what the heck??

I moved a piece of live rock today and this creature scattered across the sand and stopped for a second to where i got a pretty good look.

It looked like a huge amphipod (about 3x the size) but its body wasnt curved down like theirs is. it was grey and had the sections on its back like them, but it had large eyes and a tail that was fanned out (more like a lobsters is). i grabbed a cup and tried to get him but he ran back into the rocks. if i saw a pic i would know, but i did a little research and no success....

thought it was worth a shot-

sound familar to anyone?

Did it look like this?

Do a search on Isopods, and specifically Cirolanid Isopods.

Cirolanid is bad news.

On the plus side, just because you've got Isopods doesn't mean they're all bad. I got them crawling all over my tank, and reading up on Cirolanids freaked me out for a few days (to be honest, every time I see an Isopod I jump up for a closer look to make sure it's not a Cirolanid).

Got my fingers crossed for you!

that thing in the pic looks clear...and this guy was grey. and i didnt see the eyes THAT close in good light so its hard to say

i looked for a while and found this.

this pic looks REALLY REALLY close...because i only saw him under actinic lighting, its hard to say 100% but im pretty sure this is what it was. im scared to find out

is this a Cirolanid in the pic?

where i found the pic has no confirmed ID.

After intense research, the best I've been able to come up with is to see if they attack any fish you have in the tank.

If you have had fish for awhile now (and presumably the Isopod didn't hitchhike on something you introduced recently), then it's reasonably safe to assume that you don't have a Cirolanid.

well the problem is, there is no fish in the tank..its in my new tank with 2 other peices of rock..tomorrow i was going to move everything into the new tank but now im afraid to b/c i dont know what that thing in the pic is.

i also found a 1in skinny worm that is yellow with 1000s of small legs and a brown skinny strip down its back. its body gets smaller at the ends and darker towards the tail.

it has two TINY black eyes and what looks like 4 TINY short antenna looking things on its head. it looks almost fuzzy, and its body is rippled but it walks around like a catapiller. i have it in a cup right now and when i swoosh around the water, the worm balls up. i dont know if its good or bad and after having flatworms and this weird isopod thing, im too paranoid to put it back in the tank what should i do?

Know the paranoia that's you're feeling now...

I've been living it for the past week :*(

Anyway, after trying to clear my Nano Cube of the Isopods for a few days (and losing badly... those suckers multiply like crazy), I finally took the plunge and put in a fish.

I'd probably suggest a cheap fish.

One that you don't mind losing if you have Cirolanid.

And one that you don't mind keeping in the tank if you have safe Isopods.

From what I've read about Cirolanid, because a nano is pretty small they'll latch onto a fish within a day. If it does latch on, do a low SG dip, and the Cirolanid will drop off. Then depending on how badly hurt the fish is you might put it in a QT.

The few comments I've managed to dig up from people who have had Cirolanids, is that they'll pretty much eat through a fish within 24 hours. So keep a close eye in the first few days!

As for me, my Maroon (yeah they're not cheap, but he's the cheapest that I'd want in the tank... given that I'd probably never be able to re-catch whatever fish I did put in there) has been in there 2 days now. So far so good!

By the way, in case you didn't read the articles, wrasses won't do any good. A Cirolanid will apparently eat through the stomach (and thus kill) of pretty much anything that's likely to eat it.

search around for mantis shrimp, sounds like it could be one of those.

the body wasnt as long shaped like a mantis, more rounded. The closest thing to what i saw was the 3rd posts pic. i still cant figure out if thats a Cirolanid.

im not about to let it sit for 8 months to "starve it" and then come to find out that it was an insane kind of amphipod or something!

im thinking about putting a maroon fire fish in there and seeing what happens. i guess id give it a week and if the fish is still okay then move everything into the tank?

i also still have a worm in a cup...dont know what to do with the guy. i dont want to throw him in and then find out hes something i need to catch~

omg korbin that thing looks like it should be from another planet.

I'll be the first to admit I'm a newbie and figuring things out as I go...

But looking at the picture in the 3rd post and the link that I put in the 2nd post, it looks like a Aegid to me.

