Fish suggestion please

[Fishurama]

So after a week or so I had 2 large 6-7 inch colonies of zoas started to melt away, all my other smaller colonies and corals were fine. I noticed a lot of amphipods large enough to be seen by the eye without even squinting. I notice flesh looking like it's been torn. The only other "pest" i knowingly have is limpets, which eat algae and coralline... So i ruled them out, and would have seen the few hermits i have muching on them. It's weird how they only hit the larger colonies, i placed them in high flow areas i don't think the amphipods could get and its worked 90ish percent it seems. Anyway, im looking at few different fish to try to get them since my scooter blenny mouth is too small and my goby just can't get the ones in the rock work...

Im not trying to spend more then 100 bucks right now or go over 2 fish(if to try to get the free shipping deal on most sites) im not picky on any particular site, but these are the fish im so far looking at to try and help fix the issue, im open to other suggestions.

Ornate Leopard Wrasse - Don't know much about these more then the short description ive read but they seem to do the job i want midly priced and look amazing.
4 line wrasse- More expensive option, could't get a second wrasse though, this one seems to get the most pests.
6 line wrasse- Ive read these guys can be aggressive towards fish their same size not just other wrasse like the 4 line.

So im open to other options as long as they are reef safe and are peaceful-to semi-aggressive.

My tank size is 125 gallons and my stock is:
1 large sailfin, 1 black ice snowflake clown, 1 blue damsel , 1 green brittle star, 1 snowflake eel, 2 mini maxis, 1 green bubble tip, 1 rock anemone, 1 orange spotted goby(could be a diamond, whatever one gets to be 5-6 inches so my snowflake doesnt eat it, this worries me about the smaller 4/6 line wrasse) and a lawnmower blenny, zoas, have some mixed snails, 2 fighting conches, hermit crabs and other clean up crew.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sfin52]

Halichoeres wrasses are good and several different type will work well

 

[ZoWhat]

"Melting Zoas" usually a sign of too much flow or water quality that's sideways in one particular element.... and usually not a particular thing eating them.

Yes, I've seen a colony of 30+ zoas "pooooofff" melt away bc it had too much flow on them. Zoas/palys need as little flow as you can mustard while still having enough flow stirring up extra nutrients to get the crap exported. It's a fine line.

I'm convinced Pincushion urchins E.A.T. zoas bc I watched one go over a colony of 5-7 zoas for an hour and on the other side, nothing but bare LR left.

Long spine black urchins seem to be ok.

Pincushions I dont trust one-iota and they're forever in my sump.


.

 

[Fishurama]

Halichoeres wrasses

Thanks for the reply ill look into them plan on making my purchase in the next hour or 2.

"Melting Zoas" usually a sign of too much flow or water quality that's sideways in one particular element.... and usually not a particular thing eating them.

Yes, I've seen a colony of 30+ zoas "pooooofff" melt away bc it had too much flow on them. Zoas/palys need as little flow as you can mustard while still having enough flow stirring up extra nutrients to get the crap exported. It's a fine line.

I'm convinced Pincushion urchins E.A.T. zoas bc I watched one go over a colony of 5-7 zoas for an hour and on the other side, nothing but bare LR left.

Long spine black urchins seem to be ok.

Pincushions I dont trust one-iota and they're forever in my sump.


.

