Amphipods Eating My Zoas Help!

[ying yang]

This is video I took the first night a discoverd them, not sure what kind. These things are big and I'm finding empty shells of them in my tank.

My Zoas are on a Rock so I can't dip them unless I first try to frag them off which I'm inexperienced in doing.

If The only option is to try to frag them off and dip then I'll do it, but I would hate to kill them while in the process of trying to save them.

Wow look the size the legs on that badboy .wow just wow ^_^

 

[R33fDaddy]

Update: I got in touch with WWC and they will have a six line wrasse in tomorrow. I'll get him and put him through an instant Quarantine and set him free in my Coral Quarantine Tank. Not really what I want to do since this will totally reset the clock on my Quarantine. Also if the Wrasse is able to get the pest problem under control I'll probably pull him out along with the two clowns that's in there and give them a proper Quarantine.

I'll also see if it's easy to frag off the Illuminati's; if so I put them in a container an inch or below the water line.

Tonight I'll spy on the tank after the lights go out and if I catch these Amphipods in action I'll snap a few pictures and post them. I'll also try blowing them off the Zoas but I'm sure once I go to bed they will come right back out.

Do you'll think if I leave the lights on overnight it'll prevent the Amphipods from coming out?

 

[FBAA]

Amphipods don't eat Zoas unless they are dead and shedding tissue. Keep an eye on your parameters,lighting, and feeding.

 

[elysics]

Amphipods don't eat Zoas unless they are dead and shedding tissue. Keep an eye on your parameters,lighting, and feeding.

Do you say that with confidence for all of the thousands of species of amphipods? Or just the ones you happened to encounter?

And then there's the question of how they behave when they have enough food and how when they are starving

 

[R33fDaddy]

Amphipods don't eat Zoas unless they are dead and shedding tissue. Keep an eye on your parameters,lighting, and feeding.

I get what you're saying, but I can 100% Guarantee you that these things are eating my Zoas. I didn't want to believe it at first but watching healthy $100 polyps disappear overnight has convinced me. Combined with the fact I've seen them all over my Zoas and they looked like they were eating them, couldn't confirm at the time. Also I saw a video 30 minutes ago on this very forum where someone recorded Amphipods Eating their Zoas.

 

[LRT]

Do you say that with confidence for all of the thousands of species of amphipods? Or just the ones you happened to encounter?

And then there's the question of how they behave when they have enough food and how when they are starving

Agreed- The fact that those zoas are in QT tank without much of anything else says pods aren't getting enough food to scavenge and are therefore eating the zoas. I literally watched it happen on my fishless tables.
Same pods.
They will nestle and build a home around a meal and stay there until the meal is gone. And move onto next best meal.

Op could always just feed the pods in tank and have himself an awesome nasty little pod party haha

 

[LRT]

I get what you're saying, but I can 100% Guarantee you that these things are eating my Zoas. I didn't want to believe it at first but watching healthy $100 polyps disappear overnight has convinced me. Combined with the fact I've seen them all over my Zoas and they looked like they were eating them, couldn't confirm at the time. Also I saw a video 30 minutes ago on this very forum where someone recorded Amphipods Eating their Zoas.

Dude the pods are eating your zoas. Only takes a 2 second Google search to find papers on studies and which pods are carnivorous. And then another 2 seconds to search in R2R searchbar on threads with pods eating all kinds of corals.
Get the wrasse.
If you dont want them in your DT. remove the corals from rocks if possible and toss the rock.

 

[R33fDaddy]

Agreed- The fact that those zoas are in QT tank without much of anything else says pods aren't getting enough food to scavenge and are therefore eating the zoas. I literally watched it happen on my fishless tables.
Same pods.
They will nestle and build a home around a meal and stay there until the meal is gone. And move onto next best meal.

Op could always just feed the pods in tank and have himself an awesome nasty little pod party haha

So are you suggesting I put Copepods into my Coral Quarantine Tank (not sure if you where just joking or not lol)?

