External Parasite - Clowns

SaltyPotato · May 4, 2022

About to lose my crap, setback after setback.

what is this attached to my clowns? I swear it has black eyes, it looks like it’s a shrimp attached to my clown and can’t find any parasite that matches up. I got a shipment of rock and sand from TB saltwater a day ago.

Please don’t ask for better photos, they don’t swim slow and it’s impossible.

Sharkbait19 · May 4, 2022

#fishmedic
I know I’ve heard of this before but I can’t remember exactly what.
It was either a worm or isopod…

SaltyPotato · May 4, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
#fishmedic
I know I’ve heard of this before but I can’t remember exactly what.
It was either a worm or isopod…

Cirolanid

Just found the name… the worst type of pest according to those who’ve ordered live rock before. Very little information on eradicating them. One member said one latched onto his hand while cleaning the tank.

lobstermeet · May 4, 2022

Yeah Its a parasitic isopod, kind of like an underwater tick. There are some nasty ones in the wild that do gross stuff. It's an invert so anything that kills inverts will probably take care of it. Could be easy to eradicate if you don't have any corals or CUC.

SaltyPotato · May 4, 2022

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/bp/index.php

It’s apparently pretty difficult.

lobstermeet · May 4, 2022

SaltyPotato said:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/bp/index.php

It’s apparently pretty difficult.

Do you have corals or other inverts in the tank? Do you plan on keeping corals or inverts in the the tank eventually?

SaltyPotato · May 4, 2022

lobstermeet said:
Do you have corals or other inverts in the tank? Do you plan on keeping corals or inverts in the the tank eventually?

Absolutely want corals and just finished 30 days of hyposalinity to treat ich so

just caught this f**k

Jay Hemdal · May 4, 2022

SaltyPotato said:
Absolutely want corals and just finished 30 days of hyposalinity to treat ich so

just caught this f**k

So the Cirolanids survived hypo, or did you add rock afterwards?

Jay

SaltyPotato · May 4, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
So the Cirolanids survived hypo, or did you add rock afterwards?

Jay

Added the rocks after salinity was brought back to 1.025

If I do hypo again everything will die good and bad, the whole point of brining rock in.. this is tough

LeftyReefer · May 4, 2022

Copper will probably kill it if its an invert.

put the clowns in a QT tank with copper and hope they are all on the clowns and not any left in the tank.... but I don't know how realistic that is.

lobstermeet · May 4, 2022

SaltyPotato said:
Absolutely want corals and just finished 30 days of hyposalinity to treat ich so

just caught this f**k

Dang, that stinks. Was gonna say you can treat the display with medication that tends to kill inverts but it will stay in your system and rocks for some time making inverts impossible to keep - so not sure that's the route you want to go. Maybe hypo could work again but seems like you want to keep any beneficial hitchhikers. The only other alternative seems like consistent manual removal with a combo of traps, syphoning and forceps. Dipping the rocks in coral dip or freshwater would probably dislodge some of them but you probably wont achieve eradication for a long time and many treatments.

Another round of Hypo seems like the easiest and least intrusive course of action. You'll get good pods from frag plugs etc. eventually. Sorry the rock only caused more issues for you

vetteguy53081 · May 4, 2022

Yikes. Hyposalinity- what salinity were you at ?

SaltyPotato · May 4, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Yikes. Hyposalinity- what salinity were you at ?

1.009 or 12PPT

ich went away first week and haven’t seen it since

Karen00 · May 4, 2022

So sorry to hear of your troubles! I wonder if it's the tongue eating pod. If it is it might've been making its way to the clown's mouth. It's good you got it off! There are some horrors that can't be unseen and the tongue eating pod is one of them!

SaltyPotato · May 9, 2022

Good news is I’ve caught all 3 I’ve seen attached to the clowns, will be doing the stinky method tonight. A bit of a surprise here but I never bought a tiger goby haha

SlugSnorter · May 9, 2022

Karen00 said:
So sorry to hear of your troubles! I wonder if it's the tongue eating pod. If it is it might've been making its way to the clown's mouth. It's good you got it off! There are some horrors that can't be unseen and the tongue eating pod is one of them!

unlikely, they are tiny and start off inside the gills.

SlugSnorter · May 9, 2022

according to what ive found, most parasitic Cirolanid ispods are obligate parasites and will starve after 2-6months without a host. So QT with copper and a fallow should work.

heres a pretty comprehensive guide I found on the subject

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/bp/index.php

SaltyPotato · May 9, 2022

SlugSnorter said:
according to what ive found, most parasitic Cirolanid ispods are obligate parasites and will starve after 2-6months without a host. So QT with copper and a fallow should work.

heres a pretty comprehensive guide I found on the subject

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/bp/index.php

Fallow doesn’t work on these guys as long as you’re feeding the tank and copper isn’t an option in the display. I’ve read conflicting personal accounts on here from ones who said the only choice was nuking their tank and others saying the problem alleviated itself by trapping methods + wrasses.

i do have an ornate wrasse from TSM on the way. Hoping I can keep it manageable, if the problem persists. Hypo for a week will be the next play with the fish in another holding tank.

rmorris_14 · May 9, 2022

SaltyPotato said:
Fallow doesn’t work on these guys as long as you’re feeding the tank and copper isn’t an option in the display. I’ve read conflicting personal accounts on here from ones who said the only choice was nuking their tank and others saying the problem alleviated itself by trapping methods + wrasses.

i do have an ornate wrasse from TSM on the way. Hoping I can keep it manageable, if the problem persists. Hypo for a week will be the next play with the fish in another holding tank.

just to clarify... if you use hypo to eradicate Ich... you have to do it for 30 days starting the 30 day count the last visible sign of ich on all the fish.

SaltyPotato · May 9, 2022

rmorris_14 said:
just to clarify... if you use hypo to eradicate Ich... you have to do it for 30 days starting the 30 day count the last visible sign of ich on all the fish.

I don’t have ich, the hypo is for the pods only.