isopod capture techniques ?

[Chupakabra-King]

Hi all ,

Im not sure this is the right forum but since I "think" I have a fish predator in my tank and it is affecting the health of my fish , I thought I would post it here.

I recently bought a small 10lb order of live rock from TBS to add to my nano tank and a pice to my 40 breeder. When I pulled it out of the package I noticed some dead isopods ( and some still wriggling ) on the paper . I threw them away and added the rock to my nano that has no fish . I thought that since this tank is fishless that if they were in there Id be ok . Well I pulled a small piece of rock from my nano and put it in my 40 breeder and lo and behold my angel has a small contusion on its head , that wasnt there before I put the rock in. All the other fish are fine in the tank. I think I may have one lone isopod in the tank.

Anyway , I have heard that putting red meat on a string and hanging that in the tank at night and checking it before light on will catch them. Anybody have any luck with that method ? I also heard about trapping them with a coke bottle trap but how does the smell of the bait make it out of the bottle to entice the isopods ?

I will never buy TBS rock again , too much of a risk of isopods for me . Great rock for the life but the bad life is in there too ! If I lose my fish to these isopods I will throw in the towel and break everything down and sell it. I ve put too much time and money in this for isopods to ruin it. :sad1:

Please everyone give me some input on what to do. I dont wanna lose my fish .

 

[Chupakabra-King]

Mods if you think this needs to go to another forum for better exposure to the right people who know what to do , by all means move it for me .

Thanks

 

[Recty]

One of your fish has a small wound on the head, correct? Can you describe it? And hopefully take a picture?

 

[DJREEF]

Firstly, make sure ciranolids are the issue. Watch and wait. You may even need to set your alarm for 2AM to check at night. Get some red filters for your flashlight and check out the tank when it's been dark for a few hours. It may be that you have a clumsy angel, and there is no need to panic.

DJ

 

[Chupakabra-King]

Firstly, make sure ciranolids are the issue. Watch and wait. You may even need to set your alarm for 2AM to check at night. Get some red filters for your flashlight and check out the tank when it's been dark for a few hours. It may be that you have a clumsy angel, and there is no need to panic.
DJ

One of your fish has a small wound on the head, correct? Can you describe it? And hopefully take a picture?

Recty , correct . I put two and two together and made this thread in a panic . I will try and take a pic when I get home but Im no good with a camera and he is real fast . The wife told me there was no wound on his head this morning so it might be either a scrape he had or maybe he ran his head into one of my mini carpet anemones and it just looked like a wound. I will check again when I get home and report back what I find.

DJ , thanks for the tips . I will defintely watch and wait. I dont want to do anything in a hurry and mess something up . In the mean time I will get together the supplies needed to go isopod hunting.

 

[Recty]

Parasitic isopods are a pretty rare occurrence, I'm not saying it isnt one but I'd be a lot more willing to bet it's something else first.

I had one on a lyretail anthias that came in on 180 lbs of live rock and it was pretty easy to "treat", I caught the fish and the isopod just came off when the fish hit the net. I dumped the fish back in the water and brought out the isopod then put it down my garbage disposal

 

[JHemdal]

DJREEF mentioned them, Cirolanid copepods can be a real pest in aquairums. They are not "parasitic", but more "predatory". They swim up into the water column at night and bite the fish. They are small, 2mm or so, and look just like regular non-problematic copepods. They are most often a problem is old, well-established systems. I've had cases where a diagnostic formalin dip showed microscopic copepods that were not visible to the naked eye, these are similar to Lernea (anchorworm) but without the large female life stage.

Jay