I have a 5 gallon Petco tank that I breed live brine shrimp and Copepods (it easily has thousands of Copepods in it) . I could definitely put some Copepods in my Coral Quarantine Tank if you'll think that could be a solution.

 

[LRT]

So are you suggesting I put Copepods into my Coral Quarantine Tank (not sure if you where just joking or not lol)?

I have a 5 gallon Petco tank that I breed live brine shrimp and Copepods (it easily has thousands of Copepods in it) . I could definitely put some Copepods in my Coral Quarantine Tank if you'll think that could be a solution.

Was totally joking. But I've experimented with those pods and they will eat mysis shrimp give it a try

Total eradication is only option if you dont want to deal with them.
Removal of all rock is most likely necessary if you dont want them in your DT.

 

[Spare time]

To

I get what you're saying, but I can 100% Guarantee you that these things are eating my Zoas. I didn't want to believe it at first but watching healthy $100 polyps disappear overnight has convinced me. Combined with the fact I've seen them all over my Zoas and they looked like they were eating them, couldn't confirm at the time. Also I saw a video 30 minutes ago on this very forum where someone recorded Amphipods Eating their Zoas.

Not going to lie just seeing them crawling around a zoa says absolutely nothing about them eating it. These guys are in nearly every reef tank, and having sold and dealt with hundreds of zoas if not more, as well as not finding literature on the issue ( if someone finds one please send it to me), it is not likely that they are consuming zoas. We have to be more careful on this forums about causation and correlation Assuming the that correlation equals causation is, in my opinion, the most common error made by hobbyists and plagues this community

 

[R33fDaddy]

To


Not going to lie just seeing them crawling around a zoa says absolutely nothing about them eating it. These guys are in nearly every reef tank, and having sold and dealt with hundreds of zoas if not more, as well as not finding literature on the issue ( if someone finds one please send it to me), it is not likely that they are consuming zoas. We have to be more careful on this forums about causation and correlation Assuming the that correlation equals causation is, in my opinion, the most common error made by hobbyists and plagues this community

Literally watched one eat a healthy Halle Berry Zoa last night lol.

 

[ClownWrangler]

We have to be more careful on this forums about causation and correlation Assuming the that correlation equals causation is, in my opinion, the most common error made by hobbyists and plagues this community

Lol. It's the most common error plaguing the world right now. In more ways than you can imagine.

 

[LRT]

Yeah its only commen sense that a carnivorous scavenger would go looking for food when no food source is available to scavenge.
Especially if that scavenger is left unchecked with no natural predator and population left to explode.
In my case it was exactly that. Fishless shallow water system full of live rock from ocean with not much of any food laying around. They can and will eat perfectly healthy coral. Ive seen it happen.
Its wreckless to put blanket statement that all pods are glorious and won't do harm if given the right circumstance honestly.
There's thousands of species of amphipods. Many are considered carnivorous.

Feed a few mysis shrimp at night and see if they snatch it up and eat it.
If they are carnivorous they will eat it ive had them snatch mysis shrimp from my shrooms mouths.

 

[ClownWrangler]

Yeah its only commen sense that a carnivorous scavenger would go looking for food when no food source is available to scavenge.
Especially if that scavenger is left unchecked with no natural predator and population left to explode.
In my case it was exactly that. Fishless shallow water system full of live rock from ocean with not much of any food laying around. They can and will eat perfectly healthy coral. Ive seen it happen.
Its wreckless to put blanket statement that all pods are glorious and won't do harm if given the right circumstance honestly.
There's thousands of species of amphipods. Many are considered carnivorous.

Feed a few mysis shrimp at night and see if they snatch it up and eat it.
If they are carnivorous they will eat it ive had them snatch mysis shrimp from my shrooms mouths.

