Pods are destroying my zoas...

[92Miata]

There are thousands of types of amphipods. The common ones get to about 3mm and are herbivores/detrivores. They're not a problem at all, even in huge numbers.

The ones pictured are very clearly a different species, and it's totally possible they're coral eaters.

I don't know why people want to turn "amphipods" into one animal.

 

[Blenniesarebest]

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

It isnt a common amphipod unless the eating of zoanthids changed its coloring looks like some subspecies is does anyone know a marine biologist with a specialty in microbiology

 

[old salt reefer]

The issue is nothing eats pods at night time. Wrasses and other fish go in the sand or rock and sleep. And so yea. They eat em in the dsy IF they are out. But pods only come out at night

When you get enough of them they are out all day.

Blackbarred Convict Goby hunts them all night long. Kinda hard to find in stock though. OP doesn't want fish.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

It looks like a Squilla to me. I walked out between two grass beds, in the middle Keys. Suddenly my legs felt like I had stood on a Fire Ant Mound. A type of Squilla attacked me. Nasty little creatures, had welts all over my legs, where they bit me. They are a type of Mantis Shrimp.

 

[Terry aka Cr@sh]

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?

Get yourself a dragonet or madrin goby , He will thank you with his fat belly, LOL!
If your going to have one fish, this has got to be the most colorful and entertaining fish to own. they swim like little helicoptors.

 

[reefviper101]

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

Yes banded shrimp will eat the pods.

 

[Eric Miller]

when in doubt , wrasse them out.

 

[Tired]

Mandarins eat copepods, not amphipods. They only pick off the occasional smaller amphipod.

 

[dlockert]

I'm asking... would it be possible to manually cut down the population by grabbing the frag out and doing a quick swish in freshwater?

 

[Tathamet]

When I first started my first tank with live rock I had white amphipods and those brown/white tiger striped looking ones which got to about a half inch long. They seemed way smarter and more aggressive than the white ones. Anything I put in would be covered in them and they would demolish them. My tank was fish less as well.

Now I’m not sure if I was just too new and my tank wasn’t stable enough at the time but the amphipods sure didn’t give them a chance to get better if that was the case.

 

[Christoporia]

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.

I have witnessed the same thing in my tank, despite all the neighsayers

 

[Ferrell]

Don’t know if this brought up and didn’t scout pages but when I seeded my tank algae barn said to feed with phytoplankton and once it was seeded well the little beggars would eat the algae film on the glass.
bottom line: have you tried phytoplankton?

 

[Ike]

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.

I was fighting this fight many years ago and basically had the same reaction here and on RC. Its absolutely an issue and they will consume perfectly healthy zoanthid flesh if other food sources are supplied in sufficient quantities.

@BAPrince my advice can be found in this thread from last year...

One thing irritating me, amphipods.

So I have always had lots of life in my tanks but for the past few years I have had a seemingly uncontrollable amount of pods and amphipods in my tank. So much so that they actually bother my acropora. If I pick up a piece out of the water bugs are swarming off onto my hand. If I pick up a tile...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Ike]

More from back in 2007... They seem to especially like what we call PE type polyps and "palys" that exhibit prey capture for some reason.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bristleworms-eating-zoas.3177/page-2#post-42250

 

[BAPrince]

Don’t know if this brought up and didn’t scout pages but when I seeded my tank algae barn said to feed with phytoplankton and once it was seeded well the little beggars would eat the algae film on the glass.
bottom line: have you tried phytoplankton?

No.... Just Reef Roids and occasionally a little bit of mysis shrimp

 

[BAPrince]

LFS doesn't have a coral banded shrimp. They do have a wrasse, just not sure I'm willing to break the quarantine protocol. Ugh.

 

[BAPrince]

Would a clownfish eat them?

 

[elysics]

More from back in 2007... They seem to especially like what we call PE type polyps and "palys" that exhibit prey capture for some reason.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bristleworms-eating-zoas.3177/page-2#post-42250

Yes, same happened with mine. Orange tyree rainbow, white walker, sunny d, dunno if miami vice count but those too...

What they have not touched (or it grew faster than they could chew) was rasta, utter chaos, pink diamond, johnn pumpkin. Barely managed to make them disinterested in bambam

Though i can see them constantly in the utter chaos but the utter chaos polyps seem to not care
Costly little critters

 

[Ike]

Yes, same happened with mine. Orange tyree rainbow, white walker, sunny d, dunno if miami vice count but those too...

What they have not touched (or it grew faster than they could chew) was rasta, utter chaos, pink diamond, johnn pumpkin. Barely managed to make them disinterested in bambam

Though i can see them constantly in the utter chaos but the utter chaos polyps seem to not care
Costly little critters

Formation of a solid or more robust mat/stolon seems to deter them. Or maybe certain zoanthids are just extra delicious... ;Wacky

 

[Ike]

Formation of a solid or more robust mat/stolon seems to deter them. Or maybe certain zoanthids are just extra delicious... ;Wacky

Also, newly added or stressed frags and colonies seem to be first targets...