Pods are destroying my zoas...

[BAPrince]

OK... "most" people have told me pods won't eat zoas... and maybe they're not.... but they're killing them nonetheless. They have literally taken refuge in my zoas, and they're either eating them or eating stuff off them, but either way, my zoas have barely opened in weeks. They'll open up briefly, but then I can watch the pods climb up on them, and they immediately close back up. This is a NO FISH quarantine frag tank... so my question is... are there an invertebrates that will eat pods?

 

[Mike N]

I have seen incredible close up footage of amphipods eating seemingly healthy zoa tissue, so I know its possible.
Seemingly rare, but possible.

 

[BAPrince]

Like this... They are either eating them... or eating off them... either way it's bad.

 

[Agsellers04]

WOW. I have never witnessed this and I have thousands of them. I hope they don't start tough because I have a huge and very expensive zoa garden!

 

[MaXberN]

Get a dragonet.

 

[BAPrince]

Get a dragonet.

If this was in the DT, I already would have... but this is a NO FISH tank (quarantine for ich/pests/etc). Hoping there is an invertebrate that will eat them?!

 

[Daniel]

CBS will eat anything - is that a possible option here?

 

[BAPrince]

CBS will eat anything - is that a possible option here?

Is that a coral banded shrimp? If so... YES that's possible! You think they'll eat the pods?

 

[old salt reefer]

I was pretty much called an idiot here on this forum for even suggesting that amphipods eat corals and zoas. I have a Acan that got a small wound on it from a conch landing on it. That night the amphipods came and ate the dead tissue on the acan right up to the healthy tissue which then died at the edges and along came the amphipods and ate that dead tissue to the healthy tissue that then died. This keep up for a few nights and a very small cut became half the Acan dead and gone to bare skeleton. I moved the Acan to a frag rack where the amphipods couldn't get to it and it healed up fine.
The amount of amphipods got to the point where the bazillion of them in my tank didn't even hide during the day, they were everywhere. My zoas were closed all the time and being eaten by the amphipods. The more I starved the tank to starve the amphipods just made them eat the zoas more. I bought a planaria trap but they reproduced faster than I could trap them. THEN I bought a six line wrasse(named PC-pest control) and I want to thank you for posting your video of the the amphipods, as I haven't seen one in so long that I forgot what they look like.

 

[Difrano]

OK... "most" people have told me pods won't eat zoas... and maybe they're not.... but they're killing them nonetheless. They have literally taken refuge in my zoas, and they're either eating them or eating stuff off them, but either way, my zoas have barely opened in weeks. They'll open up briefly, but then I can watch the pods climb up on them, and they immediately close back up. This is a NO FISH quarantine frag tank... so my question is... are there an invertebrates that will eat pods?

I would say that your zoas are dying and the pods are consuming dead/dying tissue... I have thousands of them in my DT and they don't bother anything that is not dead/dying.

 

[Difrano]

I was pretty much called an idiot here on this forum for even suggesting that amphipods eat corals and zoas. I have a Acan that got a small wound on it from a conch landing on it. That night the amphipods came and ate the dead tissue on the acan right up to the healthy tissue which then died at the edges and along came the amphipods and ate that dead tissue to the healthy tissue that then died. This keep up for a few nights and a very small cut became half the Acan dead and gone to bare skeleton. I moved the Acan to a frag rack where the amphipods couldn't get to it and it healed up fine.
The amount of amphipods got to the point where the bazillion of them in my tank didn't even hide during the day, they were everywhere. My zoas were closed all the time and being eaten by the amphipods. The more I starved the tank to starve the amphipods just made them eat the zoas more. I bought a planaria trap but they reproduced faster than I could trap them. THEN I bought a six line wrasse(named PC-pest control) and I want to thank you for posting your video of the the amphipods, as I haven't seen one in so long that I forgot what they look like.

Well you said it, you tried to starve them, so you kicked the survival instinct they will try to eat any organic matter in the tank. And by startving the pods you were starving the corals and debilitating them.

 

[old salt reefer]

I would say that your zoas are dying and the pods are consuming dead/dying tissue... I have thousands of them in my DT and they don't bother anything that is not dead/dying.

That is what is happening. What you missed is that the zoas are dying because the amphipods are killing them. The amphipod harass the zoas until they die then eat them.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

So if it is just to hold frags for pest and no fish why not strip the tank change your filter media and start clean?

Otherwise idk

 

[shwareefer]

That is a horror movie. Are they blue because they are blue or because the zoas they are eating are blue or because of the lighting? Look like amphipods but any I have are always white. I couldn't allow that, I would have to intervene.

 

[Jvalle]

OK... "most" people have told me pods won't eat zoas... and maybe they're not.... but they're killing them nonetheless. They have literally taken refuge in my zoas, and they're either eating them or eating stuff off them, but either way, my zoas have barely opened in weeks. They'll open up briefly, but then I can watch the pods climb up on them, and they immediately close back up. This is a NO FISH quarantine frag tank... so my question is... are there an invertebrates that will eat pods?

Hi 6 line , gobies or leopard wrasse Will take care of it. Leopard wrasse eat them all day thx

 

[bluesy1213]

Is that a coral banded shrimp? If so... YES that's possible! You think they'll eat the pods?

Absolutely

 

[old salt reefer]

Well you said it, you tried to starve them, so you kicked the survival instinct they will try to eat any organic matter in the tank. And by starving the pods you were starving the corals and debilitating them.

No I didn't start trying to starve them until after they started eating the corals and zoas. And all the corals did fine thru out the time(still have them) I was trying to get rid of the amphipods.

There you have it BAPrince, your not feeding your amphipods enough which is why they're eating your zoas, difrano said so.

 

[shwareefer]

Surely this is not a normal common amphipod (screengrab from his video):

 

[elysics]

To all the people saying that the amphipods only eat dead tissue: Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that the still healthy tissue would stay healthy if the amphipods weren't crawling around on it and gnawing on it's edges.

Whether the tissue in their mouths is alive or dead is irrelevant to the fact that if they weren't eating the tissue then the colony would survive, if they do eat the tissue, the colony (or a big part of it) dies more likely than not.

I lost multiple small zoa colonies to this. From the things that i tried, the only two things that worked besides cutting a fire break into the zoas and letting the amphipods eat one side of it, was take the entire colony and put it into a container with holes big enough for water exchange, but too small for medium sized amphipods, or alternatively to keep the colony under constant surveillance and shoo the amphipods away every 20 minutes for a day or two until the wound heals a bit, with intermittent iodine dips.

 

[spiraling]

Surely this is not a normal common amphipod (screengrab from his video):

Those look MUCH bigger and darker than my amphipods. These look like shrimp.
Mine are about 1/4 inch and clear. They don't bother the zoas. Is this a pest instead?