spaghetti thing looks like a parasite ?

[NecroNeko]

hey guys I discovered that angel hair thing in the up right corner of my isopod container, is that a parasite? I collected those pods from the wild last month and they breed some babies, do tiny babies have the risk of infected by parasite from the adults?

 

[Polenth]

You'd need a close up of the thing to identify it, but it isn't a parasite because a parasite would be living in/on the woodlice. The studies I've found showed low parasite levels in woodlice in general, which I suspect is why we don't see a lot of people having colony crashes because of parasites.

 

[NecroNeko]

You'd need a close up of the thing to identify it, but it isn't a parasite because a parasite would be living in/on the woodlice. The studies I've found showed low parasite levels in woodlice in general, which I suspect is why we don't see a lot of people having colony crashes because of parasites.

thx for your answer, but maybe it's about to breed so it leaves the isopods?

 

[StampFan]

hey guys I discovered that angel hair thing in the up right corner of my isopod container, is that a parasite? I collected those pods from the wild last month and they breed some babies, do tiny babies have the risk of infected by parasite from the adults?

Following. I had something similar show up in one of my isopod containers that was feeding on some rotting cucumber. Have no idea what it is.

 

[Polenth]

thx for your answer, but maybe it's about to breed so it leaves the isopods?

The sort of things that might have that sort of lifecycle are things like parasitoid flies, where the adult flies are free-living and the larvae live in the woodlice. If you've got a wriggly worm thing in the substrate eating stuff, that isn't a parasite or any parasitoid that I know about. It's just something that moved in looking for snacks.

You'd know if you have parasitoids because you'd have woodlice with holes in them. The parasitoids aren't subtle when they leave the host.

If it isn't moving, but is alive, it could be fungi or roots.

 

[schmiggle]

It might be a nematomorph or mermithid, but it probably isn't. How long has it been living in there?

 

[LurkingUnderground]

You'd need a close up of the thing to identify it, but it isn't a parasite because a parasite would be living in/on the woodlice. The studies I've found showed low parasite levels in woodlice in general, which I suspect is why we don't see a lot of people having colony crashes because of parasites.

The one parasitic organism that isopods that I know of are the kind Which make them blue.

 

[Lucas339]

Looks similar to a nematode but better pictures would help. There are a lot of free living species of nematodes and not all are parasitic. I am currently working on isopods as parasites and parasites of isopods. The parasites that infest isopods use them as intermediate hosts for birds usually. The most common parasite of terrestrial isopods are acanthocephalans. They do not look like what you found in your soil.

 

[Sarahloves2890]

I read another post that had an isopod that look gravid but later it was a parasitic worm and got out of isopod and killed it when leaving. So yes they can get parasite worms. Im not sure about baby isopods getting them but honestly with a adult worm who may lay eggs i be careful and probably wouldn't use them.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

The one parasitic organism that isopods that I know of are the kind Which make them blue.

That’s a virus, not a parasite.
Edit: omg I didn’t notice this was a necropost

 

[schmiggle]

That’s a virus, not a parasite.
Edit: omg I didn’t notice this was a necropost

Cue flame war about whether viruses are, in fact, parasites after all

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Cue flame war about whether viruses are, in fact, parasites after all

It’s a reasonable debate to have, for sure. I also enjoy the “are viruses alive” debate.

 

[schmiggle]

It’s a reasonable debate to have, for sure. I also enjoy the “are viruses alive” debate.

Heh. I really liked it for a while, but I think I got a little bored of it after I worked in a lab that manufactured plasmids with butterfly proteins to stick in E. coli and had a kind of epiphane about how you could basically manufacture life. That and reading about prions. Same goes for parasites--hookworms are sometimes beneficial, and mycorrhizae are sometimes parasites. The whole thing is a big mess...

BUT it's a debate I'd be happy to have again if you started a new thread.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Heh. I really liked it for a while, but I think I got a little bored of it after I worked in a lab that manufactured plasmids with butterfly proteins to stick in E. coli and had a kind of epiphane about how you could basically manufacture life. That and reading about prions. Same goes for parasites--hookworms are sometimes beneficial, and mycorrhizae are sometimes parasites. The whole thing is a big mess...

BUT it's a debate I'd be happy to have again if you started a new thread.

It’s a lot more fun when it’s a new idea to at least one party, for sure. Once you’ve kind of kicked around the idea for long enough you get to a point where you’re like “okay, but does it even matter whether they’re alive or not?” Definitions can be entertaining to play with but ultimately it ends up coming down to semantics every time. I kind of feel the same way about species definitions. Like ...we just made that shit up, man.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

The one parasitic organism that isopods that I know of are the kind Which make them blue.

isopod iridovirus

 

[The Snark]

Cue flame war about whether viruses are, in fact, parasites after all

t’s a reasonable debate to have, for sure. I also enjoy the “are viruses alive” debate.

I don't recall most of Doc Jeff's dissertation on this. Very sad. A pre-eminent pathologist. It was during the initial outbreak of HIV that he gave a sweeping two hour presentation covering organisms in their various stages of life crossing normal boundaries. Only thing I clearly recall, "Don't say that is an herbivore, that an omnivore, that a carnivore, that a detrivore. They are, in this present environment at this immediate moment. This then assumes that all biology, all botany, is in stasis, frozen in time, which is absurd."