SOS, Cirolanid Isopod on my pink tail!

[FishTruck]

First of all, I am trashing myself right now for not quarantining this fish.

I have a pink tail, with, what I think is a Cirolanid on his cornea. He is now removed from the display tank and in QT. I did not see any others in the main tank, and, I am sure he came in with the bug. (I thought is was a scratch on his eye).

So, here are the questions.

1. Is it worthwhile to try to save the pink tail? If he has other pods in his gills etc..., he could infect the main tank. I could take them off his eye with tweezers, but, don't know how to get him to hold still when out of the water, what to put him on to minimize damage to his slime coat, etc... My gut tells me to flush the poor guy for the greater good of protecting the other fish, but, I don't have the heart for it.

2. Has anyone had any luck with interceptor or any medication for these guys?

3. Any thoughs about putting in six lines, cleaner shrimp, or anything in the main tank to hunt these down. Current plan is to pray and watch.

[ACBlinky]

If he's in QT you're ahead of the game already. I think hypo might work -- it kills of SW inverts of all sorts, so it should kill these animals rather effectively. I'd remove any visible isopods and start hypo right away. You can reduce the salinity from 1.025 down to 1.009 in as little as 12 hours (24 is best) without harming the fish, but it'll kill any inverts in short order. As a bonus, if the fish has ich or anything else parasitic going on, it will fix that as well.

If you find that the other fish are infested, you might need to remove them and treat them as well. I don't know if these critters can live without hosts, and if so, for how long, but hopefully if the tank is infested you might be able to either leave it fallow long enough for them to die off or find a treatment that will kill them without harming the corals (though anything that will kill the isos will kill off your regular pod population as well, possibly worms and snails as well).

[OnoIgotICH]

I read in the Invert pocket book guide that you had to forcefully remove them?

Can anyone confirm that?

[R.W.]

I thought i had these a while back, but thankfully i didn't. So from what i have read, if you have an outbreak in your tank this will be very annoying because the fish need to be removed for 6months or so. That is the only way to truely kill them in a reef since they cannot live without hosts(fish). Liek stated above, i would remove the visible one and begin hypo and see if that kills what is on the trigger.

[FishTruck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12311774#post12311774 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ACBlinky
If he's in QT you're ahead of the game already. I think hypo might work -- it kills of SW inverts of all sorts, so it should kill these animals rather effectively. I'd remove any visible isopods and start hypo right away. You can reduce the salinity from 1.025 down to 1.009 in as little as 12 hours (24 is best) without harming the fish, but it'll kill any inverts in short order. As a bonus, if the fish has ich or anything else parasitic going on, it will fix that as well.

If you find that the other fish are infested, you might need to remove them and treat them as well. I don't know if these critters can live without hosts, and if so, for how long, but hopefully if the tank is infested you might be able to either leave it fallow long enough for them to die off or find a treatment that will kill them without harming the corals (though anything that will kill the isos will kill off your regular pod population as well, possibly worms and snails as well).

Good advice. GOing fallow is the only thing universally recommended. One guy did hypo experiments with f.w. dips and it took 6 hours to kill the parasite. Can the fish handle 1.009 for, say, six hours?

[FishTruck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12312499#post12312499 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OnoIgotICH
I read in the Invert pocket book guide that you had to forcefully remove them?

Can anyone confirm that?

Yep. That is what I am hearing. Planning to wrap the fish up in a saline soaked cloth diaper and extract the bug tomorrow. He is in praziquantil right now, which, a lfs store said had worked once for isopod parasites. We will see.