Small creatures attached to clownfish

[i_am_mclovin]

Saw one little creature attached to each of my clownfish in QT. Pulled the clowns out and the creatures fell right off into the net easily on their own. Any idea what they are? One is tan the other is black. My first reaction was flukes. Looks like a tiny body with two little eyes. Easily visible with the naked eye. To note the clowns are behaving normally. Eating well, normal swimming and breathing.

 

[Lyss]

Look like isopods

 

[ying yang]

That top one looks like a isopods.
Some that are that shape can attach to fish and are parasitic.research isopods and see if look similar.
@Jay Hemdal is resident expert on dieseses .he may know much more than I do

Edit: look up https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...cirolanid-verses-sphaeromatid-isopods.251779/

Ciroland isopod I think you spell it.
Good luck

Some bug like thing on the pectrol fin of my clownfish. What's it?

I was shocked to see this thing on the fin of my clown fish. I netted the fish and the bug came right off from the fin. So what's it. How do I prevent that from happening again in future?

www.reef2reef.com

Another thread similar to yours

 

[i_am_mclovin]

That top one looks like a isopods.
Some that are that shape can attach to fish and are parasitic.research isopods and see if look similar.
@Jay Hemdal is resident expert on dieseses .he may know much more than I do

Edit: look up https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...cirolanid-verses-sphaeromatid-isopods.251779/

Ciroland isopod I think you spell it.
Good luck

Some bug like thing on the pectrol fin of my clownfish. What's it?

I was shocked to see this thing on the fin of my clown fish. I netted the fish and the bug came right off from the fin. So what's it. How do I prevent that from happening again in future?

www.reef2reef.com

Another thread similar to yours

Thanks so much!! Sounds like it won’t be too hard to deal with them.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Saw one little creature attached to each of my clownfish in QT. Pulled the clowns out and the creatures fell right off into the net easily on their own. Any idea what they are? One is tan the other is black. My first reaction was flukes. Looks like a tiny body with two little eyes. Easily visible with the naked eye. To note the clowns are behaving normally. Eating well, normal swimming and breathing.

Tough to say for certain - the picture isn't super-clear and there is no size reference, but they do look like cirolanid isopods. Were these wild caught clowns? I have not seen these show up in a QT before, I typically see them in mature tanks with lots of live rock.

Jay

 

[i_am_mclovin]

Tough to say for certain - the picture isn't super-clear and there is no size reference, but they do look like cirolanid isopods. Were these wild caught clowns? I have not seen these show up in a QT before, I typically see them in mature tanks with lots of live rock.

Jay

I had a tiny piece of live rock I put into that QT after copper treatment was done. The LR was from an LFS so I’m sure that’s the source. I pulled the rock and tossed it and will keep an eye for more. The clowns were locally raised.

here is a size reference image

PS thanks Jay!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I had a tiny piece of live rock I put into that QT after copper treatment was done. The LR was from an LFS so I’m sure that’s the source. I pulled the rock and tossed it and will keep an eye for more. The clowns were locally raised.

here is a size reference image

PS thanks Jay!

Ah - that would explain how they showed up then. Nasty little critters, but they shouldn't cause any more issues.

jay

 

[i_am_mclovin]

Ah - that would explain how they showed up then. Nasty little critters, but they shouldn't cause any more issues.

jay

Honestly my biggest worry now is I had another piece of rick from the LFS in my DT during setup. It’s tossed now but the tank also has a bunch of TBS Rock in it now too, so there’s a chance the DT has them. It’s fallow at the moment but I had planned to move the clowns over 2 weeks from now but now I’m not sure. From reading I have two choices. Leave it fallow for months or also include my wrasses when done with QT in hopes they eat any remaining. (Exquisite and Lineatus)

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Honestly my biggest worry now is I had another piece of rick from the LFS in my DT during setup. It’s tossed now but the tank also has a bunch of TBS Rock in it now too, so there’s a chance the DT has them. It’s fallow at the moment but I had planned to move the clowns over 2 weeks from now but now I’m not sure.

That's a conundrum - the problem with some of these isopods is that they are facultative, not obligate, parasites. That means in the absence of a fish to feed on, they eat other stuff. That means fallowing the tank won't help.

Totally experimental, but you could try "baiting" the DT. Put a bit of seafood - mysids or something in a mesh pouch and sink it down near some LR. Wait 24 hours and then pull it quickly and search through it for isopods. I've done that in the past as sort of a "presence/absence" test for a variety of critters.

Jay

 

[i_am_mclovin]

That's a conundrum - the problem with some of these isopods is that they are facultative, not obligate, parasites. That means in the absence of a fish to feed on, they eat other stuff. That means fallowing the tank won't help.

Totally experimental, but you could try "baiting" the DT. Put a bit of seafood - mysids or something in a mesh pouch and sink it down near some LR. Wait 24 hours and then pull it quickly and search through it for isopods. I've done that in the past as sort of a "presence/absence" test for a variety of critters.

