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Related FAQs: Isopods, Isopods
2, & FAQs on: Isopod
Identification, Isopod Control,
Isopod Reproduction... & Crustacean Parasitic
Disease, Micro-Crustaceans, Amphipods, Copepods, Mysids, Hermit
Crabs, Shrimps,
Cleaner
Shrimps, Banded Coral
Shrimp, Mantis
Shrimp, Anemone
Eating Shrimp, Crustacean
Identification, Crustacean
Selection, Crustacean
Behavior, Crustacean
Compatibility, Crustacean
Systems, Crustacean Feeding,
Crustacean Disease, Crustacean Reproduction,
Parasitic Disease 1, Parasitic Disease 2, Parasitic Disease 3, Parasitic Disease 4, Parasitic Disease 5, Parasitic Disease 6, Parasitic Disease
7,
Related Articles: Crustacean Parasitic
Disease, Crustaceans,
Marine Parasites, Cleaner
Shrimps, Coral Banded
Shrimp, Shrimp Gobies,
Freshwater
Shrimps
/A Diversity of Aquatic Life
Isopods, Rollie-Pollies that
aren't much fun, Order Isopoda
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By Bob Fenner
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Double trouble, Anilocra on a Paranthias
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Back as a child, they were a hoot to put down
your friends' shirts... but seeing them, generally positioned on a
host fish in the wild, occasionally on one in captivity is no laughing
matter.
Isopods we encounter in the garden and not-so
commonly in shallow marine environments are typically gray,
scale-like... with "all the same feet" (iso-pods)... but the
group is amongst the most diverse in the crustacea, with worm-like
forms, some highly ornamented, sometimes with ghastly hook-like devices
for holding on to food items...
Most are small and inconspicuous, but you have
likely seen the very deepwater Bathynomus species on television...
these are amongst the largest crustaceans, exceeding a sixteen inches
in length.
Not all are parasitic... most are scavengers of
sorts, a few eat algae, others carrion.
| Anilocra laticaudata on the caudal peduncle
of a Goatfish off Cancun, Mexico in the Caribbean. |
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| An unidentified isopod species apparently encamped
near the eye of a small scorpionfish in N. Sulawesi. I have some
pix of two individuals covering the eyes, but it's too gross to
post. |
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| Unidentified isopod on a whip coral in N.
Sulawesi. |
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For Aquarists:
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