Late Night Raid...

[mjsdas]

So tonight i used a tiny LED flashlight i have to see what everything looked like at night, and i saw this guy on a new zoanthid rock i bought. he is about 1/2 an inch long. I remember seeing something like this on this forum and that it was a parasite or something.
The only fish i have in this tank is a maroon clownfish. I checked him over as the light went on and he seemed to be clean of parasites.
Is this a cirolanid isopod? if it is what do i need to know / do?

 

[mjsdas]

it was in my 10 gal w/ 13 lbs aquacultured fl rock, 5 pieces. So i think i could to a 1.04 salinity dip for the rocks.
1) Do they live in the sand at all?
2) Will this mess with my cycle, as in restart it?
3) I have see dozens of legs come out of the rocks at night, so there are quite a few serpent/brittle stars, would these be alright if i did the dip?
4) This is the first i have seen, and i just put the new zoo rock in the tank today, what do you think the odds are that it could have come from that rock and this could be the only one?
5) first some aiptasa, now isopods...

i'm beginning to see why people hate gulf rock
these SOB's better stay away from my maroon clown...

 

[harlequinnut]

Chances are it came from the florida rocks and you're only seeing it now. If you do a dip on the rocks it would probably kill any inverts you have also.

 

[aarone]

what leads you to beleive that it is a predatory cirolanid? there are several types of ythe cirolanid and only a few are predetory....it might be a good thing.

 

[aarone]

im sure it is an isopod...but like every creature in the world there are many variations...thus it might not be predatory and just as harmless as another pod in the tank.

 

[grndhog]

Trust me, those are the bad pods. I had/have them in my tank from Fl rock, the only way Ive been able to catch them is when they fall off of my Kole tang. They host at night and fall of when lights come on. The two black eyes gives him away.

 

[nm reef]

I'm not so sure what you posted a pic of is a bad isopod...over the past few years I've seen numerous pods very much like the one pictured and they have never posed a problem. The ones that have been reported to be problematic are much lighter in color than the one posted...and from what I understand they are not very common...even from Florida LR. Attached below is a bit of general info on isopods...before you take drastic measures I'd first insure what you have is deserving of removal...as a general rule the vast majority of copepods/isopods/amphipods can be a benefit to the micro diversity of a reef and I'd hesitate to take steps to remove them without definite reason.
info

 

[mjsdas]

i'm glad to hear that it might not be harmful. i will definitly hold off on the hypersalinity dip for now.
when i checked out the tank it was only an hour after lights went off, do i need to check later at night to see if any isopods are on my maroon clown? like do they not come out till later?