Jay

Thanks I’ll give it a try. If there are more I’m not sure I have much choice but to try and live with them. Tearing down and starting over is a very expensive route at this point.

 

[i_am_mclovin]

Quick update on this, I've been using the "shrimp trap" bottle method and the "stinky water" method. I've pulled out probably 60 of these things at this point, the largest being 1/4". Most are tiny, and a handful around 1/8". The trap works ok but most are trapped using the stinky water and then sucking them up with a baster or even using a fine fish net. I am hesitant to put fish in but don't really know what the end game is here. Since they eat more than just fish, I could potentially be "catching" these for months or worse.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Quick update on this, I've been using the "shrimp trap" bottle method and the "stinky water" method. I've pulled out probably 60 of these things at this point, the largest being 1/4". Most are tiny, and a handful around 1/8". The trap works ok but most are trapped using the stinky water and then sucking them up with a baster or even using a fine fish net. I am hesitant to put fish in but don't really know what the end game is here. Since they eat more than just fish, I could potentially be "catching" these for months or worse.

Wow - not sure what your end game can be. Trapping won't even get 100% of them. I wonder if you could look at a species of wrasse to help with control? I'm not sure what species would work best. I had a small Coris aygula that would spend all day flipping rocks, digging through gravel and eating exposed amphipods and copepods....

Jay

 

[i_am_mclovin]

Wow - not sure what your end game can be. Trapping won't even get 100% of them. I wonder if you could look at a species of wrasse to help with control? I'm not sure what species would work best. I had a small Coris aygula that would spend all day flipping rocks, digging through gravel and eating exposed amphipods and copepods....

Jay

Yea I agree with you Jay, I am starting to think eliminating them entirely is not possible without just nuking it all. And honestly that's a pretty expensive venture at this point. I'm pretty close to just saying screw it and see how it goes. On my stock list I have lineatus, exquisite, and then a christmas or earmuff wrasse. Not sure if any one of those particular fish is ideal for something like this. I also know some invert eating crabs eat these isopods, and I have a gorilla or two in the tank I haven't gone through capturing just yet. But I'm guessing they are more likely to eat my slow moving CUC before an isopod lol.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yea I agree with you Jay, I am starting to think eliminating them entirely is not possible without just nuking it all. And honestly that's a pretty expensive venture at this point. I'm pretty close to just saying screw it and see how it goes. On my stock list I have lineatus, exquisite, and then a christmas or earmuff wrasse. Not sure if any one of those particular fish is ideal for something like this. I also know some invert eating crabs eat these isopods, and I have a gorilla or two in the tank I haven't gone through capturing just yet. But I'm guessing they are more likely to eat my slow moving CUC before an isopod lol.

Of those fish, just off the top of my head, I'd say the christmas and earmuff wrasse are the most likely to eat pods out of a tank.

Jay

 

[i_am_mclovin]

Of those fish, just off the top of my head, I'd say the christmas and earmuff wrasse are the most likely to eat pods out of a tank.

Jay

Thanks Jay.

I’ll keep everyone posted how it goes. There are a TON of threads about these pests. But none of them ever have any real follow up. No one ever reports back how it went or what they did. So I’ll be sure to keep posting updates.

 

[i_am_mclovin]

Ok so I had been catching an average of 10-15 of these per night. However the last 2 nights, I have hardly seen any. Maybe 2 or 3 at most. I wonder if I've caught a lot of the population. However I have only caught one large one, which tells me there must be a couple larger ones left yet. Hopefully I'll get them soon, or something else already got to them.

 

[LuizW13]

That seems like a ton of work, good job. I would have just restarted the tank lol.

 

[ying yang]

Ok so I had been catching an average of 10-15 of these per night. However the last 2 nights, I have hardly seen any. Maybe 2 or 3 at most. I wonder if I've caught a lot of the population. However I have only caught one large one, which tells me there must be a couple larger ones left yet. Hopefully I'll get them soon, or something else already got to them.

Good luck on nightly catching.very tedious indeed but needs must hey !


Did you ever for certain find out if they ciroland isopods ?
Like catch one and zoom in on phone ?

 

[i_am_mclovin]

That seems like a ton of work, good job. I would have just restarted the tank lol.

Not about to nuke $2k worth of liverock.

Good luck on nightly catching.very tedious indeed but needs must hey !


Did you ever for certain find out if they ciroland isopods ?
Like catch one and zoom in on phone ?

They are 100% cirolanid yes.

 

[ying yang]

Not about to nuke $2k worth of liverock.

They are 100% cirolanid yes.

Ok good stuff,well done on tje research, well looking at article I showed ( still counts ha ha )

Good luck and hopefully you can catch them all between yourself and maybe a fishy wrasse as a helper ^_^