Kessil

Crabby's "Elite210" tank at the Romberg Tiburon Center

Wow, sorry for all your troubles...I'm so glad things have improved since the poor blenny's creepy death. Did you ever find out what those parasites where?
 
Lyn said:
Wow, sorry for all your troubles...I'm so glad things have improved since the poor blenny's creepy death. Did you ever find out what those parasites where?
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Not yet - I haven't managed to get the video off the computer yet (a 4G file and a computer with a broken DVD burner makes it a challenge!). Hopefully will get a better look at the critters tomorrow or Friday.
 
Here are the first decent pics! Taken by Gilbert Lam, a summer student at RTC with a real camera and macro lens.

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Finally, I was able to get someone to fix the codec on the fish parasite microscope video I made. You can view it here:

http://gallery.me.com/carol_fang/100009

Anyone had something like this crawl out of their fishes before? It's probably about 1mm long. The abdomen is distended with blood, I think
 
totally creepy looking. Looks like a parasitic Isopod. You mentioned that you thought that this thing was an endoparasite--did you find it in your fish's poop? I thought that they are usually dead if the fish poops them out.
 
Here is a really good article on Isopods. The treatment recommendations are truly hardcore (see end of article) so you may want to really plan on a long term solution.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/
 
patrickb said:
totally creepy looking. Looks like a parasitic Isopod. You mentioned that you thought that this thing was an endoparasite--did you find it in your fish's poop? I thought that they are usually dead if the fish poops them out.
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No, we watched them crawl, live, out of the fish's anus or mouth. I haven't dissected the fish yet, but I suspect there will be more of them in the belly.

I agree that it is likely an isopod. The legs are quite long, however, and the telson more well developed than most isopods I know.

Thanks for the article link. It mentions blood-sucking parasites, but they are all ectoparasites, not endoparasites! Ah, the fish guts will tell all - I'm waiting until I get a decent camera on the microscope because I'll only have one shot at it in "live" color. After that they'll be preserved in alcohol.
 
Update on the isopod parasite:

The isopod is a Gnathiid, and is a juvenile form. These isopods can only be identified to species by morphological characters if adult forms are observed, so Gnathiid is the best I can do for now. Gnathiids are not known as endoparasites - only ectoparasites. I still have to dissect the fish to determine if there are additional isopods in the guts. If so, this may be a discovery that is new to science.

Gnathiids are known to have diel patterns of activity in the tank. The adults look really creepy as well, sort of like trap-jaw ants or stag beetles. Search Wikipedia for gnathiid if you are interested, as there are several nice images there, and if you can read Japanese, an illustration of the life-history of these isopods.
 
Tank update:

Corals are all doing terrific and are laying on new skeleton. The tank is still pretty coral-poor but am hoping to add more once I solve a filamentous algae outbreak that is still going strong. I reduced photoperiod and dramatically reduced feeding, and I think that the hair algae is starting to look a bit less healthy. None of the 4 tangs I have in the tank eat the stuff, nor did an orange spotted rabbitfish that I added. Sadly the rabbitfish never ate much of anything and eventually starved to death, so it may have had additional issues.

I'm not looking to start over with the tank and already tried (and failed) with TechM dosing - I think that killing a lot of my snails made the problem worse!!! I want to find good herbivores who will eat obviously less than delicious algae. Sailfin blenny gets good marks for eating filamentous algae. Anyone have experience with abalone? Aquacultured abalone are appealing. I think adding additional large fish at this point in time would be a bad idea, but small fish would be fine.
 
Some recent tank shots thanks to A_Lee, who has great camera skills! The algae problem I am dealing with is evident in some of the shots. These pics were taken just 2 days after I spent an hour siphoning and brushing about 75% of the growth out. The tank is relatively bare but I hope to add more corals soon.

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I feel your pain. Right now I have a cyano outbreak in my 12 gal. My answer is to strip and dip, but I don't think that would work for your large tank. I used to have hair, until the coraline algae started growing in profusion. Could you encourage coraline growth?
 
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