Pods are destroying my zoas...

[ZoWhat]

If you have pods creating thus problem...why dont you drip dose phytoplankton to give them their natural food source? Betcha they'd quit eating other sources....

I still find it hard to believe they're eating nothing more than dead tissue off zoas. This might be irritating them but not killing them as the single smoking gun. Something else has got to be at play

.

 

[BAPrince]

If you have pods creating thus problem...why dont you drip dose phytoplankton to give them their natural food source? Betcha they'd quit eating other sources....


.

Ok! Is there a preferred brand/source of phytoplankton?

 

[ZoWhat]

Ok! Is there a preferred brand/source of phytoplankton?

Mercer of Montana's Tetraselmis Phytoplankton is the best you can buy

 

[CarltonCay]

Please allow me to share my experience and research over the past few years with this issue.

I am 100% certain that anthropods eat zoas. I have a very small 5 gallon desktop aquarium and I have lost dozens of zoas to pods. With my own eyes I have seen the anthropods eat a ring around the base of the Zoas until the Zoa heads detached and floated away! Utter Chaos Zoas have truly lived up to their name in my tiny tank. After such a loss I explored the issue intently. Here's what I've discovered through research and primary research and experience.

I believe what happens is they establish off over feeding and over populate in a tank. Some varieties get a taste for Zoas. I have seen them eat other corals, but Zoas are their major preference. These anthropods do not just stop at the dead tissue. After months of wondering why my injured Scolymia wouldn't continue to heal, I found four very fat and plump pods living in the base of the coral - in quarantine! At night the pods would eat a ring around the apron of the Scolymia. There were multiple Zoa species in the quarantine tank too. Strange and frustrating!

This is a similar feasting pattern anthropods have on Zoanthids, where the mat of the zoa base is the first attack, shuffling along the edge of the mat as they eat. They can complete entire rings, as per my experience above.

Other corals where they devastated the tissue are Favia, GSP, Acanthophyllia, Blastomussa. Anything soft has been witness to the voracious appetite of pods. They have tried to eat Palys. It seems Palytoxin is a great natural defense. Kenya Tree and Riccordea and Yuma mushrooms are also unaffected.

This variety of anthropod appears to be a different species than the common "good" anthropod. Their sizes range from 1mm to 2cm and are able to hide in the tiny crevices of any porous surface. Several comments over many forums in my research describe how much larger they appear than another reefer's experience.

Wrasses are their natural predator I am told! But try keeping a wrasse happy in a 5 gallon barebottom with 6 lbs of rock! I've tried to starve my tank but it has been impossible - other species of life must eat, too, IMO. I built an emergency quarantine tank out of a plastic food-safe container and I dip every 3-5 days. The pods still exist as some coral structures are very porous as in the base of a Scolymia. Finally, in a small mug I hand dipped 20 individual frags with a small pippet and knocked out the last few after two months of quarantine.

My proof is that they will turn to the colour of what they eat - purple (zoas), pink (Vitalis pellet food), red (favia), or green (favia). They are well fed when they are dark and plump and go pale and transparent when fasting. This variety of anthropod can handle months without food in a small bare-bottom tank. They will sustain on any detritus until a preferential food source is found.

Many established reefers will swear that pods only eat dead tissues - but after 10 years in the hobby and my own disaster with them the conversation needs to change. Pods definitely can get a taste for, and wreak havoc on, zoas and soft tissues in general.

 

[Cell]

Please allow me to share my experience and research over the past few years with this issue.

I am 100% certain that anthropods eat zoas. I have a very small 5 gallon desktop aquarium and I have lost dozens of zoas to pods. With my own eyes I have seen the anthropods eat a ring around the base of the Zoas until the Zoa heads detached and floated away! Utter Chaos Zoas have truly lived up to their name in my tiny tank. After such a loss I explored the issue intently. Here's what I've discovered through research and primary research and experience.

I believe what happens is they establish off over feeding and over populate in a tank. Some varieties get a taste for Zoas. I have seen them eat other corals, but Zoas are their major preference. These anthropods do not just stop at the dead tissue. After months of wondering why my injured Scolymia wouldn't continue to heal, I found four very fat and plump pods living in the base of the coral - in quarantine! At night the pods would eat a ring around the apron of the Scolymia. There were multiple Zoa species in the quarantine tank too. Strange and frustrating!

This is a similar feasting pattern anthropods have on Zoanthids, where the mat of the zoa base is the first attack, shuffling along the edge of the mat as they eat. They can complete entire rings, as per my experience above.

Other corals where they devastated the tissue are Favia, GSP, Acanthophyllia, Blastomussa. Anything soft has been witness to the voracious appetite of pods. They have tried to eat Palys. It seems Palytoxin is a great natural defense. Kenya Tree and Riccordea and Yuma mushrooms are also unaffected.

This variety of anthropod appears to be a different species than the common "good" anthropod. Their sizes range from 1mm to 2cm and are able to hide in the tiny crevices of any porous surface. Several comments over many forums in my research describe how much larger they appear than another reefer's experience.

Wrasses are their natural predator I am told! But try keeping a wrasse happy in a 5 gallon barebottom with 6 lbs of rock! I've tried to starve my tank but it has been impossible - other species of life must eat, too, IMO. I built an emergency quarantine tank out of a plastic food-safe container and I dip every 3-5 days. The pods still exist as some coral structures are very porous as in the base of a Scolymia. Finally, in a small mug I hand dipped 20 individual frags with a small pippet and knocked out the last few after two months of quarantine.

My proof is that they will turn to the colour of what they eat - purple (zoas), pink (Vitalis pellet food), red (favia), or green (favia). They are well fed when they are dark and plump and go pale and transparent when fasting. This variety of anthropod can handle months without food in a small bare-bottom tank. They will sustain on any detritus until a preferential food source is found.

