Help, my Bubble tip seams to be getting attacked by Amphipods!

[GibsonGuitars]

Over the last few days my orange bubble tip has been frantically moving all over the tank, never in one place for more than 6 hours. Today he finally parked next to my hammer coral and I could get a good look. It appears he is being swarmed and attacked by amphipods. They look like they are really ticking it off, and it keeps retracting. Is this normal? The amphipods have reproduced ridiculously over the last two month, was told it’s a good thing but they are really aggravating the bubble tip. Anything I can or should be doing?

 

[Euphyllia97]

I have also had to deal with some huge amphipods that started to eat a leather coral. I have introduced a yellow coris wrasse and haven’t had any problems since then.

Maybe you could try to isolate the anemone from your tank in a QT or acclimation box? Might give it some time to recover while you handle the problem.

 

[GibsonGuitars]

 

[GibsonGuitars]

It does look like I will have to pull it out and do something about the amphipods. That said, I don’t have an “established” quarantine tank. T important question is will the anemone be ok in a “new” tank? I have a Fluval Evo 5 gallon salt tank , and water, I can set that up now. I bought it to establish a Qt tank for this reason, just didn’t realize I would need it so quickly. Any advice on how to make the tank more habitable for the anemone? Should I used establish tank water? Transfer a live rock? Anything else that would help is appreciated

 

[Euphyllia97]

It does look like I will have to pull it out and do something about the amphipods. That said, I don’t have an “established” quarantine tank. T important question is will the anemone be ok in a “new” tank? I have a Fluval Evo 5 gallon salt tank , and water, I can set that up now. I bought it to establish a Qt tank for this reason, just didn’t realize I would need it so quickly. Any advice on how to make the tank more habitable for the anemone? Should I used establish tank water? Transfer a live rock? Anything else that would help is appreciated

Anemones indeed don’t do well in new tanks. I guess if you use tank water and transfer a rock (preferably checked for amphipods) it would be a higher succes rate. Looking at your anemone it will probably end up dying if nothing is done.

That would leave you with the risk of crashing your tank...

 

[GibsonGuitars]

Ok, buying a rock, some live sand mixed 50/50 with tank sand and using tank water, and transferring my filter media Bag (chemi-pure blu) and 50% of my biospheres from the reef tank to the quarantine tank. Hopefully that will recreate the reef tanks biom enough to avoid any shock from the transfer. Any other advice I will be checking in every hour... LFS is an hour away, and all my live rocks are infested with the amphipods so I gotta buy one.

 

[GibsonGuitars]

Lol, I feel pretty stupid here... I went to the LFS and he gave me a pair of dragonettes and told me to go back to broadcast feeding my tank. The second I dropped a micro shrimp cube in the tank, the Amphipods left the anemone alone... after literally a constant onslaught on the bubble tip for half the day, they haven’t come near it since I dropped a shrimp cube. Duh! Feed the amphipods and they will stop eating the anemone. Have a dragonette eat the amphipods. Sounds to simple to work, but instantly stopped the attack.