Cirolanid Isopod

[jgoal55]

I think I saw one of these in my tank.....apparently they are not reef safe.....I was able to get him out and kill him but does that mean there are more if there was one? I looked around for a while and never saw another one...it's been about 5 days....

My tank has no fish in it since I am still treating it for the ick.....how bad are these things really? And what is the best way to get them out?

Thanks,
Jorge

 

[wbholwell]

If it really was a Cirolanid Isopod, you may want to run your tank empty an extra few months to make sure they all starve. These sound <u>really</u> bad. But not quite as bad as this guy (this really creeps me out):

<u>Scientific Name</u>: Cymothoa exigua <u>Comments</u>: The tongue-eating isopod causes degeneration of the tongue of its host fish, the rose snapper, Lutjanus guttatus, and it then attaches to the remaining tongue stub and floor of the fish's mouth by hook-like pereopods. In this position the isopod superficially resembles its host's missing tongue. Brusca & Gilligan (1983) hypothesize that these isopods serve as a mechanical replacement for the fish's tongue and represent the first known case in animals of functional replacement of a host structure by a parasite. This relationship is so-far known only from the Gulf of California. Reference Alex Kerstitch. 1989. Sea of Cortez Marine Invertebrates. Sea Challengers, Monteray, California

 

[jmaneyapanda]

What exactly did you see? Is a pic out of the question? If you really do have one of those isipods, you will absolutely want it gone. take a look at this link:

 

[FutureInterest]

Wow. After reading that link, I'm completely freaked out.

 

[vettesarebest]

I agree with Bryan, I would let it sit a few extra weeks to months just to make sure. This would be a terrible thing to happen.

 

[kwl1763]

So I had an isopod in a tank about 3 years ago. I caught one and never saw another but there were fish in there and I never once saw it on a fish. It came off of TBS liverock. The bummer of it is there are many many scavenging species also (which is probably what I had) but it is almost impossible to tell what you have so i say better safe then sorry.

If you can catch it do it. Otherwise wait! A few more weeks is worth the insurance .

 

[jgoal55]

hey guys...thanks.......I actually did catch him already and have not seen him since or any other one since....but it was very good swimmer which leads me to think that it definitely was one of these. I didn't get a picture of it but it looks just like the fourth pic from the left in this link:

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/pods.html">http://www.melevsreef.com/id/pods.html</a>

I still have three weeks left in my QT process so I have a bit of time to see if I ever see another one before the fish go back in.

 

[wbholwell]

I wonder if you could lure any potential isopods out with a piece of shrimp in some sort of trap...