lump on ghost shrimp. parasite? please help!

[jlprutz]

I bought 10 ghost shrimp to help cycle my new tank. Two of them have a lump on the side of their bodies. The lump has a black ring around it and a white center. It seems the lump may in fact have legs but my eyes are not good enough to be sure. I have used ghosts previously when setting up my larger marine tank but i have never seen this before. Anyone know what this could be? I really dont want to start a tank with parasites. Should i separate them? Keep all the shrimp out of the tank? Please help!

 

[snorvich]

I would simply use a piece of shrimp from the grocery, ideally in a woman's panty hose sock.

 

[ThRoewer]

It's a Bopyrid Isopod, a crustacean shrimp parasite.

See also these threats:
Cleaner Shrimp isopod parasite??
Parasitic Isopod on cleaner shrimp...
What's wrong with my shrimp?

 

[ThRoewer]

Forgot to say you don't need to worry about this being infectious. These Isopods need an intermediate host - a small planktonic copepod, you will hardly find in a fish tank - to complete their lifecycle.