Lump on cleaner shrimp

nivram

New member
I just came home from the lfs and noticed a lump on cleaner shrimp I purchased. I'm pretty sure it is a parasite. Any idea how I might be able to rid the shrimp of this? I will plan on placing this shrimp in a tank of its own until i can get rid of the parasite or the shrimp altogether. I'd prefer to just rid the shrimp of the parasite. But have found no treatments searching RC or google.
 
You can try to remove the isopod but you're likely to inflict more harm on the shrimp than the isopod. This type of parasite co-exists with its host without causing major damage or killing it.

What the article doesn't mention is that the females are very highly modified, some to the point where they're barely recognizable as crustaceans. The males are fairly normal looking but much much tinier than the females & live attached to them. They are in fact commensals -- they receive food from the females & provide sperm in exchange. So when you see a shrimp or crab with this kind of bulge you're usually seeing a mated pair.

If you do have a mated pair they will produce larvae. The newly released pelagic juveniles need to find the right kind of copepods which they parasitize. After going through more stages of development the juveniles need to find the right host (they are species specific). The first juvenile to attach to the final host becomes a female; the next juvenile becomes a male & attaches to the female. Even if they do produce larvae and the right kind of copepods are in your tank you only have one cleaner, right? So the larvae will eventually die.
 
Probably not. Since they're both crustaceans anything that would affect the isopod would also affect the shrimp.
 

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