Thanks for the response, im 90 percent certain it's my amphipods. From the amount ive seen on the eaten colonies. Now they may have got "sick" for lack of a better word from something, so the amphipods went and did their job, but i think its because i have so much and while i don't keep a ULNS system, but it's like they don't get enough to eat and only really have 2 things(diamond goby and scooter blenny) that eat pods and both are trained to eat frozen(and try to eat larger pieces of krill which they cant fit lol) I could have something like Zoa eating spiders im just not seeing, i did just buy a few coral from Aqua-SD the week prior this happened, but I dipped. So im not inclined to think it's new pests(also since i haven't seen any) I really need to get a picture of how big these suckers are, but they only come out at night. Think of a piece of krill, think of its eye socket/head. They are large enough to try to eat and carry pieces that size... My tanks been up for 3 years give or take, and was a predator tank prior, with nothing that ate pods, so this is where i keep coming back to I think i have to much and they aren't eating enough and are hitting the zoas.
I could banish the 3 hermit crabs i have to the sump to rule that out but as stated in the OP i haven't seen them near them and they are visible and i do have a big one that stole a turbo snails shell, so i thought he was the culprit at first since amphipods generally aren't an issue and more helpful. But that is what it just keeps coming down too.
Ive read threads of people having zoas "just melt" hence not liking them. I didn't notice any change, tested water quality. The only thing I did notice different is the zoas dying are colonies on my mussels, which are both still alive(1 colony per mussel). That may have something to do with it if they were dead, but they aren't.
I have zoas in all area of the tank, high, low, medium flow/light and they seem to not be to picky unless it's direct flow blasting them. High/medium indirect flow doesn't seem to both them too much(from my perspective) hence why i tried them in the first place, an easy softy the grows fairly fast with lots of color combos and done well for months until now.
I hope my purchase helps the situation if it is pest related be it amphipods or something else im just not seeing.(im still willing to admit it's something else, as im just in disbelief from what im seeing) My water quality when tasted last week when the issue was worse, was normal reef perimeters. 1.026 salinty, DKH 7.8-8.1(I run carbon and GFO so its hard to keep it any higher,) ammonia 0 ppm nitrite 0, nitrate was .05 or .1. ph 8.45 phosphate was .1 or .15 i forgot, i have a stupid phosphorus checker so i have to convert.(im still new to coral so that was learning experience) The rest i forget and don't feel like testing at this moment(no offense haha), but everything was "normal" for my reef. Every other coral was fine. My goniopora would be the first thing to go on me if something where to change horribly(it turns black, i know i have had it happen . Something happened to this 2 particular "large" colonies and like I keep thinking, its those dang amphipods crawling all over.

 

[WV Reefer]

Thanks for the reply ill look into them plan on making my purchase in the next hour or 2.



Thanks for the response, im 90 percent certain it's my amphipods. From the amount ive seen on the eaten colonies. Now they may have got "sick" for lack of a better word from something, so the amphipods went and did their job, but i think its because i have so much and while i don't keep a ULNS system, but it's like they don't get enough to eat and only really have 2 things(diamond goby and scooter blenny) that eat pods and both are trained to eat frozen(and try to eat larger pieces of krill which they cant fit lol) I could have something like Zoa eating spiders im just not seeing, i did just buy a few coral from Aqua-SD the week prior this happened, but I dipped. So im not inclined to think it's new pests(also since i haven't seen any) I really need to get a picture of how big these suckers are, but they only come out at night. Think of a piece of krill, think of its eye socket/head. They are large enough to try to eat and carry pieces that size... My tanks been up for 3 years give or take, and was a predator tank prior, with nothing that ate pods, so this is where i keep coming back to I think i have to much and they aren't eating enough and are hitting the zoas.
I could banish the 3 hermit crabs i have to the sump to rule that out but as stated in the OP i haven't seen them near them and they are visible and i do have a big one that stole a turbo snails shell, so i thought he was the culprit at first since amphipods generally aren't an issue and more helpful. But that is what it just keeps coming down too.
Ive read threads of people having zoas "just melt" hence not liking them. I didn't notice any change, tested water quality. The only thing I did notice different is the zoas dying are colonies on my mussels, which are both still alive(1 colony per mussel). That may have something to do with it if they were dead, but they aren't.
I have zoas in all area of the tank, high, low, medium flow/light and they seem to not be to picky unless it's direct flow blasting them. High/medium indirect flow doesn't seem to both them too much(from my perspective) hence why i tried them in the first place, an easy softy the grows fairly fast with lots of color combos and done well for months until now.
I hope my purchase helps the situation if it is pest related be it amphipods or something else im just not seeing.(im still willing to admit it's something else, as im just in disbelief from what im seeing) My water quality when tasted last week when the issue was worse, was normal reef perimeters. 1.026 salinty, DKH 7.8-8.1(I run carbon and GFO so its hard to keep it any higher,) ammonia 0 ppm nitrite 0, nitrate was .05 or .1. ph 8.45 phosphate was .1 or .15 i forgot, i have a stupid phosphorus checker so i have to convert.(im still new to coral so that was learning experience) The rest i forget and don't feel like testing at this moment(no offense haha), but everything was "normal" for my reef. Every other coral was fine. My goniopora would be the first thing to go on me if something where to change horribly(it turns black, i know i have had it happen . Something happened to this 2 particular "large" colonies and like I keep thinking, its those dang amphipods crawling all over.

