Parasite Isopods/Copepods

Has anyone dealt with parasitic pods before?

Last night while looking in my tank I noticed one of my clowns start to behave erratically, floating weird. Upon closer inspection, I found a quarter inch isopod clinging to his tail sucking his blood.

I was able to remove the clown with the parasite and gave him a formalin dip to remove the parasite and any unseen eggs/gunk that might have also been on him. (slight discoloration on his sides as well)

When dealing with these things, is it a "where there's one there's many" situation? Is it more likely that there may only be one or two of them? I've read that to really get rid of these, I need to take all fish out and let the pods starve out for a number of weeks, or have a bait fish in there that's easy to catch so I can lure all parasites to the fish and remove them after lights out while they're feeding off of the fish.

Any advice appreciated on this.

Also, could eggs for these creatures come from un-dipped corals?

 

sorry im not of much help for you but here is a bump, maybe someone can help

 

Wish I was but I'm no help either other than keeping you visible...

 

another bump. reefmonkey. that image looks familiar

 

benn a while sinc ive seen that.. notice the other ladys head moves back and that beer gut isnt even touching her.

 

here's a pic!

Took this the night of, just got around to putting it up.

 

Also hoping someone can comment on these nasty little guys...one of these buggers killed a peppermint shrimp of mine. At least he also died with it. Everything else is doing excellent but I'm leery of adding another shrimp until I'm sure it's safe...also hoping to hear that you could "starve" them out without a host as you'll never be able to "catch" one once it's in your tank...

 

how old is your tank? When did you put in your live rock?

Just like any other critter, there's a possibility that there's more... I would assume the isopod came in on live rock and not attached to a fish...

From what I understand, they need a host, so if you can catch the host and remove them, as you did, you may not have a problem. Depending on how long the LR has been in the tank, would give you a good idea about how long they can survive without a known host.

 

If only the the things were wanted were all tolerant to copper. It would make life so much easier.

I feel bad for your clown, that is the first parasitic isopod I have seen in an aquarium.

 

Well, the LR has been in the tank for 5 months now. Fish weren't added for at least a month after the rocks were first put in there. Perhaps some sort of pod eggs came on a frag?

This is a testament to the importance of dipping, if anything. Just goes to show you that more than just SPS or Softy predators can hitchhike into your tank.