Amphipod are eating all my zoas...

[Sailfinguy21]

My zoas bright orange used to look really good but latetly ive noticed they are closing up and every morning more and more just dissapear.

I decided to look at night.. and they are covered in amphipods clearly eating the zoas.. i watcjed for like 30 minutes as they ate a whole polyp.

This is really ticking me off as these orange zoas in particular werent cheap.

How do i stop this ? I have a wrasse but hes in QT.. but one wrasse wont dtop this in a 135g tank have thousands of pods running around.

Not sure what to do to save these zoas.. should i dip them to kill the pods and maybe put the frag plug in a floating fish breeding container so its away from the pods so it can recover ? I dunno.. at this pace this 40$ zoa frag will be gone soon. It used to look like this.

I recorded a video but youtube is being a pain.

So here are pics.

See thrm eating it ?? I csn watcj their mouths taking chunks of the zoa and then it completetly dissapears.

 

[A. grandis]

Wrasse is the solution for you.
Isolate the polyps using a fine net around that plug for now until the quarantine of your wrasse is finished.

 

[AZMSGT]

Dip and QT the Zoa until your wrasse is ready

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Yea i dipped it in fresh water for like 10 minutes. And i put it in a floating breeding container. I didnt think of a net though good idea. But the container will keep it away from anything. I just gatta put something near it on my top so the light diesnt pound on it being at the surface.

I actually have two wrasses.. a red headed solon wrasse and a melenarus wrasse in qt.. fofgot i had my solon wrasse.

They have veen in qt for like 3 weeks now i havent seen ich on them but i still suspect ich is in the qt tank from a prior fish i had in there. Since wrasse cant handle hypo i think ill scoop them out and do tank transfer and then finally put em in my main tank.

Im just paranoid about getting ich in my main tank .. 3 weeks of no signs of ich on the wrasse still doesnt mean they dont have it..

 

[sde1500]

Yep a Mel will keep them in check. Not eliminate entirely, but hopefully enough to keep the population down.

 

[vetteguy53081]

DIP IN PEROXIDE FOR A FEW MINUTES ( PEROXIDE IS SAFE)

 

[Fishurama]

Glad this is getting out more. Had the same issue and no one believed it when i posted my thread lol,(i don't blame them i didn't believe it either at first) Glad you got pictures. I moved my attacked colonies to a high flow area where the small amphipods would have a harder time getting, then got a melanurus wrasse, ornate leopard wrasse and spotted dragonet(this guy gets the smaller amphipods/copepods as the larger ones are too big) Ive seen a reduction in munching by a lot.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

Blue mandarin will devour those. Then take him back to the shop(or friends tank or sell on let go etc.) when hes done. Then keep the wrasses to eat the hatching eggs that are most likely in your tank already

 

[Stoney]

My zoas get covered in amphipods at night, but I haven't had any issues with polyps disappearing. They actually seem to keep the polyps cleaner. I'm not doubting you at all btw, just wondering if anyone knows why this happens. My amphipods look exactly the same as the ones pictured.

 

[Squidward]

Blue mandarin will devour those. Then take him back to the shop(or friends tank or sell on let go etc.) when hes done. Then keep the wrasses to eat the hatching eggs that are most likely in your tank already

I doubt it. Too big for mandarins. Mandarins eat copepods.

I'm glad I don't have these pesty amphipods. Had a ton from my previous setup.

 

[sde1500]

My zoas get covered in amphipods at night, but I haven't had any issues with polyps disappearing. They actually seem to keep the polyps cleaner. I'm not doubting you at all btw, just wondering if anyone knows why this happens. My amphipods look exactly the same as the ones pictured.

My guess is lack of predation leads to overpopulation. Then a lack of primary food, causing them to find other sources. Similar to astrinea stars. I always have both pods and stars in my tank. But when star population got out of hand they ate some zoas. I hand caught hundreds now they don’t eat them, and I can still see some stars around.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Scooter blenny or wrasse time!

 

[Stoney]

My guess is lack of predation leads to overpopulation. Then a lack of primary food, causing them to find other sources. Similar to astrinea stars. I always have both pods and stars in my tank. But when star population got out of hand they ate some zoas. I hand caught hundreds now they don’t eat them, and I can still see some stars around.

Makes sense, but is it inevitable to reach overpopulation without predation? My frag tank with most of my zoas didn't have any fish for about 6 months and it was crawling with big amphipods. There's now a small mandarin, but I doubt she's big enough to eat the bigger pods. There's also some zoas in my pico tank that hasnt ever had fish (running close to 5 years at this point) and I haven't had issues with the large population of amphipods. Threads like this make me feel like I'm walking a fine line lol. Like any minute my pods could just turn.

 

[xiholdtruex]

Currently dealing with same issue and no one believed me either. Here is what I did. I grabed a liter of water and mixed 10ml of melafix marine grabed all my zoa frags and rocks and droped them in for 5 minutes. Moved all of them to a spare pico tank I had setup. I also am getting a wrasse this week. Im almost sure it is from over population and no predators eating them. A wrasse, some gobys also eat amphipods. Good luck in your battle. At the end of the dip the bottom of the container was coated jn a layer of dead pods. They decimated a colony of gorilla nipples and started on my fire and ice.

 

[Fishurama]

Currently dealing with same issue and no one believed me either. Here is what I did. I grabed a liter of water and mixed 10ml of melafix marine grabed all my zoa frags and rocks and droped them in for 5 minutes. Moved all of them to a spare pico tank I had setup. I also am getting a wrasse this week. Im almost sure it is from over population and no predators eating them. A wrasse, some gobys also eat amphipods. Good luck in your battle. At the end of the dip the bottom of the container was coated jn a layer of dead pods. They decimated a colony of gorilla nipples and started on my fire and ice.

Seems like a lot of us with this issue have that in common, as my tank was a predator tank prior and nothing would eat pods at all.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Here is the video. See you can clearly see their mouth munching on the zoas

 

[K95ranger]

I dont think dipping would do much since it seems like they are in your rocks. Just wait til your wrasse are ready and hopefully they will help eradicate the issue. Might have to try other fish too.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Dipping and moving the plug off the rock in a floating breeder container will keep pods off it until it recovers.. that was my thought anyway.

As for the wrasses i know in my qt i had a overpopulation of pods litterally running over eachother.. and in 3 weeks i bareky see any now.. and ive watched them eat em in daylight.. So yea.. lets hope they work

 

[ReefHomieJon]

I doubt it. Too big for mandarins. Mandarins eat copepods.

I'm glad I don't have these pesty amphipods. Had a ton from my previous setup.

My mandarin is big and he eats my amphioods

 

[HawaiianReef]

A month ago I lost an oyster. I saw pods crawling in the oysters shell a couple days prior, but thought nothing of it. I mean, they're just amphipods right? Couple days later, my oysters shell is opened up 3x normal and flesh is ripped up. Some bristle worms joined in and the shell was clean in 12 hours. The shell was a good 2" in diameter and I feed that tank well.
I still had a hard time believing it was the pods, but after reading other's testimonies, I believe it now.