I doubt the pods killed the zoas but are rather taking advantage of their “sickness”.

Just about any type of wrasse will eat larger pods.

 

[Fishurama]

I doubt the pods killed the zoas but are rather taking advantage of their “sickness”.

Just about any type of wrasse will eat larger pods.

Could it possibly be as simple as they were getting to cluttered and looking for more space since they were growing on a mussel? I was able to save a few i could find floating and reattach them with most surviving(the ones that didn't detach where eaten while some were unaffected at all). Im literally baffled by this since my 5 or 6 other colonies weren't affected(they are on plugs or dead mussel shells attached to live rock so they have space to keep growing) and are only 1 to 3 inches. I really didn't think it was the pods either, but thats what it keeps coming down too. Heck i even tried to blame the limpets shell for being sharp cutting their bases. Ive gone crazy over this LOL ;Punch I just wanna figure this out haha. All i know is high flow seemed to have helped.

 

[malacoda]

I too doubt the amphipods are eating your zoas. More likely something else is causing the zoas to melt and the amphipods are merely eating the algae and decaying flesh ... like buzzards picking at a dead possum on the side of the road.

I have scads of amphipods in both my tanks. They've never damaged and corals ... but I have seen them eating decaying debris left around the receding edges of LPS and SPS I've lost to alk swings, and lighting changes.

Have you checked them at night with a magnifying glass (or a smartphone pic you can zoom in/out) to look for zoa eating spiders or nudibranches?

Sometimes there's no way to know what caused them to melt or fade away. I've had some that have done great for years suddenly fade away due to just a slight change in lighting ... or even reasons I never figured out, while other types of zoa clusters right up next to them continued to do just fine. of

Oh, and keep an eye on the limpets. I've never heard of 'em eating zoas ... but I've caught keyhole limpets red-handed while eating my acans. One of the buggers left a clean patch the exact size of his shell. Caught him on it again the next night picking up where he left off. Plucked it off and dropped in the other side of the tank. Caught him right back at it again the third night. Three strikes. Needles to say he was literally 'out'.

 

[Fishurama]

I too doubt the amphipods are eating your zoas. More likely something else is causing the zoas to melt and the amphipods are merely eating the algae and decaying flesh ... like buzzards picking at a dead possum on the side of the road.

I have scads of amphipods in both my tanks. They've never damaged and corals ... but I have seen them eating decaying debris left around the receding edges of LPS and SPS I've lost to alk swings, and lighting changes.

Have you checked them at night with a magnifying glass (or a smartphone pic you can zoom in/out) to look for zoa eating spiders or nudibranches?

Sometimes there's no way to know what caused them to melt or fade away. I've had some that have done great for years suddenly fade away due to just a slight change in lighting ... or even reasons I never figured out, while other types of zoa clusters right up next to them continued to do just fine.

Thanks for the response, like I said above im willing to admit its something else, but im having a hard time. Ive checked multiple times throughout the night on multiple nights 1-3am. and 4am when I get up. Tweezer and turkey baster ready, but all i see are amphipods and limpets at night lol. I have a marine orbit pro system and while i don't have a alk probe, i have ph, temp, lighting, and a few other logs, all of which are normal. If it was alk my other coral would be affected to, not just these colonies. I said above i do think something else could be causing the issue then the pods come in and kill it instead of giving it a chance to heal. But im just baffled right now. It could be a pest im not seeing, but it's been about a week hence why i asked here finally since i couldnt figure it out.
High flow is the only thing that seemed to save the 2 colonies so far. I have had almost none die to just the few last dying ones finish dying and i dont want to repeat haha.

 

[Fishurama]

So I really liked the Halichoeres wrasse @sfin52 mentioned do the fact it also cleans fish and I can't keep a cleaner shrimp do to my snowflake eel, but sadly where i was looking that had the cheapest free shipping(only 79 bucks woohoo) didnt have them in stock so i went with the Ornate Leopard Wrasse and a Spotted Mandarin Goby is what i went with.
I want a Halichoeres wrasse in the future now and luckily it's also peaceful like the leopard wrasse so they would work together. I hope this helps my issue from happening again . Fingers crossed. Should be here on tuesday. Thank you all.