what is this?!? please help asap!

This can be frustrating, I know. The same thing happened to my tank. I would buy fish and they would just disappear. Not on the carpet, I even checked in the air vents. So one day, I just removed all the corals, and rock and fish. After some time, I decided to soak a few pieces of rock in cold fresh water, and I found two ispods, and a mantis shrimp. That solved the problem. They are difficult at best to remove. How is the situation?
 
If you take a second look at that supposedly chiton you will notice that it is an isopod that can attach itself to fish and kill them. I found one on one of my anthias one time and neither one survived. Their may be more than the one you caught.
 
If you look at the first pic she posted of the underside, you can see the rim of the chiton's shell all the way around it, and in the 2nd pic the segmented shell plates and no overly large eyes like the Cirolanid Isopod has.
 
ReeferBill said:
If you take a second look at that supposedly chiton you will notice that it is an isopod that can attach itself to fish and kill them. I found one on one of my anthias one time and neither one survived. Their may be more than the one you caught.
Click to expand...

Thanks! We took it to the LFS to get a positive (in person) ID, and they disposed of it for us, so I can't take a double look, but will def keep an eye for them as well in the tank!

Still nothing so far. Worst case scenario, when we move in a few months, since we need to tear the tank down anyway, we will do a fresh water dip then, rather than disturb everything now, just to do it again in a few months. Any ideas, when doing a FW dip, will that harm/kill the mushrooms and sponges that have started growing on some of the rocks? Will it affect the bacteria built up or the coraline algae on them? Thanks again, everyone!!
 
a fresh water dip will kill everything, the coraline, the bacteria and I assume the corals on the rocks. I was able to get the mushrooms to come off the rocks before i dipped them. it's alot of work, but for my aquarium it was worth it. Though now I have a hydroid infestation. but if there is a mantis shrimp or isopod, a freshwater dip will kill them. I used a bacterial additive to replace what was lost.
 
dmh41532 said:
a fresh water dip will kill everything, the coraline, the bacteria and I assume the corals on the rocks. I was able to get the mushrooms to come off the rocks before i dipped them. it's alot of work, but for my aquarium it was worth it. Though now I have a hydroid infestation. but if there is a mantis shrimp or isopod, a freshwater dip will kill them. I used a bacterial additive to replace what was lost.
Click to expand...

I assumed as much, but was hoping not... lol! So its basically a matter of killing everything on a $75 rock if something is hiding in there. Thankfully (in a twisted sort of way...) the daisy polyps all died but maybe 2, and thats the last thing added before the problem started. Hopefully it didn't switch to the $150 mushroom rock or $60 flower pot coral rock... We'll leave those rocks alone and dip everything else then when we do it... and like I said, hope nothings in the rocks with (expensive!) polyps on them! The daisy rock has sprouted a very pretty shroom as well as 2 (what looks to be) feather dusters, so kinda bummed to kill them off, but since it seems most likely that rock is the home of the problem, I guess we have to... or, even better, hopefully we catch something in one of these darn traps before we move!
 
If it's a brief dip, most corals & coralline will survive, but I would think you'd need longer than a brief dip. If you're using a coral dip, you can use tank water with it. If you squirt soda water in holes in the rock, start with the daisy polyp rock & if something comes out then you hopefully don't have to do the rest. Best option is to chip off the rock under the corals so you can save them.
 
The best way to avoid having to use a freshwater dip and killing your corals as well as all your bacteria is to figure out where the sucker is calling home. This may take several nights of staking out the tank. Once you figure out where the sucker is living, you only have to shoot soda water into the area of the rock that it is hiding out in. This will drive the sucker out. And I doubt it is an isopod as they usually don't kill as quickly as you have said these deaths occurred. It sounds like you actually have something in the tank that is eating the fish not attaching onto them like a leech. I still say it's a eunicid worm possibly a spearing mantis.
 
Thanks everyone. Still nothing, but we spent the weekend at the beach, so we couldn't stake the tank out yet... came home to an empty trap again though, so will bait it again and hope something comes up. If not, and we don't see anything upon a week's worth of staking out the tank lol, I suppose alls that left is a dip... heres to hoping I find it without having to dip everything! :)
 
Update?

Update?

CoralReeferGal,

Did you ever figure out the culprit? I felt like I was reading a Stephen King series with this thread and want to know how it ends!
 
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