parasite bug killing my clownfish

[Makara23]

I noticed one of my clownfish in QT was swimming awkwardly and breathing hard, then realized some kind of parasite had latched on!

I did a freshwater dip for 5 minutes but it wouldn't let go. I let the dip go on until my clown nearly died, which was about 10 minutes. This was the longest 10min of my life. Clown stopped swimming, layed on her side, and stopped breathing :crying-face:. That's when I grabbed tweezers to pull it off. It still wouldn't let go so it ripped in half, which it finally unlatched after another minute.

I quickly released the clown back in her QT and luckily she is recovering. This resilient parasite was still moving for the next 5 min in the RO/DI water, despite being ripped in half. I drowned it in pure vinegar out of anger.

Anyone know what this thing is? It resembles an amphipod, but I wouldn't think amphipods are parasitic to fish. Not even sure how it's been in QT this long and survived several rounds of prazi.

 

[javisaman]

Woah. Yea looks like it's a cirolanid isopod. Good job quarantining and removing. If you have other fish in the QT, make sure they don't have any on them either, and remove/replace surfaces where they might hide.

 

[I never finish anythi]

^^^ this . Another thing do do fresh water dips using RO/DI . Use treated tap water!!

 

[I never finish anythi]

^^^ this . Another thing do do fresh water dips using RO/DI . Use treated tap water!!

Don't ****

 

[Makara23]

^^^ this . Another thing do do fresh water dips using RO/DI . Use treated tap water!!

Is there a reason I should dip with tap water and not RO/DI? Would the higher TDS help dislodge parasites/diseases better?

 

[twentyleagues]

Wow haven't really seen those in captive bred fish. Wild caught yes. And there are parasitic amphipods, obviously. I just watched a show where the people pulled a 12" amphipod off of a reef shark crazy to see. Years ago when working at an lfs we got in a batch of wild caught yellow tangs (I think it was the yellow anyway) almost every one of them had at least 1 of those on it. They are very resilient. If I remember correctly the person in charge of qting (they always qt) had to resort to like you manual removal.