It's official, pods are to blame!

[ficklefins]

I had a hard time sleeping tonight so I decided to take a small blue LED light and check around the tank to find out what has been stressing my palys. There were pods all over my palys. For some reason they enjoyed eating the PE types more than any other. These were some big pods too. Those pods were some of the largest I've seen so far, 3/4 of an inch curled up.

Well, I guess tomorrow I'll build some racks and suspend my zoas and palys. Any nice frag rack ideas out there?.

 

[surfn]

wow, at 3/4" i doubt any mandarin or small wrasse would help any.

i stand by my previous posts in that a coral banded shrimp would clean out ANY pods and bristleworms.

you could also treat your tank with interceptor...that would whipe them all out and you can then reseed your tank with pods from a fuge or something.

about how dark is your tank at night? and about how long after the lights had gone out did you look into the tank?

just curious, b/c i keep looking into my tank at night and see nothing...

 

[Ike]

I added a Mandarin and my "mystery" problems with certain palys has been solved. I also had the gigantic amphipods and the mandarin can eat the big ones, their mouth opens bigger than you think. Plus, I don't think it's the size of the pod that's the problem, it's that there are too many for the avilable food source to maintain. Eliminate some of the pods and you should be fine.

Also, a Pseudochromis or Wrasse of some type would be a better choice if you don't have the type of tank that can support a Mandarin longterm. My Mandarin is starting to get a little thin after being overrun with pods a few short months ago. Also, keep in mind Sixlines, Fourlines, Pseudochromis, and other wrasses people usually suggest can get a little mean, especially with new tank additions.

 

[ficklefins]

I took some pics this morning and hopefully this will explain the situation a bit.

The pic on the left is a frag that was being eaten by pods. Pics are a bit unclear sorry.

#1 Arrow showing that most of the disc is missing and a part of the polyp is healing with what looks like a bald bulb like thing.
#2 This polyp is pretty much gone. Just a tiny shrivel of a mess.
#3 This polyp is just a bald bulb with no signs of a skirt or oral disc.
#4 Closed up and not too happy.

Pic on the right is the same exact zoa type right next to that other frag. The only difference between the two is that this frag is extending out a bit from the rocks and not sitting flat on the rock. You can see the frag disc in the upper right corner are the polyps from the first pic.

I can say for sure that there is no difference in flow or lighting. Only difference is night time predation by pods.

 

[BigBadZoaDaddy]

3mm3 has some huge pods in his tank and he thinks/ has mentioned that he thinks the same thing?

We haven't discussed it in awhile so I don't know if he got somethin to eat them or not?

Problem one will be that most wrasse sleep at night and usually in the sand?

So we would need a nocturnal pod predator?

Anybody got any Ideas?

 

[surfn]

3mm3 has some huge pods in his tank and he thinks/ has mentioned that he thinks the same thing?

We haven't discussed it in awhile so I don't know if he got somethin to eat them or not?

Problem one will be that most wrasse sleep at night and usually in the sand?

So we would need a nocturnal pod predator?

Anybody got any Ideas?

IME coral banded shrimp are pretty much nocturnal. every one i've had comes out at night to hunt, and will pick out pods, bristleworms, and sometimes nudis

 

[Reefwifey]

I blame Pods for pretty much trashing the many morphs of zoas I had in my 12 gallon before I got a fish to eat them. I had a particularlly big colony of these pretty blue/green speckly PEs (Surfn....remember the ones you wanted?)...and Az....I think you have a few of them. Those things had no skirts at all pretty much and night I'd see the pods on them. I had a bunch of really big curled up look ones...and another type that was really big.

 

[phisigs79]

I Have Seen The Little Starfish Eat My Blue Zoas

 

[JGoslee]

I added 4 bottles of tiger pods from reef nutrition when I first setup my tank. I wonder if they are the zoa eaters? Has anyone else that's having problems added tiger pods to their tank? I only had problems while my fish (6-line, spotted mandarin, and hippo tang)were in QT. Once they were back in the main tank my problems diappeared.

 

[patedship]

As for a stand do this.. take a mag float or algae cleaner and glue a piece of egg crate to it. It will work like magic..

 

[surfn]

I added 4 bottles of tiger pods from reef nutrition when I first setup my tank. I wonder if they are the zoa eaters? Has anyone else that's having problems added tiger pods to their tank? I only had problems while my fish (6-line, spotted mandarin, and hippo tang)were in QT. Once they were back in the main tank my problems diappeared.

i dont have any of the tiger pods in my tank, but i was curious about getting them.

i have zoa problems with out them, but its a valid question that maybe they do cause some problems.

 

[JGoslee]

I'm not sure if they are the problem. It's just a guess. Now that my 6-line and mandarin are back in the display I haven't had any problems.

 

[Ike]

1.) I wouldn't worry about about getting something nocturnal to eat the pods, just something to lower the population in general so they go back to more normal eating habits.

2.) The pods that are the problem are Amphipods of the Gammarus variety, I don't think tiger pods are of concern.

 

[ct_vol]

Yeah, I believe its only the larger amphipods and not the smaller types of pods that are of concern... I have a huge copepod population without any problems...

 

[Azurel]

I think Ike has it right, the ones I have seen eating my RPEs were at least 2-3x the size of the small ones. I had a picture on one that was almost the size of a dime across....