Little parasitic thing

FishDad

FishDad

Superstar Fish
#21
Mar 4, 2012
1,218
1
38
Cleveland
#21
I think my only option is to isolate the fish in a qt for 30 days and treat them separately. Meds will kill coral and heat doesn't work for marine ich. I think I'll try low salinity before meds like copper.

If my trap for the mantis shrimp doesn't work I think I'll have to start dipping my live rock in fresh water to draw him out. I see another cycle in my future.
 

O

OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#28
Feb 27, 2009
4,395
0
36
#28
I had a 110 gallon reef set up for over 3 yrs, when my fish started disappearing. No bodies, just 'gone' from tank. Late at night, I saw some eel looking thing swimming around. I had not placed an eel in the tank, and it was over 2ft long. Saw it take the stomach out of a trigger in one bite that night.

By the time I caught it (having to take all rock out until I did), it had eaten 9 fish. I sold it to a science center in Florida where I lived. It was not a fish, nor an eel, but some hybrid type of critter. They kept it for a few months then dissected it.

My Rhinecanthus rectangulus (aka Humuhumunukunukuapuaa trigger fish) was my favorite fish and the one I saw eaten that day :(
 

O

OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#32
Feb 27, 2009
4,395
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36
#32
It was a vertebrate.

It looked a lot like a moray eel except that it had a rounded snout. It had one, continuous dorsal fin from the head to the tip of the tail. It could breathe out of the water but had gill slits like you'd see on a goby. It did not need to 'pant' like an eel must to move water to breathe in the water. Very odd looking fish/eel or whatever it was. It also had 2 rows of pelvic fins that it used to 'crawl' at times, but mostly just used its entire body to swim. Upon dissection, it was discovered that it had 2 sets of jaws (not just one like an eel has) in the back of its throat.
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#37
Feb 27, 2009
4,395
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36
#37
It was solid tan/brown. No markings at all. The scientific minds at the Science Center said it had aspects of being eel and fish, but nothing that had been described.

Another oddity: It also had no reproductive organs at all (once they dissected it), which is why the called it a 'hybrid' of some sorts.
 

Newman

Newman

Elite Fish
#40
Sep 22, 2009
4,668
0
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Northern NJ
#40
http://mydairyfreeglutenfreelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/wolffisheel1.jpg

I still think you had a wolf eel or relative. i am stumped about no organs but its possible they were undeveloped and too small to detect since yours was juvenile at 2 feet. or the organs could have been so large that they mistook them for a body cavity or something. idk. i don't remember fish anatomy very well but i do remember female fish having tubes much like fallopians. if those were exaggerated it would appear as if there was nothing in the abdomen because tubes are hollow.
just guesses. idk if you still remember that fish very well, it was so long ago. i am guessing you don't have any pics.
 

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