Please Help!!!

W

wattsd

AC Members
Mar 22, 2005
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Tonight I noticed some very strange clown behavior and took a closer look.

I have two clowns and one seemed to be trying to bite the other. The smaller one has a little, what I assume is a copepod of some sort, attached to its anus. I am quite disturbed by this and have tried to remove it but it is attached very well. I would hate to think that its going to crawl in and start eating.

It looks translucent with large black eyes. I have captured one and am looking for an ID but haven't had luck. There are quite a few of these little *******s swimming around and would like to know what they are!!

What can I do??! The clown is very uncomfortable looking, it keeps trying to position itself so the other can bite it off but it can't.
Should I do a freshwater dip??

please help
 
If they are cirolanid isopods you got something REALLY nasty on your hands. Basically they are preditors rather then parasites, they eat the fishes fins and tail first, then they slice thier way into the fishes guts and start to drink all its blood, and then regurgitate the guts and skeleton which obviously kills the fish, and some can get rather large.


One way is to remove the isopode with forcepts carefully, also these little buggers are not picky and WILL slice thier way into your hand and start to feast on your hand, and are really hard to remove, so do NOT try to remove it using your hand.


Basically you deal with them the same way as any parasite such as ich, most common way is make sure it doesnt have a food supply/host so it starves, which takes about 3-4 weeks, but there are other ways as well, and cusk eels eat them as well (but not sure if they are aquarium suitible.
 
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I woke up this morning to find that the little bugger had removed himself...which is good in two ways: 1. he is not the type to hang on until the fish is dead, 2. the light is the apparent reason why they "let go".

My newest plan is this: the next time I see a fish with a isopod, I will remove it and place it into a small container which I will put in bright light. Maybe I will put a small rock or two in there as well. The isopod should remove itself and hide in the rock.

I hope this works cause I don't feel like physically removing it from my poor clown!

Anyone know of any types of "traps" that would work? Maybe a small container with a piece of food at one end??

Wish me luck.
 
Parasite often drop off thier host when they get thier fill and then will later attack it again when it gets hungrey, which is usually at night. Also if it happened to be a pregnant female there could be an outbreak of them, if you think 1 is bad, wait until you see a swarm of them attacking.
 
I don't really want to wait to see a "swarm" of them. I didn't see any last night except for the little white ones with HUGE black eyes. I think those ones are ok though. Anyone know what the eggs would look like if it was a female?? Would they be too small to see anyway?

How is it that I am just now seeing this happen?? I am usually up until midnight everynight and check the tank before bed. I would have thought I would see this as soon as the little monster was introduced to the tank.

Any chance it was just a normal pod hitching a ride? (trying to be optimistic)
 
Pod Pics

These are the pods that I took out the other night. Some of the smaller ones no less...

I set a "trap" tonight consisting of a pill bottle and some other MacGiveresque dealies. I will let you know how it turns out.

pod1.jpg pod2.jpg
 
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