cirolanid isopsod infested tank

[roricaja]

Last night I found several of these @#$%ers in my FOWLR tank. I have removed all fish to a qt. All that is left are a bunch of live rock and a LTA. Does anyone know if the isopods will feed on the anenome or is it safe? I would rather not disturb the LTA if I dont have to.

[Sloth]

Dunno if it would work, but I'll go out on a limb and suggest dosing your tank with Interceptor - the red bug treatment. It kills certain crustaceans and might be effective in ridding them from your tank.

[Pyrrhus]

as far as i know and from the article from Dr. Ron isopods only eat vertebrates. the LTA should be safe but it takes 6 months or longer to starve the little buggers out of the tank.

[Diehl]

Do a search and you will see I had the same problem about a year ago. The only way to get them out is to starve them for 6+ months or by hand at night with a flashlight. Be careful they can attach you also:(

[Agu]

Here's your basic information,

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/index.htm


Agu

[anthworks]

Wow. Those things are really nasty.

[slimytadpole]

Nuke the tank from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Alternatively, since this is a FOWLR (except for the anenome), can't you move the anenome to a bucketarium for a couple days, and go hypo-salinity? I can't imagine the isopods would appreciate that.

[roricaja]

I would but I am not sure how that will effect all the other beneficial life in the tank. The way that I look at it is the rock is usually cured by the LFS supplier, and i know that my LFS cures their rock for four weeks. I also had the rock in the tank for a month while all my fish were in qt for ich. This adds up to about 2 1/2 to 3 months of starving isopods and i have to only go another three before all is good hopefully.

[salty joe]

Calfo mentions trapping them on page 303, Reef Invertibrates.

[AReeferIsExpensive]

ive trapped them using a film canister......there's hope~

[kayl]

you could always buy a cheap fish and sacrifice it...I'm not condoning this- just a quicker way to get rid of them. Personally- You should try trapping them before resorting to cruelty....

[roricaja]

i am looking for am effective way of doing this(trap). I understand that they will not attack a dead bait. Which means i will have to use a live one in some kind of one way trap.?????

[Wilafur]

aren't specific hogfish natural predators of the buggers? iirc, i think i read a post before about cuban hogfishes going to town on them.

[AReeferIsExpensive]

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28745&highlight=caught+little

[Ewan]

I used the red bug threatment (interceptor) and then suggested it as a possible solution to a fellow reef club member. It worked with great success. He's been cirolanid-free for over a month now. From what I understand, he's only done the one treatment at the recommended dosage used for treating red bugs.

Here's the thread:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=367434

Here's the thread after dosing...

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=374275


I've urged Mike to write up a little article on his experiences so that he can share, and possibly help others. He is busier than me, but I can attest to his success.

Good luck, and let me know what you decide.

-Rob

[kmk2307]

roricaja,

Your local university's biology department's invertebrate zoology teacher would probably love to have some preserved ciroland isopods for the specimen collection. Just something to think about.

Kevin

[JPMagyar]

Is there no end to the list of horrible things that can infest our tanks?



Basket weaving is starting to look like a really nice hobby. . .


Dear God please do not send me any isopods's. Amen.


Joe;)

[NDreefer1]

Well....If you're really desperate...

A few days ago I was taking to someone in my LFS that accidentially got some anti-flea medication into his tank - some sort of liquid that you put on the fur.

Within 5 minutes every crab, shrimp, and pod was dead. Fish and corals were unaffected.

After calling the manufacturer it was discovered that the anti flea stuff is amazingly leathal against any arthropods, but requires much higher concentrations to affect things like fish. They even tested its potency on mysid shrimp.

The stuff also has a half life of about 8 hours in water with bright light, so if would quickly be removed from the system.

It was a 90 gal tank, contaminated by petting his dog then feeding the fish an hour later, so it doesnt take much.


In THEORY, you could get everything you could out of the tank (fish, clean up crew, and the anemone also to be safe) and nuke the tank. Then get a bit of live rock from a non-infested tank to reseed the pods.

Might be quicker then waiting the 6 months. The timer starts the day you took the fish out, most are nocternal and they can get their fill in about 15 minutes.

Obviously, use this at your own risk.

[roricaja]

I think i will take my time and wait it out. I just bought all the live rock i am going to get and will concentrate on my other tanks.