Amphipods Eating Coral

[irishatlu07]

I had same problem with some big ones messing with zoas. Gave the rock a 90 second fresh water dip and shoke the rock pretty good too, and problem went away. Lot of dead big boys dropped off. Maybe coincidence but that was the sequence of events for me.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

add a pair of dragonettes (the scooter blenny or blue/green mandarin) I have 2 pairs in my 75 gallon. Have to keep the "deer" population under control (or rabbits and mice if you're located Down Under). Red ruby dragonettes both jumped out so I don't recommend them. Male green-spotted mandarins are also very aggressive to female who don't want to breed and I have been contemplating adding another female. I have also observed green-spotted males in the store, who have "clamped" down on females with their mouths. I'm uncertain if it was attacking her to breed, or trying to chase her out.

 

[Tired]

Buying dragonets on impulse to fix a pod problem is probably not a good plan. Besides, they mostly eat copepods, they won't tackle the adult amphipods. Sure, they'll eat baby amphipods, but the adults are too big.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Buying dragonets on impulse to fix a pod problem is probably not a good plan. Besides, they mostly eat copepods, they won't tackle the adult amphipods. Sure, they'll eat baby amphipods, but the adults are too big.

heh, at least I didn't say add a seahorse or a pipe fish. You're right though, just about any damsel will eat an amphipod, it's relatively rare to find a fully seeded system which can support a dragonette though. If amphipod over population is suspected, they are the perfect prey item, simply because the adults breeders can keep the population of juveniles going as a continuous food supply, which is also what I have going on now and how I can support the pairs I have in my 75 gallon /40 breeder sump. I use the dragonettes as pest control.

 

[Seek&Reef]

I decided a While back to avoid dragonets for this system. I did not want to mix wrasses and them together due to copepod diets. I may have to look into getting that goby

 

[homegrowncichlid]

I decided a While back to avoid dragonets for this system. I did not want to mix wrasses and them together due to copepod diets. I may have to look into getting that goby

ooh, you're right, they do conflict, along with the basslets.

 

[Julbra]

I have observed my amphipods butcher and eat healthy corals. They ate micromussa baby heads, they even munched on a chalice. At this time I had no fish and the tank was crawling with thousands of amphipods. I thought it was hopeless. Clowns were no help.

BUT about 24h after introducing my fairy wrasse, there were no pods in sight during the day. At about the same time they stopped feeding on corals. My wrasse is a great hunter but not that good to single handedly catch thousands of pods in such a short time… I believe the pods somehow know that their fellows are getting eaten and they go into hiding.

I observed the same in my QT. When I leave it empty it takes about 14 days for pods to realise they’re not getting eaten anymore and they come out during the day again. As soon as I introduce a fish that can eat them, they disappear again. If I come checking with my red torch at night, here they all are, but they have not eaten corals since…

 

[redeyejedi]

Get a coral banded shrimp. Job done.

 

[MT. Reefer]

My Copperband likes to eat any size amphipods. He's always hunting them down.

 

[RichReef]

Are we all mixing up amphipods with isopods?

Isopods can be wreckers.

 

[sculpin01]

The Long Island Aquarium has recently been struck by coral predatory amphipods:

 

[merkmerk73]

Intersting thread

I have a gazillion amphipods and my candy cane corals have been getting picked on a lot.

Acros and other SPS are fine - it only seems to affect LPS.

 

[Seek&Reef]

Intersting thread

I have a gazillion amphipods and my candy cane corals have been getting picked on a lot.

Acros and other SPS are fine - it only seems to affect LPS.

I ended up doing a complete reset and dipped all my corals in potassium chloride and bleached all my rocks then reset everything back up a month later. It was a pain but worked