Golden puffer hitchhiker

Lavey29 · Feb 16, 2024

niralp114 said:
That's the plan. He is eating. I think they may have come from the clams but no idea.

I tried that business 3 times with very poor results. Drove down to pick fish up. They refused to even let me in the building to see the quality of their business operations.

niralp114 · Feb 16, 2024

Lavey29 said:
I tried that business 3 times with very poor results. Drove down to pick fish up. They refused to even let me in the building to see the quality of their business operations.

I have a black tang, Achilles hybrid, blue face angel, emperor, assasi and clown trigger all from him and no issue.

Lavey29 · Feb 16, 2024

niralp114 said:
I have a black tang, Achilles hybrid, blue face angel, emperor, assasi and clown trigger all from him and no issue.

I had 80% fish death in less then 48 hours with 8 fish purchased over 3 orders. Got the exact same fish from another LFS that does in house QT and 100% success rate with those over multiple years now. Many others on here with posts of similar quality problems too with that vendor. I'm glad you have success and hope your puffer recovers.

Tripod1404 · Feb 16, 2024

These look like parasitic copepods, sometimes called fish lice. The first picture clearly shows legs and a segmented shrimp-like tail. Never seen them on a puffer before, they are relatively common for groupers.

vetteguy53081 · Feb 16, 2024

niralp114 said:
I was thinking the clams but I usually freeze the clams for 72 hours before feeding. I'm going to do a stronger formalin bath on Sunday when it comes in. I have read 1ml per gallon, is that correct?

It is eating as well. Only fish to have them and yes they appeared at once.

Dosage is 25ppm which comes to 1ml per 10 gallons up too 2 weeks but BE SURE its fish tank/aquaculture use and not lab grade

Jay Hemdal · Feb 17, 2024

niralp114 said:
I was thinking the clams but I usually freeze the clams for 72 hours before feeding. I'm going to do a stronger formalin bath on Sunday when it comes in. I have read 1ml per gallon, is that correct?

It is eating as well. Only fish to have them and yes they appeared at once.

If you froze the clams, then it wasn't the cause.

1 ml per gallon of formalin is too high. You should start at 0.63 ml per gallon. That information about the 1 ml per gallon is floating around the Internet, but it is based on dosing COLDWATER fish. The dose is 250 ppm for them. The highest dose you can safely use on tropical marine fish is 167 ppm for one hour. Formalin doses are adjusted for time, concentration and temperature. What happened was a person made a mistake with the dose by not understanding this, and then, because 1 ml is so easy to measure, it just "stuck", but it is wrong. If you do want to try the higher dose, drop the time to 20 minutes.

Formalin is dangerous to use - don't breath the fumes and be sure to wear eye protection and gloves.

Jay

niralp114 · Feb 17, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
If you froze the clams, then it wasn't the cause.

1 ml per gallon of formalin is too high. You should start at 0.63 ml per gallon. That information about the 1 ml per gallon is floating around the Internet, but it is based on dosing COLDWATER fish. The dose is 250 ppm for them. The highest dose you can safely use on tropical marine fish is 167 ppm for one hour. Formalin doses are adjusted for time, concentration and temperature. What happened was a person made a mistake with the dose by not understanding this, and then, because 1 ml is so easy to measure, it just "stuck", but it is wrong. If you do want to try the higher dose, drop the time to 20 minutes.

Formalin is dangerous to use - don't breath the fumes and be sure to wear eye protection and gloves.

Jay

I have all the PPP. My dad used to analyze formalin

I gave him a formalin bath for 1 hour. I was able to scrap off the hitchhikers. I have attached a picture. If any identification of these buggers that would be great. Looks line they have some sort of hook on their tail

Cthulukelele · Feb 17, 2024

Oof those look like parasitic isopods. The little tail barb makes my skin crawl.

niralp114 · Feb 17, 2024

Cthulukelele said:
Oof those look like parasitic isopods. The little tail barb makes my skin crawl.

Any treatment options available?

Cthulukelele · Feb 17, 2024

niralp114 said:
Any treatment options available?

I'm not sure as I've never had to deal with them. My understanding is that they don't reproduce very well in the home aquarium so if you get all of them off you should be good, but I'm not as knowledgeable on this topic as a lot of the people on the forum

Jay Hemdal · Feb 17, 2024

niralp114 said:
I have all the PPP. My dad used to analyze formalin

I gave him a formalin bath for 1 hour. I was able to scrap off the hitchhikers. I have attached a picture. If any identification of these buggers that would be great. Looks line they have some sort of hook on their tail

With that picture, it is clear that these are isopods. These are not parasites in the strict sense, consider them more like "micro predators". Depending on the species, they can live free in the tank and then attach to fish in order to feed on their skin. They probably have a direct life cycle. This is different from copepods, those have a larval stage. For isopods, you may need to trap them out of the tank to fully control them. Formalin dips will dislodge them - I think my advice still stands though - use the lower dose first.

Here is an article I posted here on crustacean parasites:

Arthropod Parasites of Aquarium Fish - Hemdal

Parasitic Crustaceans (Copepods, Isopods, and Sea Lice) Jay Hemdal c.2020 This is an excerpt from my upcoming fish disease book - a section on arthropod parasites of fish; isopods and copepods. ------------------ Cause This disease problem is...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

niralp114 · Feb 17, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
With that picture, it is clear that these are isopods. These are not parasites in the strict sense, consider them more like "micro predators". Depending on the species, they can live free in the tank and then attach to fish in order to feed on their skin. They probably have a direct life cycle. This is different from copepods, those have a larval stage. For isopods, you may need to trap them out of the tank to fully control them. Formalin dips will dislodge them - I think my advice still stands though - use the lower dose first.

Here is an article I posted here on crustacean parasites:

Arthropod Parasites of Aquarium Fish - Hemdal

Parasitic Crustaceans (Copepods, Isopods, and Sea Lice) Jay Hemdal c.2020 This is an excerpt from my upcoming fish disease book - a section on arthropod parasites of fish; isopods and copepods. ------------------ Cause This disease problem is...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Thanks Jay.