terry B & others.re:copepod

[carrie]

I completed hyposalinity over 1 mo. ago. Prior to hypo I did have copepods so based on some prev. posts on this bb I thought my copepods were gone for good.
However, I have an escalating copepod problem, with my fish jerking, dashing and scratching to get them off his gills (poweder blue tang). As the copepods increase in numbers, the clarity of my tank gets worse. I have no live rock or algae blooms, and my tank levels are ideal. I don't see any fish eating these copepods.
Q=Why are they growing in population, and they seem to be more of a pest to my fish.
Q=How do I get rid of them? If hypo didn't kill them, what will? My tank is FO.
Please help with some advice, the last thing I need is to stress my powder blue and have another outbreak of ich...
ammonia=0
Nitrate=40 (tank est. 1-1/2yrs)
nitrite=0
salnity=1.021
phosphates-.50ppm
temp 78 degrees
PS. obviously the copepods went into hibernation during hyposalinity.

 

[susiepan]

Carrie,
I have a book, Baensch Marine Atlas, and in book 1 it states about parasitic copepods, fish lice, and gill maggots, and they are very dangerous to smaller fish..
I says to use three times the recommended dosage of NEOSAL in a bucket for 2-4 min..The infecting creature should fall off, and return the fish to the tank immediately
This is on page 209...
Hope that helps alittle..
Gl
~Susie

 

[beth]

What makes you think that what your fish have are copepods? You say you have no live rock, did you have live rock in that tank before, or do you have live sand? Copepods have to come into your tanks, usually from those sources. Do you see the "copepods". Where are they on the fish? What do they look like?

 

[carrie]

when we orig. purchased powder blue tang, the copepods caught a ride w/him. Then a few weeks later we had ich AND copepods in the tank. then we did hyposalinity. Both ich and copepods disappeared. Now,(about 2mo later) copepods are back and in huge numbers.
Never had any live rock or sand. They caught ride w/powder blue. Don't know how. FO tank.
*here is a description:
stick to back or side of tank on the glass and move around. They are white in color. Appear to eat algae on the glass. We had algae after hypo was done, now the copepods ate all the algae and have nothing to do except swim in the water instead of on the glass. That's how many we have.
We actually took a sample to LFS and they also agreed they are copepods but had no solution how to get rid of them.
What do you suggest?
PS like mentioned in earlier post the hypo did not kill them. They just hybernated.

 

[musipilot]

I know its not an ideal solution, but a couple of chromises will reduce your cope population overnite. They live on these things, and will constantly suck them up.

 

[fmarini]

Hi:
Are you sure you don't mean isopods? Like those mentioned here
<a href="http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/index.htm</a>
and here
<a href="http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=ccf267711f1876d30f8430273173dec1&threadid=69656&highlight=isopods" target="_blank">http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=ccf267711f1876d30f8430273173dec1&threadid=69656&highlight=isopods</a>
Actually by the description of the fish movements it sounds like flukes or lice
If you really do have tons of copepods, pull the fish out and go back into hyposalinity for the fish, then wipe out the tank population. (bleach? -don't know how to do this)