Do flasher wrasse eat amphipods?

[living_tribunal]

Have a bit of situation, not going to go into detail about it. However, I need to cut down on my amphipod population rather quick.

I just added a new mccoskers flasher wrasse who came out of qt 3 days ago.

He seems to eat amphipods that get caught up in the water column but I don’t see him scavenging for them on the rocks.

Does anyone have or know of flasher wrasse eating amphipods?

Debating whether to get a pipe fish if he can’t do the job.

 

[saltyhog]

They primarily eat from the water column. Would be surprised if they would be effective in reducing amphipod numbers. What kind of problem are amphipods causing in your tank?

Halichoere wrasses (H. chrysus, etc.) would be much more likely to hunt and eat pods in the rock work.

 

[living_tribunal]

They primarily eat from the water column. Would be surprised if they would be effective in reducing amphipod numbers. What kind of problem are amphipods causing in your tank?

I hope this doesn’t alter the course of the original question and I know it’s a bit bizarre but I’m 100% of it at this point.

I added an iPsf order of 25 amphipods 2-3 months ago. Their population has since grown to about 1,000 I’d say.

I have cut down a little bit on my coral feeding and I suppose they’ve become starved. They are starting to demolish a few of my fleshier lps. It all started with a very healthy dragon soul goniastrea that they almost ate fully in about 5 days. I thought it was potentially flow or par (which has never ever done that much damage to any of my frags ever). However, after moving him around and ultimately to full shade and no flow, he continued to lose tons of tissue every day. I noticed about 20 or so amphipods eating his tissue at all times. Finally I decided to move him to my frag tank and he’s stable.

Fast forward a week, these guys are doing a lot of damage to 3 more frags.

I would like to cut down on their population. They have kept my tank absolutely spotless but I can’t lose corals like this.

 

[living_tribunal]

They primarily eat from the water column. Would be surprised if they would be effective in reducing amphipod numbers. What kind of problem are amphipods causing in your tank?

Halichoere wrasses (H. chrysus, etc.) would be much more likely to hunt and eat pods in the rock work.

Would a halichoere play nice with a flasher?

The reason I’m leaning pipe is that I’ve heard they are highly effective rock scavengers and I wouldn’t have to worry about him being a good tank mate with others.

 

[minus9]

Pipefish have small mouths and may not be able to get the bigger pods? If you want something more passive, then a possum wrasse or pink streaked wrasse will play nice with others and hunt all day long. Plus, they are fun to watch cruise your LR, but can be cryptic at first.

 

[Greg P]

There's no evidence you've provided that any Amphipods are eating your corals.
It could very well be that the pods are feeding on algae and such that is growing on the dying portions of your corals' bases.
Regardless, if you want Wrasses which eat large pods, such as Amphipods, look for Halichoeres species

IME, no other wrasses will make a point of eating pests of any kind from rockwork/corals, although there are anecdotal posts of other wrasses pecking at Acropora

 

[Greg P]

The reason I’m leaning pipe is that I’ve heard they are highly effective rock scavengers and I wouldn’t have to worry about him being a good tank mate with others.

Pipefish have a hard time with big flow.
I wouldn't recommend one if your tank's flow is heavy/Tunze/Ecotech pumps

 

[Greg P]

If you want something more passive, then a possum wrasse or pink streaked wrasse will play nice with others and hunt all day long. Plus, they are fun to watch cruise your LR, but can be cryptic at first.

This is a good post to start with to help with smaller crustaceans.
Just not a good sized wrasse for Amphipods

 

[Greg P]

Have a bit of situation,..............

You could very well have pests eating your corals, but I wouldn't rely on fish helping you with the issue.
Start posting more pics in the Corals/Pests forums for help

 

[saltyhog]

Agree with @gregzz4. A Halichoeres wrasse would pretty much ignore a flasher wrasse.

 

[living_tribunal]

There's no evidence you've provided that any Amphipods are eating your corals.
It could very well be that the pods are feeding on algae and such that is growing on the dying portions of your corals' bases.
Regardless, if you want Wrasses which eat large pods, such as Amphipods, look for Halichoeres species

IME, no other wrasses will make a point of eating pests of any kind from rockwork/corals, although there are anecdotal posts of other wrasses pecking at Acropora

This is exactly what I was trying to avoid, I’ve been watching them all day eat these corals. The larger amphipods take larger chunks and I’m not going to sit here and just listen to a common narrative when direct observation that’s been repeated consistently tells a different story.

