Can you help to identify this crustacea?
Obtained from the Persian Gulf
Almost less than 20 mm size
Hello. I work in a research group specializing on cymothoid isopods. Can you please tell me what host you found this isopod on, and specifically where on the host? Any other details would be great. Have you preserved the specimens in anything? Are they common? I think I have an idea of the genera, but would like some more information first before giving you my best idea. Photos are indeed a bit tricky to judge from...
Could be a Cyrolanid isopod.
I'm very sorry but I am not a specialist in isopods, only on cumaceans.
Please try to contact an isopodologist. I'm very sorry!
Cymothoid isopod. One looks like it moulting or recently moulted. Where they found in the mouth of a fish?
Hello. I work in a research group specializing on cymothoid isopods. Can you please tell me what host you found this isopod on, and specifically where on the host? Any other details would be great. Have you preserved the specimens in anything? Are they common? I think I have an idea of the genera, but would like some more information first before giving you my best idea. Photos are indeed a bit tricky to judge from...
You could contact the following persons re. the systematics of marine isopods:
Dr Niel Bruce
NIWA–Marine Biodiversity and Biosecurity
Private Bag 14901
Kilbirnie, Wellington
New Zealand
Email: [email protected]
Dr George D.F. Wilson
Australian Museum
6 College Street
Sydney, NSW 2010
Australia
Email: [email protected]
Hamed, Are they inside the coral or free moving?Not easy to identify such small specimen based on photographs.
Sorry, Hamed, I thought they came from fish. Cymothoid isopods are permanent fish parasites. It would be very interesting if these are cymothoids and were alive and not attached to a host.
It is possible that the host is isolated and placed on the coral?
It is worth mentioning that, I saw this isopods on the cavity coral caused by bioerosion
Hamed, was the parasite alive? If this is a cymothoid adult parasite, then it would be extremely rare for it to be isolated from the host, and landing on coral would be a matter of chance. Parasites of fish need the fish in order to survive, and adult cymothoids are not mobile (without their host). There may be several anecdotes to explain why the isopod was found in the coral, but I don't know if they are biologically meaningful. It could just have been by chance. How often have you observed this?
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