Many established reefers will swear that pods only eat dead tissues - but after 10 years in the hobby and my own disaster with them the conversation needs to change. Pods definitely can get a taste for, and wreak havoc on, zoas and soft tissues in general.

I assume you mean arthropod? Arthropod encompasses all crustaceans, including shrimp and lobster.

 

[CarltonCay]

I assume you mean arthropod? Arthropod encompasses all crustaceans, including shrimp and lobster.

Amphipods, apology. I don't have the ability to edit my Original Post as it was moderator approved.
It was before coffee this AM. ;Blackeye

 

[Ike]

If you have pods creating thus problem...why dont you drip dose phytoplankton to give them their natural food source? Betcha they'd quit eating other sources....

I still find it hard to believe they're eating nothing more than dead tissue off zoas. This might be irritating them but not killing them as the single smoking gun. Something else has got to be at play

.

Have you ever seen a full grown amphipod? Phytoplankton isn't going to do much... No, something else doesn't have to be at play. Food sources get low, big meat eating amphipods have to eat.

 

[elysics]

Is anyone of the people saying that the "safe" amphipods definitely are different ones and stay small up for an experiment? Take like 10 of your safe amphipods, put them in a little bucket with an airstone or something, maybe a bit of dead rock or random plastic stuff for them to hide in, and sprinkle a bit of dry food in every day for a week or four. And then report back if they stayed small.

Worst case, youve got extra live food for your fish. If youve got a zoa colony with more growth than you can give away, you could even stop the food cold turkey at the end and put two or three polyps in the bucket to see what happens.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I still think it’s one of the smaller Squilla species out of Florida. I can‘t get the video to load, can only see the picture. BTW There is a Squilla that is very Blue under certain lighting.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Found a picture, of the Blue Squilla. It can be found as far north as Virginia.

 

[Tired]

Do mantis shrimp eat coral, though? I thought they hunted active prey. Hence the weaponry.

 

[elysics]

Mantis shrimp look completely different though. Neither what op has, what i have, nor pictures of anyone i have seen that said amphipods were eating their zoas looked anything like a mantis shrimp. Mantis shrimps have the big long singular shield at their head, and mantis eyes, amphipods don't.

 

[92Miata]

Is anyone of the people saying that the "safe" amphipods definitely are different ones and stay small up for an experiment? Take like 10 of your safe amphipods, put them in a little bucket with an airstone or something, maybe a bit of dead rock or random plastic stuff for them to hide in, and sprinkle a bit of dry food in every day for a week or four. And then report back if they stayed small.

Worst case, youve got extra live food for your fish. If youve got a zoa colony with more growth than you can give away, you could even stop the food cold turkey at the end and put two or three polyps in the bucket to see what happens.

I've got a fishless 10 gallon with zoas in it. Already done.


The common amphipods max out at about 3/8 of an inch. If yours are getting bigger than that, they're something else.

 

[elysics]

I've got a fishless 10 gallon with zoas in it. Already done.


The common amphipods max out at about 3/8 of an inch. If yours are getting bigger than that, they're something else.

Thats already bigger than the people with fishes claim they can ever get. Mine are only like a millimeter or two bigger and i heavily feed powdered food etc.. It's not like my tank is a zoa-barren wasteland, ive got zoa colonies thriving here, the attacks mostly happen(ed) on relatively new introductions that were maybe pushed into the sand one too many times by an hermit, leading to one polyp suffering and that then starts a cascade through the rest of that particular colony. Which doesn't happen/ stops, when i keep the suffering colony amphipod-free.

But if heavily feeding and then stopping had no effect on the behaviour on your amphipods then that's interesting for sure.

 

[Butcher333]

They will eat healthy coral. They will prevent injured coral from recovering. I’ve tried very hard to keep them out of my tanks. I like Munnid isopods. I swear I have seen a few amphipods in my new tank now. Still on the smaller side. Dang it.

 

[FreeEnergyReefer]

So glad this problem is finally being discussed. The amphipods are tiny bigger than copepods but still tiny. They love white walkers and any smaller polyp new addition ime. I'm dealing with this problem now in a 75mixed. I spend too much money on these high end zoas for lil bugs to eat them as a snack especially when many other food sources are available. I would love to hear a solution on this topic. That's why alot of reefers love a variety of wrasse in their tanks. It's a unwritten rule

 

[clicfacil]

Hi, I had this problem, i can fix with a labrid,

 

[BAPrince]

So... here's my update on this saga. Back in September, I moved the affected zoas out of the coral QT tank and into the fish observation tank. Then, I got a coral-banded shrimp and a handful of hermit crabs for the coral tank. Waited a few weeks, and the pod population seemed to have decreased significantly, so I moved the zoas back into the coral tank. Everything seemed to be fine for a few weeks (maybe a month or two). At first, I was barely feeding the shrimp/crabs. After some time, I started feeding them more, not wanting them to starve. My GUESS is that I was feeding the shrimp/crabs too much, and they got happy/lazy, because then the pod population increased again. BAM... straight for the zoas! Completely wiped out one frag plug, and almost re-destroyed my scrambled egg zoas. I have moved those zoas back out of the coral tank, and cut back on feeding the shrimp/crabs. There SEEMS to be a solution here, just have to figure out the right balance of feeding the shrimp/crabs enough to keep them alive.... but a small enough amount to keep them hunting.

 

[Tired]

I don't think hermits eat amphipods. The shrimp might. A fish really is the best predator you can get for amphipods. Most fish will go after them to some extent.

 

[BAPrince]

@Tired I would tend to agree. It's the CBS that I see on the hunt.