Should I be worried? Isopodes

[mattH]

So I put some rock in my tank that I had sitting out side for a while. When I looked at it later that night I found what appear to be isopodes crawling over the rock. They have to be a land species since the rock has been outside for over 2 years. Do I need to be worried?

 

[AlexG]

The bugs should not cause much of an issue and can be removed. Did you rinse the rock before adding it to your tank? Did you do any kind of soak of the rock before adding it to the tank?

I always get concerned about adding rocks from outside without first soaking them for some time in RO water. When rocks are outside they will get some bugs on them but if the rocks pickup any chemicals outside that could be transferred to the tank then soaking is a must. In some cases I have abandoned rocks outside because I don't trust them anymore as they might be contaminated. Could your rock have been exposed to fertilizers or pesticides for lawn or garden care? If so then you might want to remove and soak the rocks and observe the tank to make sure there are no changes in the fish or corals.

 

[mattH]

I didn't do a "proper" soak. I have no fear of there being any kind of chemicals on the rock. Where they have been sitting was never exposed to any kind of chemicals.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

They may have crawled out of your other rocks and onto this one, especially if they are still alive

 

[mattH]

That's what I was think, didn't make sense that a terrestrial isopodes would be able to survive in a marine environment.

 

[Rjmul]

How did this end up working out ?

 

[mattH]

How did this end up working out ?

Fairly certain they were a land species and died off. I haven't seen them since a week after original post.