Parasitic Isopods

[JSM]

I set up a 300g about 3 yrs ago and soon after we set it up I saw an isopod on the naso tang but never saw it again so I figured it maybe died or something ate it. Well this morning there were isopods on several fish, most easily seen on the chevron due to his dark coloring. My question is this, does garlic repel isopods as it does ick? I feed this tank twice a day with food soaked in garlic and was out of town for 4 days and I didn't have the person feeding use garlic. I feed this tank before their lights come on because I need to go to work and it has big hungry fish in it, shortly after I fed the tank, 30 minutes or so, the isopods started falling off and were almost completely gone within an hour or so. The lights were still off so they weren't falling off because the lights came on. I have added nothing to this tank and no live rock in almost 3 yrs so I'm assuming they have been in there this whole time, but have been kept at bay by something but I'm not sure what. Any insight anyone may have would be great. The other fish that I saw them on only had 1 isopod but for some reason the chevron had many. The only thing I can think of is that the garlic helps repel the isopods. I have read that over time garlic builds up in a fishes system so maybe this has been my savior. I can tell you I felt sick when I saw them this morning. There is a lunare wrasse in this tank and I wondered if possibly he has been eating them as well? I know someone who has a dottyback that pulls them from the rock to eat them. Any ideas??

Thanks,
Janna

 

[TealCobra]

That is not good. Unfortunately garlic doesn't repel anything to be completely honest. There is some thought that it helps build up some immunity in fish but it has zero effect on parasitic Isopods I can guarantee that. The best way to get rid of the Isopods is to manually remove them. This could be extremely difficult in such a large tank. You would probably need to move the fish into containers or tanks where you could catch them easily to remove the Isopods once they have latched onto the fish. Starving the Isopods of a host is another option but some have reported living and hungry Isopods after a 6 month fallow period. Think it gets worse? They are likely breeding in your system. Sorry to sound like the bearer of bad news but if you've had them in your system for a while, this could be a lot of work. You will have to take a very proactive approach to ridding them from your tank. Good luck.

 

[JSM]

Yeah, I'm sure they are breeding in my tank but in the 3 yrs they have been in there you would think they would have wiped out some fish by now if something wasn't keeping them at bay. And as far as garlic is concerned I think most public aquariums would disagree with you on the garlic issue, I have a friend who works for one and they are all pretty much in agreement that it does work. I don't have proof that it does work but do you have proof that it doesn't? And why did they start falling off shortly after feeding, the lights were still out? I'm not trying to argue, just trying to figure this out. I do know I have to start manually removing them but I can't put them in another tank, these are big fish, emperor angel is at least 7-8", puffer and lion are around 12", get the idea? I don't have another 300g to put them in so I can let this tank run fallow. Has anyone else had a similar experience of having had them so long in a tank with no caualties?

Janna

 

[TealCobra]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11714396#post11714396 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JSM
Yeah, I'm sure they are breeding in my tank but in the 3 yrs they have been in there you would think they would have wiped out some fish by now if something wasn't keeping them at bay. And as far as garlic is concerned I think most public aquariums would disagree with you on the garlic issue, I have a friend who works for one and they are all pretty much in agreement that it does work. I don't have proof that it does work but do you have proof that it doesn't? And why did they start falling off shortly after feeding, the lights were still out? I'm not trying to argue, just trying to figure this out. I do know I have to start manually removing them but I can't put them in another tank, these are big fish, emperor angel is at least 7-8", puffer and lion are around 12", get the idea? I don't have another 300g to put them in so I can let this tank run fallow. Has anyone else had a similar experience of having had them so long in a tank with no caualties?

Janna

I'm not going to argue with you either about the effectiveness of garlic. Do I use it? Sure, not all the time but I don't totally discount it. That being said, there is no documented evidence that it helps fish at all. There are many experts in this hobby that will tell you there is certainly no harm in using it but don't expect it to solve any problems either.