Small creatures attached to clownfish

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i_am_mclovin

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I have a dusky wrasse in QT as we speak. And he is QUITE the little hunter. Constantly searching and sifting through the tank, and hunting in the sand I have in there. (small container with 1" deep since they are less stressed with sand in QT). Can't wait to get him in the DT.
 
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Ok latest update. I hardly ever see these anymore. Maybe one a week. I don’t know if my dusky wrasse is just hunting the crap out of them during the day or if something else is eating them. At this point I have very little worry about these. I haven’t tried to trap any in a couple weeks.
 

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Ok latest update. I hardly ever see these anymore. Maybe one a week. I don’t know if my dusky wrasse is just hunting the crap out of them during the day or if something else is eating them. At this point I have very little worry about these. I haven’t tried to trap any in a couple weeks.
Can you give your favorite link for trapping these? I just got my TBS rock/sand and pulled one of these out of the sand. I don't know if they are in the rocks/sand that went into the DT or not, but would like to check.
 
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Can you give your favorite link for trapping these? I just got my TBS rock/sand and pulled one of these out of the sand. I don't know if they are in the rocks/sand that went into the DT or not, but would like to check.

Don’t fret too much. It’s not anywhere near as bad as it sounds at first. You’ll find they thin out on their own at some point. I sped it up at first using the stinky water method.
 

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Don’t fret too much. It’s not anywhere near as bad as it sounds at first. You’ll find they thin out on their own at some point. I sped it up at first using the stinky water method.

Thank you, thank you! What I wasn't sure about was whether it was necessary to check the trap in the middle of the night. I basically got:
1. Shrimp in water till stinky
2. Shrimp in trap
3. Trap in tank at lights out
4. Squirt stinky water around trap
5. ??? Remove trap in middle if night to collect cirolanids and replace??

Did you also do nighttime tank raids ir did you wait till the AM to collect what was still in the trap?
 
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Thank you, thank you! What I wasn't sure about was whether it was necessary to check the trap in the middle of the night. I basically got:
1. Shrimp in water till stinky
2. Shrimp in trap
3. Trap in tank at lights out
4. Squirt stinky water around trap
5. ??? Remove trap in middle if night to collect cirolanids and replace??

Did you also do nighttime tank raids ir did you wait till the AM to collect what was still in the trap?
I eventually abandoned the shrimp in a trap altogether. The vast majority was:

1. shrimp in water till stinky (throw it in there first thing in the AM and it'll be ready by lights out
2. lights out, turn off flow except for return
3. use a red LED flashlight otherwise turn your LED red channel only (the little buggers are a lot slower to react to red light)
4. use a turkey baster or something and shoot stinky water at front of glass.
5. when you see them, they'll be little white things swimming around or on the glass.
6. suck one up with a turkey baster and shoot into a jar, suck up another, shoot into jar, etc and so on (if you have a small tank dont forget to replace some salt water!)
7. if they are free swimming, a very fine net works to catch those.

I'd do that for maybe 15 minutes every few nights. If you are only seeing 1 or 2, you don't have many in there at all. I would see twice as many as I'd catch usually.

I think your tank is too small for a Dusky Wrasse, but I gotta say watching one of those things hunt all day long, I think he's helping by finding them in the sand where they hide. In my experience most of these isopods hide in the sand not in the rock.
 

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I eventually abandoned the shrimp in a trap altogether. The vast majority was:

1. shrimp in water till stinky (throw it in there first thing in the AM and it'll be ready by lights out
2. lights out, turn off flow except for return
3. use a red LED flashlight otherwise turn your LED red channel only (the little buggers are a lot slower to react to red light)
4. use a turkey baster or something and shoot stinky water at front of glass.
5. when you see them, they'll be little white things swimming around or on the glass.
6. suck one up with a turkey baster and shoot into a jar, suck up another, shoot into jar, etc and so on (if you have a small tank dont forget to replace some salt water!)
7. if they are free swimming, a very fine net works to catch those.

I'd do that for maybe 15 minutes every few nights. If you are only seeing 1 or 2, you don't have many in there at all. I would see twice as many as I'd catch usually.

I think your tank is too small for a Dusky Wrasse, but I gotta say watching one of those things hunt all day long, I think he's helping by finding them in the sand where they hide. In my experience most of these isopods hide in the sand not in the rock.
Thanks!

After reading through helpful posts by Lionfish Lair (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...cirolanid-verses-sphaeromatid-isopods.251779/), looks like my case was a Sphaeromatid--eyes on the side.



Doesn't mean I don't have any cirolanids in the tanks, but at least less alarming. I will try the stinky water method to see what comes out. With any luck, I'll be able to get my tailspot blenny and firefish in short order. Thanks again!
 

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