Isopod ID?

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#1
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#1
Sorry this is not the best pic, but it is the best I could get without a macro lens.....is this a good or bad one? It is about 1/8 of an inch long and hops around......

 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#3
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#3
Okay I thought that it was a cirolanid also but it doesn't look like any of the pictures tha I have seen of one. For starters it doesn't have the two big eyes and this one is sort of white with speckles on it. It is the same shape though.
The tank has been up and running for 1 month. The live rock was added after one week and it was fully cured. I found this little beggar hopping around in the sand at the front of the tank in broad daylight. It appeared that there were others like him that were very very small. I have been looking and haven't seen any others like him. There are currenly lots of hermits and various assorted snails (nassarius, nerite, turbo, ceriths) along with 6 peppermint shrimp and 5 blue/green chromis in the tank. I have been watching the fish like a hawk for any signs of parasites. Do these suckers attack shrimp?
 

lordroad

lordroad

Large Fish
#4
Sep 2, 2004
989
7
0
43
Shelby, NC
www.joshday.com
#4
It is very, very, very rare to have hostile pods. It's really nothing to worry about.

Oftentimes you may see pods and bristle worms "attacking" a molting shrimp. But the shrimp is usually already on its way out, and what looks like attacking is really just scavenging a dying and vulnerable critter.
 

Lorna

Lorna

Elite Fish
#8
Mar 3, 2005
3,082
4
0
NE Indiana
#8
Actually the good news is that I got a positive id on my isopod which is a sphaeromatid which are harmless scavengers. They do look very similar to cirolanid which is the parasitic one........I definitely breathed a sigh of relief especially when I starting researching some of the things these little bug(gers) can inflict.
 

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