Odd thing happening in QT...

[CanadianReefer]

As some of you may know, I'm in the process of setting up a 300g system. In doing so, I set up several 10 and 20g QTs so that I could purchase some additional fish. I've had everyone in QT for nearly 30 days, and beyond losing a flame Angel for a reason that simply want overt, things were going well.

I noticed tiny white bugs on the glass in 3 of the QT tanks. No biggie, since I assumed they were copepods. I'd used some Marine pure from one of my established tanks to seed the QT tanks, so it made sense. However, I did note that it was strange that they seemed to live despite the fact that 1 of the aquariums has copper in it.

The other day, however, I noticed that these bugs were crawling all over the fish. They don't appear to be digging in - definitely moving - but the fish are twitching. So I put some prazipro in the tank that has my purple Tang in it ( no copper in that one) figuring that it could help. Nope, the Tang is still covered and is not losing his color.

Anyone ever encounter this before? I don't know if this bug is simply a copepod or is it could be something else that neither copper not prazipro seems to address. Any ideas?

 

[CanadianReefer]

*and is NOW losing his colour. Autocorrect. Grrr lol

 

[Maritimer]

Prazi-Pro should be effective against flukes and other worms - far less so against arthropods like copepods.

Not a bad idea to dose it, as flukes are fairly prevalent.

I know these things are tiny, but can you get a photo of them?

~Bruce

 

[melypr1985]

I don't think this is something I've ever seen before. I'd like to see a picture or video if you can get a good clear one.

 

[CanadianReefer]

Hmm, they are pretty tiny. I doubt I'd be able to capture it on camera, but I'll see what I can do...

 

[CanadianReefer]

Alright - I was able to capture them on the glass. I tried to get pictures of the purple Tang but that only resulted in a very angry puffed up Tang who did not produce a good photo! Anyway hopefully you have no problem seeing them in the film - I didn't want to stress the Tang out any further.

Let me figure out how to post from YouTube again and it should be up shortly

 

[Humblefish]

Crawling quickly or slowly over the fish? Flukes will crawl slowly, but are usually only visible on a dark colored fish.

 

[CanadianReefer]

Hopefully that link works. They seem to be crawling relatively quickly. Couldn't capture it on the fish, but you can hopefully make them out on the glass.

There is no difference in the tank that I used prazipro in... I still see them. In the attached video, this tank is one that's had copper in it for nearly 30 days (it's not the same tank I put prazipro in because I wanted to leave my poor tang alone) and they are still crawling around (and copulating, so it appears??)...

Strangest thing...

Could be simply a hardy strain of copepod, or at least that's what I'm hoping. The marine pure I used to seed the QTs came from a tank that had tisbe, tigger, rotifer and all sorts of amphipods - it was very well-established.

Let me know what you think !

 

[CanadianReefer]

fyi, they are floating all over the tank - not just on the glass. You can see this if you look closely enough at the water.

 

[3mm3]

Following along. I've seen these before but could not ID them. Very fast almost worm looking?

 

[Humblefish]

Those are copepods. They are crustaceans (tiny shrimp) so I doubt Prazi will kill them, since the medication primarily targets worms. If Prazi killed copepods, you wouldn't be able to use it in a DT with ornamental crustaceans e.g. cleaner shrimp.

The flow is probably blowing them off the glass, into the water and they are inadvertently landing on your fish.

 

[CanadianReefer]

yes, that description would explain it quite well...

 

[CanadianReefer]

well that's good news. I had assumed that, but after seeing them survive copper, run all over the fish, and having a flame angel die without warning, I wanted to be sure that it was not some sort of infestation of something a bit more unpleasant for the fish.

 

[Humblefish]

FWIW; its not unusual for pods to survive copper as well. They are some tough little SOBs.

 

[aykwm]

They survived CP, i added around 5 ml concentrated bottle for the fish to munch on, i thought they didnt survive as i couldnt see them during quarantine, but after i moved the fish by teo days they were blooming in population. (I was too lazybtobclean the quarantine ) it was unexpected experiment though

 

[CanadianReefer]

I'm in awe of their survivability lol. I really didn't think it was possible. I was worried that I might have been dealing with some sort of pesky strain of isotope. I've read of ones that like to munch on fish tongue, amongst other things, and since the copepods are in abundance and crawling all over my fish, it's always good to get a second opinion to be sure

 

[CanadianReefer]

*isopod. Why does autocorrect suck so much? Lol

 

[CanadianReefer]

Questions about plumbing...
Today my husband and I took a trip to the hardware store to buy supplies so that we can plumb the tank this weekend. I had decided that I would go with the durso style, since that's what my tank comes with, but that I would cap off one of the returns as an experiment. If I find the flow is sufficient, I'll use the 2nd return to build a herbie style so I can add some redundancy. If not, I'll add a 2nd DC return pump and have 2 separate returns.

Anyway, I digress...

I had decided that I wanted hard plumbing and we bought all the parts, but we ventured to the LFS afterwards to find some gate valves, and my husband decided that he much prefers the idea of flexible hosing.

I'm not keen on the idea, myself, but I'm wonder what people here typically use, and what they find to be the advantages/disadvantages of the two styles. He was looking at using a 1" flex hosing that's meant for pond setups. I'm not convinced of its durability. Would love to hear your thoughts...

 

[Maritimer]

Either way can work, and there's sometimes a case to be made for combining the two.

Many folks, for instance, use a length of flexible hose between their return pump and the main body of their plumbing, so as to reduce the transfer of vibration (and noise!)

~Bruce

 

[CanadianReefer]

Either way can work, and there's sometimes a case to be made for combining the two.

Many folks, for instance, use a length of flexible hose between their return pump and the main body of their plumbing, so as to reduce the transfer of vibration (and noise!)

~Bruce

I'm doing that with my current tanks, in fact. However, with these tanks, the sump is directly under the aquarium and it made sense. With the new tank, the sump will be about 8 ft away in a fish room. I guess my main concern is how would one go about supporting soft hose over that long a stretch without running into issues? It will be going through a wall and not much opportunity for bracing, so I'm open to other suggestions to ensure its durability.