I’m trying to figure out how to get a video on here. I have a good video of them
There I got a video on here through YouTube! Inform me please!!!
They are definitely amphipods, but very bad guys! They eat corals and devastate copepod populations in my experience.
I would be a little worried. In controlled amounts, they’re good cuc members and fish food. However when they reach extremely high levels, as they did in my tank, they begin to eat anything they can, which includes every copepod in your tank as well as corals. They are usually nocturnal, but if they begin to crawl over everything in your tank in large amounts throughout the day, I would find a predator to eat them.
What would be a good predator to control these little guys?
I second getting a predator to control the population. That said, I have never had any issue with them eating corals myself, and after searching the forums as well as Google, I only found a handful of times where they did any damage, and it was always to Zoas or Palys. And I those cases, it was all mostly hearsay and any pics or video did not clearly show the amphipods actually biting onto the Zoas or Palys. Except for in one video that was posted here on R2R back in 2016. And most comments on that one seem to suggest the possibility that the Zoas in that video were either an accidental victim as the amphipod was trying to get something underneath or inside the Zoa, or that there was something wrong with the Zoa that could not be seen with the naked eye and the amphipods were just doing there job as part of the clean up crew and getting rid of the "trash".
www.reef2reef.com
Several species of wrasse will eat them. Just make sure it is reef safe and won't go after other member of the clean up crew like snails or crabs.
Shrimp gobies work very well. My Randall’s goby got things under control in just about a week.
Wrasses are a good suggestion. Shrimp gobies are a better option to diamond gobies, as diamond gobies often starve in captivity, but if the tank is large enough one might survive. Mandarins however are not a good suggestion. Because of their small mouth size, they don’t eat amphipods much, just copepods. Because they don’t eat prepared foods, they will starve after they have consumed the copepods, which happens quickly.
A mandarin could eat smaller ones, but yeah, larger ones probably not. And like I said, the key is getting an aquacultured Mandarin, as those aren't as picky eaters as wild caught.
