Parasite found on clown... video

[DARKPHREAK]

Noticed that the smaller of my 2 clowns had a weird looking 'thing' attached to it. The fish seemed to be suffering so we took it out to see if we could get this 'thing' off. Put the clown on a paper towel and the 'thing' just popped off.

I wonder if the thing was feeding off the fish and or was lying eggs.

Any ideas?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oul7jzW5zs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKLBsupXugQ

 

[jnc914]

Those videos freaked me out. Get rid of that thing now, it appears to be a parasitic isopod, specifically the Cirolanidae family of parasites. Not good, especially if it was laying eggs. However, I would guess it was more likely feeding off the clown.

 

[jnc914]

http://www.crustacea.net/crustace/isopoda/www/cirolan.htm

 

[DARKPHREAK]

Thanks for the great info! It freaked the wife out also, she said it looked like something from HellBoy!

Down the drain it went followed by HOT water. The clown is still swimming around although there appears to be several bit marks of its body. We will observe it closely. This tank is not connected to the big main system thankfully!