Ispods killing fish - nuking tank! Question about cleaning it.

[nycman]

Hey nycman
I had the parasitic isodpods when I set my tank up with TBS rock as well. I never had issues with them killing fish, though I only had a couple fish in the tank when I noticed them and held off on transferring other fish. If you are able to run the tank for a couple months with no fish you will be able to starve them out. Without a food source they won't reproduce and will die out. Waiting them out is a lot easier and less expensive then starting over.

I was able to catch and remove some but it is a pain to do that. In the end I believe it was my melanurus wrasse that wiped them out.

Good to know...thanks. I will try waiting them out, but in the interim cure some dry rock for the same period of time.

 

[wooglin]

Good to know...thanks. I will try waiting them out, but in the interim cure some dry rock for the same period of time.

+ on wrasse. I have one and it is the bees knees.

 

[nycman]

I've been thinking about using tampa bay rock for my new system and this was something that was troubling me. I had read about and felt confident dealing with other potential hitchhikers but I would be moving a fish into the new tank.

I'm not trying to do the live/dry debate. I'm interested in some more technical details about what happened here.

Can you share more about the problem? How long had the rocks been there before you started seeing the isopods? Was the tank fishless for any period of time?

My thoughts were to run the tank fishless for a while as a way to deal with this and other risks...

Thanks

I got my two deliveries of the TBS package in late June and early July (10 days apart). Picked both up at the airport. True enough everything was shipped in water - fully submerged. The water was crystal clear and had zero odor. When I picked up the rocks, often a crab or a star fish would fall off into the bag with water or on my floor. In the second shipment, I received all of the clean up crew and drip acclimated them. My water parameters where excellent by mid July when I started buying fish - cheap ones. First a clown - disappeared. Next a school of green chromis - generally all still alive. And this past weekend I got a bicolor blenny. On day two I saw an isopod clinging to his face, and then in the dark could see others - but those may have been a different type (not dangerous). I know I have one bag guy - at least. Interesting thing about this rock is that it is amazing. It has a ton of stuff on it, and the vast majority is surviving. I counted eight sea urchins which seem to have doubled in size inside of a month.

 

[wooglin]

I got my two deliveries of the TBS package in late June and early July (10 days apart). Picked both up at the airport. True enough everything was shipped in water - fully submerged. The water was crystal clear and had zero odor. When I picked up the rocks, often a crab or a star fish would fall off into the bag with water or on my floor. In the second shipment, I received all of the clean up crew and drip acclimated them. My water parameters where excellent by mid July when I started buying fish - cheap ones. First a clown - disappeared. Next a school of green chromis - generally all still alive. And this past weekend I got a bicolor blenny. On day two I saw an isopod clinging to his face, and then in the dark could see others - but those may have been a different type (not dangerous). I know I have one bag guy - at least. Interesting thing about this rock is that it is amazing. It has a ton of stuff on it, and the vast majority is surviving. I counted eight sea urchins which seem to have doubled in size inside of a month.

I have had a unique philosophy on fish, 80/20. 80% working fish 20 percent non working. Wrasses that work on parasites, lots of algae eaters like starry blennie and coral beauty.

 

[nycman]

Here is picture of the tank.

Here is picture of the tank.

Running Mitras on top. Lifereef sump, skimmer and fuge underneath, along with an algae scrubber from 302 Aquatics. Amazing device - has already produced a pound of algae.

 

[DDon]

Running Mitras on top. Lifereef sump, skimmer and fuge underneath, along with an algae scrubber from 302 Aquatics. Amazing device - has already produced a pound of algae.

Looks great

 

[alton]

Tank looks great, if you are taking votes I vote to try a wrasse before dismantling the tank.

 

[karimwassef]

Try a bunch of wrasses- melanarus, yellow, green grass, 6 line, mystery

 

[pauldrapeau]

I got my two deliveries of the TBS package in late June and early July (10 days apart). Picked both up at the airport. True enough everything was shipped in water - fully submerged. The water was crystal clear and had zero odor. When I picked up the rocks, often a crab or a star fish would fall off into the bag with water or on my floor. In the second shipment, I received all of the clean up crew and drip acclimated them. My water parameters where excellent by mid July when I started buying fish - cheap ones. First a clown - disappeared. Next a school of green chromis - generally all still alive. And this past weekend I got a bicolor blenny. On day two I saw an isopod clinging to his face, and then in the dark could see others - but those may have been a different type (not dangerous). I know I have one bag guy - at least. Interesting thing about this rock is that it is amazing. It has a ton of stuff on it, and the vast majority is surviving. I counted eight sea urchins which seem to have doubled in size inside of a month.

Thanks for the info. If I go the TBS route I'll have to be extra diligent. Good to know. I've had the clown in my profile pic for over 10 years and it has been through several tanks currently my only fish in a tank. I know stuff happens but I'd rather not condemn it to an awful death if I can do anything to stop it.

Thanks again...

 

[nycman]

Thanks for all the feedback. Where I am landing is 1) setting up a 20 gallon QT tank with liverock, skimmer. Purchased 100lbs of dry Pukani rock from BRS. Will cure it slowly over many months and then when phosphates are acceptable, dry it out and store it. Got a couple of yellow tangs to be my sacrificial "canaries in the coal mine." If they survive the isopods, then the tank stays. If otherwise, then I now have an option to switch to the new rock once it is cured. Would just need to wait out the 1 month cycle while my lifestock is housed in the QT tank. My question - which seems obvious - I can cure rock, dry it, and cycle it all separately, yes? Meaning I can cure it tap water (early weeks), RO/DI water later weeks, dry it, and then cycle it in saltwater only when I am ready to use it, knowing that it has been properly cured and dryed.

 

[JWClark]

You can but I'd just cure in saltwater. If you use tap water and there are phosphates this will slow the leeching process out of the rock--may be okay in the beginning but I'd worry about other contaminants that could be in there. Also, the rock will slowly dissolve in freshwater due to low pH. Maybe this would speed up the phosphate leeching process as most is probably bound to the surface? Either way, I'd use RODI.

Once cured just leave in some saltwater w/ a powerhead and a little GFO reactor until you decide to use. If you don't want to do this though you could do as you suggest. All it takes is time.