Took this off my Montipora Danae*PIC'S

[NYReef]

Hi, any idea if this is just a harmless pod, or something worse? It was on my "superman" montipora between the polyps and as it moved it looked like some sand or somethings came off the coral. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

looks to me like an isopod, bad stuff

 

[MarineFiend]

WOW that almost looks like a sea flea, but it also looks like a slug. Is the underside soft? and the top hard?

 

[NYReef]

I removed it and the top does seem hard, it lived quite a while out of the water and was still going when I threw it out. If it is an isopod, is that bad just for any fish? or does it attack corals too??

 

[Znut Reefer]

I think they mainly attack fish.

 

[NYReef]

I keep mainly corals with just 2 firefish that have been in the tank about 7 months now. I have seen these guys (isopods) on and off for several months and they are on the glass and rocks and monti's mostly, not the fish. I'll have to remove the fish and isolate them, will the isopods die with no fish? or live off the scavenged food and other pods in the tank?

 

[Shooter7]

Here is a pic of an isopod I took out back when I had my 26 gal running.

I ran this by a few people, including the good doc when his forum was still open here, and all agreed that this was a "good" isopod. One defining feature was said to be the size of the eyes. Note the ones on my pod are fairly small. Apparently, the nasty guys have really big eyes on them. So, that being the case, it doesn't look to me anyway that your guy is a bad one. I have since moved the contents of that tank to my 120 gal and after it was set up for awhile, I have never seen any of these guys again. For awhile there my 26 gal was just abuzz with them everywhere. HTH

 

[jman77]

Dude. ...throw it on sweet rice and and dunk it in some wassabi !!!

 

[NYReef]

Geez, and I just ate chinese food tonight, I think I'm going to be sick now!!! I did not see large eyes which I was looking for after reading a bunch of articles on isopods. There are a bunch of them in my tank however, I think a six line wrasse might be in order.

 

[MarineFiend]

I think that I would be running to the LFS and gettin any wrasse they had.

 

[Shooter7]

The ones I had didn't hurt anything at all. Didn't touch corals or fish. btw....I had a sixline in there with them and he didn't touch them as far as I could see.

 

[NYReef]

Wonder if its worth getting the six line then?

 

[LBCBJ]

Dude, I just saw the identical thing in my tank last night! I just took it for an extremly large member of the amphipod community. Why are isopods bad?

 

[Shooter7]

They're not all bad. Here's an article:

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

 

[atzak]

looks like a tiny chiton

 

[rickyfins]

I have them on my monti caps and they are being destructive as far as I can tell? Can anyone give me an update as I am dealing with a similar problem


thanks,

Rick

 

[Avast Marine]

I took this a few weeks ago.

Sphaeromatid Isopod.

Shooter7 provided the link for you already.

 

[rickyfins]

The Isopod I am talking about looks like this and eats upon the montipora species. I am having trouble with them right now so it is a different critter.

thanks,

Rick

 

[Avast Marine]

Sorry thought you ment the same as shooter7 posted. Don't suppose you have a better pic do you?

 

[rickyfins]

Not yet, I am taking a slide of these little critters to the College I go to and put them under the microscope and take pics. They are no bigger than a flea. I will post pics as soon as I get them.

thanks,

Rick