Did I catch a cirolanid isopod?

JCox · 08-25-2005, 02:20 PM

I saw this guy last week and couldn’t catch him. It had me worried cuz I thought it was a cirolanid when I first saw it but it was gone in a flash. I was definitely worried about my watchman goby since he’s a bottom dweller and pretty small. This thing is about 1/2 inch, it could have eaten my goby in 1 night!! Well, as luck would have it, I was doing a water change today and noticed something buried in the sand against the front glass. I took my turkey baster and sucked him up. Got him!! So, can someone verify that this is indeed a cirolanid? Comparing him to the pic at http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/index.php it doesn’t look exactly the same. Actually, the body shape looks more like the sphaeromatid in the drawing, but this guy has antennae and the drawing of the sphaeromatid shows no antennae. Also, other pics I’ve seen of cirolanids seem to have rounder eyes than this thing. The eyes are definitely unique. So, what do you think it is?