Amphipod?

[Alaeriel]

This guy's colored up like a crystal red caridina. He's munching on a dead leaf of caulerpa in the dwarf seahorse tank, but looks like some kind of amphipod to me. Please let me know if its something horrible that will metamorph into a five foot long bobbit worm overnight and eat my cat or something

 

[dwair]

This guy's colored up like a crystal red caridina. He's munching on a dead leaf of caulerpa in the dwarf seahorse tank, but looks like some kind of amphipod to me. Please let me know if its something horrible that will metamorph into a five foot long bobbit worm overnight and eat my cat or something

Yep Amiphpod. Good to have!

 

[Alaeriel]

Yep Amiphpod. Good to have!

I've seen brown ones, grey ones, and blue ones, but never bright red and white!

 

[dwair]

I've seen brown ones, grey ones, and blue ones, but never bright red and white!

Yea I've got alot in my sump right now. If he morphs into something and eats your cat, well, its an interesting pod!

 

[Alaeriel]

Yea I've got alot in my sump right now. If he morphs into something and eats your cat, well, its an interesting pod!

I'll post him in classifieds then for a high-end torch swap XD
Anyone know of any pod identification literature that can identify which species of pod he is?

 

[PhilSD211]

I used to like seeing amphipods in my filter socks.. thought they are good for the tank... Now, they are thriving and I have probably hundreds! some are huge! Pretty sure they have eaten a nice purple monster zoa colony, a huge nirvana zoa colony and big blasto colony! =/ They were all very healthy and started to fade for no reason. Confused till I flipped over the frag tile that the nirvanas were on! All different sizes of amphipods scurried away from under there! There must have been like 20+!

Took a flashlight to spot check at night, and they were chilling on the frag tiles. Not seeing them actively eating the zoa but 99% sure they ate them.

I used to intentionally leave gaps under the tiles so pods can thrive... HUGE mistake! Now I'm trying to make sure they have no place to hide but every time I pull a frag out of frag rack, there are a few that scurry away.

I used to have a red coris wrasse that always flipped my stuff over and driving me nuts! Now I know why. Had to sell him as he was getting big fast! Got a melanurus wrasse but it's not doing much. Had a pod flow right by her nose and no response.

I run bare bottom which really limits my choice of predators.

But yeah, while copepods are probably beneficial, amphipods must die!

 

[Alaeriel]

I used to like seeing amphipods in my filter socks.. thought they are good for the tank... Now, they are thriving and I have probably hundreds! some are huge! Pretty sure they have eaten a nice purple monster zoa colony, a huge nirvana zoa colony and big blasto colony! =/ They were all very healthy and started to fade for no reason. Confused till I flipped over the frag tile that the nirvanas were on! All different sizes of amphipods scurried away from under there! There must have been like 20+!

Took a flashlight to spot check at night, and they were chilling on the frag tiles. Not seeing them actively eating the zoa but 99% sure they ate them.

I used to intentionally leave gaps under the tiles so pods can thrive... HUGE mistake! Now I'm trying to make sure they have no place to hide but every time I pull a frag out of frag rack, there are a few that scurry away.

I used to have a red coris wrasse that always flipped my stuff over and driving me nuts! Now I know why. Had to sell him as he was getting big fast! Got a melanurus wrasse but it's not doing much. Had a pod flow right by her nose and no response.

I run bare bottom which really limits my choice of predators.

But yeah, while copepods are probably beneficial, amphipods must die!

I think they eat tissue that's already dead, so may have just been munching on the melted bits.

 

[PhilSD211]

Nah. Nirvana zoas grow like weeds in my tank, they don't melt. I've given away frags that I have so much. Other frags off the floor weren't affected. Just the ones growing on the frag tile on the floor... BUT! I did remember trimming some vermitid snails and small aiptasia off of that. Might have pulled a piece of zoa off the corner... but that's crazy if they ate the corner piece then the entire tile of 50+ zoas.