All of these frags have been incredibly happy and healthy. I also quarantine everything that enters my system from fish to frags to inverts for months.

All have grown very fast until they immediately began incredibly fast tissue loss. I’ve never seen any disease or pests demolish a coral that fast. Ever. It’s not bjd.

There are 1,000s of different amphipods, many carnivorous so this odd narrative that people prescribe to that amphipods won’t eat coral tissue has less precedent than them eating it. The last frag had split 5 heads this week and boom, he had about 20 amphipods feasting on that one single spot and had lost that much tissue in a day...

The first frag also immediately stabilized in my frag tank which does not have any amphipods. So if it were smaller pests, I’m sure they would still be eating it.

Once again, I didn’t include this in the original post so I could just get an answer to wrasse that will eat amphipods. That’s all I’m looking for an answer to.

I believe I’m going to be picking up a pipefish today.

 

[living_tribunal]

You could very well have pests eating your corals, but I wouldn't rely on fish helping you with the issue.
Start posting more pics in the Corals/Pests forums for help

Is this not the correct thread to determine if a flasher wrasse will eat amphipods and recommendations of fish that will eat them?

I didn’t inquire about anything else.

 

[Brew12]

Is this not the correct thread to determine if a flasher wrasse will eat amphipods and recommendations of fish that will eat them?

I didn’t inquire about anything else.

I think pipefish would be better at copepods than amphipods unless they were very large.

I have seen my Halichoeres Chrysus eat amphipods and it gets along with all of my other fish just fine. I haven't seen any flasher or fairy wrasses go after amphipods unless they were in the water column.

 

[living_tribunal]

Pipefish have a hard time with big flow.
I wouldn't recommend one if your tank's flow is heavy/Tunze/Ecotech pumps

This is an lps tank, flow is moderate at best in the top of the tank. I’ve spoken to others who have pipe fish in their frag and display tanks and they’ve mentioned they do just fine.

 

[CindyKz]

Hard to say if a McKoskers and a Haliocheres sp. will get along without knowing your tank dimensions. Any fish will fight if they are too cramped/stressed.

I have a McKoskers with 2 Haliocheres and a fairy wrasse all in a 180 gal without issues. The Haliocheres sp. both pick 'pods, the fairy and flasher do not.

 

[living_tribunal]

I think pipefish would be better at copepods than amphipods unless they were very large.

I have seen my Halichoeres Chrysus eat amphipods and it gets along with all of my other fish just fine. I haven't seen any flasher or fairy wrasses go after amphipods unless they were in the water column.

It might be time to get the qt set up again. It seems like the halichoeres may be the way to go. I don’t necessarily want to wipe out the amphipods, just reduce their population enough so that if this is a case a case of them starving, the lower numbers will leave them more food.

 

[living_tribunal]

Hard to say if a McKoskers and a Haliocheres sp. will get along without knowing your tank dimensions. Any fish will fight if they are too cramped/stressed.

I have a McKoskers with 2 Haliocheres and a fairy wrasse all in a 180 gal without issues. The Haliocheres sp. both pick 'pods, the fairy and flasher do not.

That’s what I’m a tad worried about, I only have 65g display, 100g total volume. Is this adequate space for the larger wrasse?

 

[Brew12]

Another option, although not a fish species I have ever kept, would be the Restripe Hogfish or Yellow Candy Hogfish. I know people on R2R have succesfully used them to reduce coral eating amphipod populations. They have the added benefit of hunting at night which the Yellow Canary Wrasse rarely does.

 

[Brew12]

That’s what I’m a tad worried about, I only have 65g display, 100g total volume. Is this adequate space for the larger wrasse?

The H. Chrysus tops out at 5" and would be fine for a tank that size.

 

[living_tribunal]

The H. Chrysus tops out at 5" and would be fine for a tank that size.

Excellent suggestions, thanks a ton for these. I’ll look into them later today. I take it the hog fish and H. Wrasse will consume more amphipods per day than a pipefish? They will also scavenge directly on the rocks as well?