6 replies to this topic

[zooxanthellae]

This may be a longshot, but anyone able to ID this guy or send me in the right direction? Looks rather copepod like, but I'm not making any headway on the ID.

I caught him in saltwater just a hair under 33ppt. Im not expecting specifics, but family would be a great help! 

 

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[Betta132]

You mean the worm thing? That does NOT look like a copepod to me, looks more like some kind of leech. Maybe it's an anchor worm?

[gerald]

I'll check with Bob Goldstein and see if he recognizes it.  Betta -- anchor worms ARE copepods, not worms.

 

EDIT 1:  Bob's response: 

It’s a Lernaeid copepod, but I don’t recognize the species and I don’t know if they occur in brackish water, although it might not be difficult to find out.  There’s no treatment as the branching “head” is imbedded most likely in the heart as a branching (or rootlike) structure.

 

EDIT 2:  Here's some red anchorworms on drum:   http://www.northcaro...ils.php?id=3871

 

More pix here:  http://www.njfishand...anchorworms.jpg

[zooxanthellae]

Thanks a lot for that gerald! I wonder if manually removing it would cause the fish to bleed a lot if it is indeed embeded in his heart? I think this fish is destined for the alcohol jar, although i don't see any eggs, I dont want to take any chances!

[zooxanthellae]

You mean the worm thing? That does NOT look like a copepod to me, looks more like some kind of leech. Maybe it's an anchor worm?

Betta i agree, these types of copepods are very uncopepod like! Having never studied them in any detail, this is just a guess, but im willing to bet they more resemble traditional copepods at some point in their life cycle.

[Betta132]

So what makes it a copepod? All the copepods I've ever seen are little buggy-things, not creepy heart-eating worms. Is there some genetic reason it's considered a copepod?

[gerald]

The juvenile stages look like normal copepods and are free-swimming.  During the last juvenile stage, the female burrows into fish skin and morphs into the monster we call anchorworm.  Males are typical free-swimming non-parasitic copepods.  The anchorworms I've seen before had two separate ovaries that hang off the body like two tails.  This species appears to have the ovaries fused into one "tail" - new to me.