Boil Looking Bump on Scarlet Shrimp

[Goneski]

My Scarlet Cleaner has a biol looking bump on its right side. See attached pics. I doubt this is normal. Anyone seen this before? What is it and what an I do if anything. It is active and eating OK.

 

[JHemdal]

That is most likely a parasitic Epicaridean isopod. IIRC, they can cause molt failure and death in some shrimp. No treatment for this as the isopod and the shrimp would have the same tolerance to chemical treatments.

Jay

 

[Goneski]

Should this guy be removed from the tank? I do not want this to spread to my Blood Shrimp?

 

[Recty]

Does it look like it's under the shell and making it swell out or on top of the shell? It looks like a parasitic pod of some sort, like JH said.

I'd try to catch the shrimp which shouldnt be too hard, cleaner shrimp are gluttons. Then put him into a bowl of tank water where you can work on him and see if maybe you can just stick a needle into the pod. I wouldnt try to scrape it off as you'll probably damage the shrimp, but you can kill the pod with something sharp and just let it fall off on it's own.

 

[Goneski]

It is under the shell for sure and from what I have read is attached to the gills of the shrimp.

 

[Recty]

I'm not sure what to tell you then... if it was me I'd remove it from my tank to make sure it didnt spread to my other shrimp, but it's up to you. I cant confirm it would spread to another type of shrimp.

For what it's worth, I've seen pictures of these things a couple times but only ever on scarlet cleaners like yours, never on a fire shrimp.

 

[onsan]

i'd suggest removing it, there may be a chance that there is the opposing sex in the tank or it could be a female that has fertilized eggs which will release more parasites and the chances are then good that the infection will not only spread to other crustaceans, but fish as well.

I'd try a hospital tank and watch it go through a molt, sometimes the parasite can be shed with the molting, or it may drop off and enter its mature reproductive stage, in which case if it does you can remove the uninfected shrimp. most parasites complete their life cycle away from their host at one stage or another, if this is one lone parasite it may be enough to keep the shrimp alive until it unattaches and you can remove it.

only treatment that i could think that may work is Hydrogen Peroxide, problem with using it is that dosages need to be a balance between being strong enough to affect the parasite and not so strong as to kill the shrimp.