Help me ID this little bugger

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cherubael

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 7, 2008
67
0
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australia
sorry no pics yet (camera wasnt with me) but this evening while i was looking at my tank (fish were sleeping, lights were out) i noticed something small sticking to my clown fishes under fin, tiny little thing about 5mm long sort of see through, i fished the clown fish out and using tweezers got this little thing off my fish.

Its about 5mm long, looks like a trilabite (dinosaur thing) kinda looks like a silver fish but was see through and when i tried to get it off the fin it clung on like a parasite and wouldnt budge, i had to flick it off. i caught it in a little tiny with some water in it to keep it alive and ill show my fish guy but im a little freaked out, when i flipped it over it had about 6 legs and what looked like a little mouth. is it some kind of parasite? should i be afraid?

also ive lost two fish for no reasons (that we can work out, water is fine everything is fine) is this little sucker to blame?
 
Perhaps an isopod. A parasite that will kill your fish. Hope that there aren't more.
 
If it was freshwater it'd have been argulus. But it isn't and it's in marine conditions. But it might be something similar?
 
i just looked up isopods and i think it is one, although a very small one. probably hiding in my live rock for a while and only just coming out.
any idea how to get rid of them? and how long do they take to kill fish?
 
Not sure how long it takes one to kill a fish, would depend of several things.
You can manually remove the ones on your fish, but isopods in the tank will be difficult to get rid of. Some folks have used heart worm pills for dogs as a treatment. I think the drug is Ivermectin? Check on www.reefcentral.com for lots more info.
 
isopod2.jpg


looks like this?

sans the Doritos...
 
yeah it does, its the first one ive seen on my fish. a bit weird as we havent put anything new into the tank for a while so i have no idea where they would have come from. i guess i need to just watch the tank and see if there are any others. What about treating the tank with copper? will that work?
 
That pic is freakin' awesome!!!

Yes. Copper will work to knock them out. Just remember to keep treating for a bit after you think they are all gone.
 
Do you have any other inverts (snails, hermit crabs, shrimp, corals, etc) in your tank? Copper will kill them all.
 
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