How hard would it be to set up a controlled experiment? set up two small tanks, like 2.5 gallons each and put some zoa frags in each. I one tank ensure no pods get in with them and in the other introduce the pods. If you find out for sure they are the problem, there are plenty of medications that kill crustaceans. At least a few of them have to be reef safe.

 

[Indeva]

Is there anyway to completely eradicate amphipods? I've got the big nasty carnivorous hunchback ones. They've either eaten or harassed every zoa on my rocks to death. I moved most of the zoas to a frag rack. The ones I couldn't move are now dead, the ones moved to the frag rack are thriving again.

Today its getting personal as they've started crawling across my scolly along the back side to where the scolly is now flat and showing some skeleton. I see these enemies running back and forth from the rocks to the mouth of the scolly. I have a YCW that does a good job for the few hours he is out during the day. I've fresh water dipped all of my aqua scape to get a good start, but these things keep coming back in droves.

 

[R33fDaddy]

How hard would it be to set up a controlled experiment? set up two small tanks, like 2.5 gallons each and put some zoa frags in each. I one tank ensure no pods get in with them and in the other introduce the pods. If you find out for sure they are the problem, there are plenty of medications that kill crustaceans. At least a few of them have to be reef safe.

I mean I've already kinda done this. Since I took my Illuminati Zoas out of the Quarantine Tank they have been doing really well. I even see three new Polyps forming. The tanks have exactly the same parameters just no amphipods in my display.

 

[tjohnson3]

Happened to me… was told over and over and over that “pods don’t eat zoas, blah blah blah”… watched them do it to perfectly healthy zoas. Bought a sixline and bye bye pods… they only exist in the fuge now. Whatever makes its way into the tank now gets swallowed immediately. And all my zoas are back to norm and thriving

 

[ClownWrangler]

Is there anyway to completely eradicate amphipods? I've got the big nasty carnivorous hunchback ones. They've either eaten or harassed every zoa on my rocks to death. I moved most of the zoas to a frag rack. The ones I couldn't move are now dead, the ones moved to the frag rack are thriving again.

Today its getting personal as they've started crawling across my scolly along the back side to where the scolly is now flat and showing some skeleton. I see these enemies running back and forth from the rocks to the mouth of the scolly. I have a YCW that does a good job for the few hours he is out during the day. I've fresh water dipped all of my aqua scape to get a good start, but these things keep coming back in droves.

In theory, yes. But I cant guarantee it will be safe for your corals. Perhaps it would be worth testing, Dimilin x inhibits the molting process of crustaceans which kills them. It is extremely safe for fish even at high doses, but not crustaceans. If you have other crabs or shrimp, its highly unlikely there will be any treatment that would be safe for them aside from a predator.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Add a sixline or yellow coris wrasse which will eat them daily and offer nice color to the tank and yes theyre known to decimate zoas for some reason as they are night hunters.

 

[FreeEnergyReefer]

I went thru the same exact thing months ago. Every coral in the tank is flourishing exept certain zoas. Purple monsters are doing great and right beside them sunny d's are dieing or rastas doing great right beside them pink diamonds are dieing. Of course they would eat all the expensive zoas first. For months I tried everything . And then it hit me...I had a gorgeous zoa garden until about a month after I moved my bluehead fairy wrasse for killing the tailspot goby. Tried everything else why not right. So I purchased a baby yellow coris,month later zoas still dieing so I get a baby red fairy wrasse too. Mind you this is all going on in a 75g tank with a pair of mandarins. So now I've got pod overkill n worry about my mandarins. Finally after a few months those certain zoas start staying open. Its been about 6 months now I finally feel like I've wiped most of their population out. Im looking a bigger tank now something atleast 24in wide maybe a 180 only buying 100% tisbe pods and dipping EVERYTHING even cleanup crew so this never happens again. So I feel for you guys losing all your prized zoas to these lil *****s, You'll make it thru and your not a failed aquarist we live and we learn right. I see all these people's comments swearing pods will never never kill corals and I'm not mad just glad it hasn't happened to them. Happy Reefing everyone.