Parasitic copepods.....

[MThompson]

I am pretty sure that my tank has a few parasitic copepods scurrying around. Last week I noticed my lawnmower blenny flashing on the rocks every so often. I have been keeping a close eye on the situation.....and this morning I found the culprit. My brown-barred goby had a new white spot on his caudal fin. I tried netting him to get a closer look and confirm my suspicion, but as soon has he darted from the net the parasite was kicked off. It incidentally landed on the back wall and quickly ran down into the sand bed.

I only have the two benthic fish above, and really the lawnmower is the only one that stays in contact with the substrate for any amount of time. Although, the goby must be there long enough because I saw the parasite on him......I digress.

My plan is to get two cleaner shrimp as soon as I can, unless any of you have a better solution. My only dilemma is that the closest store that might have some is about an hour away (and with gas so dang high, those would be some expensive shrimp)!

In the meantime, I will keep my eyes open for an opportunity to get a few decent pictures of the parasites. And once I get the shrimp, I will let you all know how they do.

 

[JHemdal]

MThompson,

The cleaner shrimp won't help in this case IMO. As you noticed, the organism you saw is capable of "running down into the sand bed" - cleaner shrimp are simply not set up for catching these sorts of critters. What you have is not an obligate parasitic copepod (like you see on firefish sometimes), but rather sort of a opportunistic (falcultative) "fish predator". I recall an instance where a public aquarium in Europe had populations of these so high that the fish were all left hovering at the surface trying to keep away from them.
Here is a link that might help you ID your critter:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/index.php

Jay

 

[MThompson]

Thanks Jay,

I didn't get a real good look at it, but it did alarm me when it popped off and scurried away. I work with catfish, golden shiners, and goldfish right now, and have never seen a parasite do that before. I am hoping that I get another shot at catching one, so I can get some good pictures of them. I have yet to see one on my lawnmower, but they would be harder to spot due to his coloration....may be worth a closer look.

Do you think that a fish such as a mandarin or scooter blenny would effectively control the crustacean's population?

BTW, I love your Advanced Techniques book. I've read through my copy twice, and found new stuff the second time around. I am gonna read it a third, now that I just finished an Aquaculture Engineering course.....makes me want to get done with school so I can get a job working on the larger scale systems.

Thanks again. And I'll keep the thread updated with any news,