Lethargic clownfish not eating/ weird bite mark

[Danj2013]

Woke up to my dominant clownfish out of her normal corner and with a strange bite mark near her tail. Showed little to no interest in food throughout the day during 2 feedings. She was also hanging out in a spot where she usually doesn’t hang. Still showing some aggression to the male throughout the day. Could this bite mark be from isopods? The fish was very active and ate well the night before I noticed the mark. I noticed an isopod or 2 in the tank a couple times before I introduced these fish a few weeks ago. Do clowns recover from isopod bites? The fact that this bite occurred at night makes me believe it was an isopod. Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Danj2013]

This is the mark circled in red

 

[Danj2013]

Well I can confirm it's a cirolanid. Found one on him early morning 20 minutes after I checked them both. Caught the clown and the cirolanid flicked off in the net. It's the size of a half a grain of rice. Anyone have any advice on removing these things besides setting up a qt tank or manually removing them when I see them?

 

[F i s h y]

very pretty clowns. Will be following to see your course of action. Ive never dealt with them before... creepy little pests...

 

[Danj2013]

very pretty clowns. Will be following to see your course of action. Ive never dealt with them before... creepy little pests...

I've had the clowns for about 3 weeks so the infesation can't be too bad if this is just starting now. I bought aquacultured liverock from the Florida Keys and they came with a bunch of crazy stuff. A mantis shrimp fell out of one of the rocks when I was picking out my pieces. The rocks stayed submerged from ocean to tank so I guess I basically brought everything in with me. Let the tank run for a month and a half without fish so I'm surprised these things lived. There are also pistol shrimp that go off all day and night that I've never seen. If I see another bad bite mark I'm going to remove the fish. Hoping I can remove them from the fish before they do damage if I see them again. The one this morning didn't have enough time to do any damage.

 

[Birdbrains?]

That is pretty creepy. I guess that since they suck blood, the fish should recover with good diet and water conditions. You should possibly find something to assist in woundhealing so secondary infection doesn't become a problem. Perhaps the fish will learn to stay away from the places where the isopod got it. Does your clowns usually sleep on the sandbed?

People say that it takes 6month to starve isopods so siphoning them out should be a priority.

It might also be possible to get cleaner shrimp to deal with them. I would definitely try the cleaner shrimp as fast as possible because this is just bad news for your enjoyment of the calm of keeping an aquarium isn't it?

 

[Danj2013]

That is pretty creepy. I guess that since they suck blood, the fish should recover with good diet and water conditions. You should possibly find something to assist in woundhealing so secondary infection doesn't become a problem. Perhaps the fish will learn to stay away from the places where the isopod got it. Does your clowns usually sleep on the sandbed?

People say that it takes 6month to starve isopods so siphoning them out should be a priority.

It might also be possible to get cleaner shrimp to deal with them. I would definitely try the cleaner shrimp as fast as possible because this is just bad news for your enjoyment of the calm of keeping an aquarium isn't it?

Yeah somewhat annoying that I'm going to have to keep my eye out for them. The clown that I've noticed the cirolanid on likes to hang up top at night, they still haven't figured out the anemones. I gave the clowns a freshwater bath yesterday and they were back to eating again very quickly. After I caught the fish with the cirolanid this morning she returned to picking pods off the glass and acting normal so I'm not too concerned. The thought of the tongue eating ones possibly exisiting in this tank is scary. Going to try to get a cleaner shrimp today.

 

[Birdbrains?]

That sounds very good. If they find their way into the anemone, that will help give some added protection and hopefully the tongue eater isn't around since the bloodsuckers got there first ;Nailbiting