Stylo munching amphipods

[J A M]

I have a 10 month old tank that I have started testing out some small frags of Stylophora in. I had 3 small frags at the same par level on different rock structures about 3 feet apart from one another. I added these frags a month ago. The frag's polyps all opened up nicely and looked very healthy. However, from the rock work up they all started dying at about the same rate. I starting watching at night and saw a ton of what I thought were amphipods around the base of each frag. Everyone I have asked believes it is STN and the amphipods were just eating dead tissue. One really small frag has been a goner. 2 weeks ago I moved the frags to a small frag rack away from any rockwork. The tissue recession immediately stopped and the polyps closest to the base have all started opening back up. The dead tissue at the bottom of both frags is dead, but nothing else is dying and the frags look good. Could I have some weird coral eating amphipods? I did not see any other pests that might be causing the problems.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

My guess would be they were contributing to the corals continuous dying by munching and once moved they didn’t have access.

Just a thought!