Creature On Side Of Clown

[ClaireR]

Hello,

We have a marine tank, 240Lts, with 2 turbo snails, 2 shrimp, 2 ocellaris clown and live rock (and lots of tiny creatures which came nestled into the rock). This morning there was a small insect on side of one of clowns, about 5mm (will take a photo this evening if it helps). The clown was rubbing itself against the rock to try and remove it.

Any suggestions as to if this is harmful or what I can do to help remove it will be greatly appreciated??

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

Anything that attaches itself to a fish is potentially harmful. There is a fish louse that is small (about 5mm diameter), round and grey and will bite into the fish. Any external fish parasite should be removed. You can often cut the head off the parasite and then remove it with a pr of tweezers. Then monitor the site for infections that may develop over the next few days.
Try to get the pic up asap so we can make a more accurate id.

 

[ClaireR]

Thanks for your reply.

I got home tonight and the clown hasn’t made it. I looked up some pictures of fish louse and i think that was what it was. Is that a bit quick for the fish to die? And is there a risk to the other clown fish thats in there? If so, is there anything i can do to avoid the louse latching onto the other one.

Thank you for your help.

 

[WILDER]

Argulus (a.k.a. Fish Lice)
Info taken from here.

http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm

Symptoms:

Infected fish will have flattened, disc-shaped crustaceans measuring between 0.4 and 1.2 cm in diameter. These parasites may be visible anywhere on the body of the fish, including the eyes, gills and fins.



Cause:

The parasitic crustacean Argulus (a.k.a. Fish Lice). Argulus adhere to the flesh by means of sucker-type discs. Once attached, the parasite pierces the flesh using stinger mouthparts and will suck the blood of the fish. Argulus inject a toxin that will kill smaller fish and leaves reddened, inflamed lesions on larger fish. This lesion often becomes infected. The intense irritation brought on by the Argulus parasite causes fish to rub or scrape against objects in the aquarium. Your fish may even try to jump out of the aquarium. Once the parasite has finished feeding it will swim freely in search of a new host and can survive for up to 3 weeks without a host.



Treatment:

Visible Lice should first be killed by dabbing them with Potassium Permanganate or an anti-parasitic medication. Then, they should be carefully removed from the fish using tweezers. It is paramount that you kill the parasite before attempting to remove it from the fish. It will make it easier to remove and less stressful to the fish. It is a good idea to then dab Methylene Blue on the lesions to prevent secondary infections. It is recommended that you feed your fish medicated food to prevent a bacterial infection from occurring. The whole aquarium will need to be treated to kill any unseen, free-swimming juvenile parasites. Fluke Tabs, Clout, Paragon, and Trifon work great.

 

[Colin_T]

There is always a chance there are other lice in the tank and they will attack another fish. However, in a marine tank they are uncommon so hopefully there was only one in your tank. Monitor the fish for a couple of weeks and if you see another one attaches to a fish, catch the fish out and kill the louse asap.

If you have corals and invertebrates (shrimp, etc) in the tank then you can't really treat the tank with anything to kill any other possible lice.