Alien in my tank

[Jenemone]

I was looking in my tank last night with the lights out, and I saw a torpedo shaped critter that had eyes just like the alien sketches you always see. It was about 3/4" long, with a scalloped tail, and flesh colored.

So here is the question...do shrimp have a larval stage? Because it's body shape looked similar to a shrimp, but it didn't have any legs.

Just hoping its not a soon-to-be mantis

Jen

 

[Laura Hargrave]

Jen,

It sounds like it was some sort of amphipod. A mantis has stalked eyes, though they are pretty bizarre looking in their own way.

 

[Emmitt]

Does it look like this? For your sake, I hope not. These things can be bad news
http://www.rshimek.com/images/Bad%20Pod%20authored.jpg

 

[toyfreek]

i believe its a parasitic isopod and they are equivilant to placing a 5lb. leach on yourself. (if you are a fish that is)
they have been known to even bite humans inflicting quite a nasty bite. and will jump from the rock to anything moving passing by. they are not nice creatures.

 

[Emmitt]

Yancey, what toyfreek said. Here is a lengthy thread on one man's struggles.
http://www.thereeftank.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=004072

Of course, we don't know that this is what Jenenome has in her tank.

[ August 12, 2001: Message edited by: Emmitt ]

 

[Anonymous]

Emmitt, what is that and why are they bad news?

 

[Jenemone]

That looks very similar to what I saw. Except that it was more pink in color. And had a scalloped tail. How big are those things?

Jen

 

[Jenemone]

Incidentally, the damsel has a chunk taken out of him at the base of a fin. It happened the night that I saw the critter.

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jenemone:
<STRONG>Incidentally, the damsel has a chunk taken out of him at the base of a fin. It happened the night that I saw the critter.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Uh oh....it's starting to sound like a cirolanid isopod

It was pink because it was full of fish blood. You need to verify this by going night diving and check out all of your fish for these parasites.

 

[Mouse]

I saw one of those in my first ever fish only system. Man am i ever glad that i decided it wasn't good enough to house fish, those little bastards were everywhere. Funny thing is all of the goods that i bought were dry. I didn't even have LR in it just Tufa. Where did they come from??? The sand was even sifted and run through with a magnet before i put it in. Honestly, to this day im baffled as to how they got in but they did.

 

[Anonymous]

A scalloped tail sounds like a mantis shrimp. Even when you mention buggy eyes,it stinks of mantis. Now you say a piece of tail is missing!! Look up links here on mantis shrimps and you will see that your hands are going to be full trying to kill that B@$tard!!!! Some of the links even have pictures. They come in all different colors,but they are all EVIL predators. I hope I am wrong. But this other thing sounds pretty bad too.


GL

Dan

 

[Jenemone]

So assuming that this is indeed a parasitic isopod, is it possible to get rid of it? There are a billion holes in the rock that it could be hiding in. Uh-oh, I guess it is likely that there are more than just that one, also.

 

[SPC]

Jenn, there was a long thread on Dr Rons forum last week that dealt with this Isopod.
Steve