatures in the meantime. Preferably herbivores as some harmful isopods can be both parasites and scavengers. You don't want to be unintentionally feeding them. I don't believe the truly harmful varieties will scavenge plant material.
Man that sucks… I’ve never had a fishless reef. I can add a clean up crew I guess…So a few questions then:
How do I keep all the other good stuff alive that came on the rock and not starve them also?

Should I be dosing ammonia to better establish the tank? Tank is 1 month old with a mixture of live rock and dry rock.

Can I put corals in? If not I guess I should turn my lights off.
 

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