To quote the article in the link, "Aegids are "bugs from hell" as far as the aquarist is concerned. They are like predatory Cirolanids, only more so. Large Aegid isopods in the North Eastern Pacific have been seen to wait on the bottom until an acceptable fish, such as a small salmon, swims overhead. The isopod then swims rapidly up and fastens on to the fish, and proceeds to eat its fins and tail. The bug then slices open the fish and eats all its blood, proceeding then to eat the lateral muscle bands and, when they are done, they discard the guts and skeleton. "

I can't find another article I read, but it said that one parasitic type of Isopod is the only natural predator to Great White Sharks... apparently latches on, burrows to the heart and then eats it!

I keep my fingers crossed for you, that you're wrong about what it looked like!

Although I really hate the thought of using a "sacrificial fish", the only sure way (unless you can catch one and give it to an aqua-biologist to look at) seems to be to put a fish in there and see if anything latches on...

Waiting 4+ months to starve them out might be more "humane" but I don't have that much patience

i rather by the next fish i was getting and see if it survives, and if you think about it, its kinda like a quar. tank...so therefore im helping out the fish i already have in 2 ways?

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...=yellow+bristle

this is a "pretty" version of what i have! its like that but is less bright, and has a brown stripe down its back.

is that a bristle? should i put him back? i wish i had my fuge set up already so i could have just put it in there~

Where'd you get your live rock man..FREAKIN' JURASSIC PARK!!that big critter a few posts up will prevent me from entering any large body of water for quite some time..Thanks alot....

Its a giant man-eating african cockroach that knows how to swim. i wouldnt go in any oceans this summer, too risky~ =P

Im buying a neon blue goby in a couple days and letting him live in the empty tank for a week or two while i build the support unit for my fuge. There hasnt been any fish around the rock so im assuming if its lice, they are really hungry and i should see something happen within a couple days?

As for the worm, i think im throwing him back in there because i havent seen any complaints about yellow worms so far in any reading.....

Korbin, what the heck is that thing!?!

a huge

isopod~

DANG!!! Look at the claws on that thing. Imagine it clamping down on your arm...

I'd rather have it clamp (and stay clamped) on my arm...

The alternative is that it burrows past the skin, swims with the blood stream, gets to the heart and then starts eating :0

Well, Reefer, 3rd day with fish for me. Not sure why, but I no longer see Isopods swimming around the tank after lights out...

(knowing my luck, they're probably gathering an army to jump on my Maroon )

Never say never, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting to the light at the end of that tunnel of paranoia!

OMG Korbin, that thing is going to give me nightmares for a LONG time. Jeez

good luck with the maroon....i still dont know how many i have in my tank, if i got the only one or if theres more. I might be in your situation soon~

broken link

Man oh man, the woes of aegids has struck me too. My tank is still a baby at only 2 months of age, so I held of buying fish until I saw a yellow headed sleeper for sale at 10 bucks, I couldnt resist. So after a long night, I ran to the tank like a kid on x-mas too see how he was doing. To my suprise he had already started to burrow, and was sifting sand like a champ. Then he turned around and I caught site of something that made my skin crawl. An aegid, or cirolanid, its still hard for me tell the two apart was attached to the base of the tail. Im thinking its an aegid due to its placement on the tail. The bad part is I had to be at work early this morning, so as I speak hes sucking away. Options are limited for this pest. So If hes still attached when I get home he will find his new home in wonderful miami sewer system, yet another reason why I wouldnt want to drink tap water. So hopefull this isnt a female, and this is the only one, but my better judgement tells me I'm mistaken. I'll take a darwinian approach on this and say he has his place in that tank, as much as anything else does, hes just not welcome. Maybe I can have sp. only tank, and publish an article on the joy of keeping aegids and the like as pets.

I think this was the link that pat_man_ta was trying to post:

Paracerceis sculpta

Yes, It is what i was trying to post.

the little critters i have are apparently harmless scavengers, they have moved into my filtration system and i almost never see one in the tank.

I would suggest a FW dip, greentreepython, the pest will drop off and hopefully expire in the FW. However, there's probable a good chance there is more than one of them.

so far, ive caught 1 with a baster, one with the trap, another with a baster and then found a dead one......

:::crossing fingers:::