Acans and amphipods

[Willistein]

So, after adding the first aussie acan lord to my new 120, I noticed receding tissue for a few days. During nightly inspections I noticed large amphipods suspiciously "busy" around the outer flesh of the frag. I initially dismissed it thinking the acans were receding due to something else, and that the amphipods were just cleaning up dead tissue. Meanwhile the polyps were looking more and more stressed.

I moved the frag from the sand bed to the top of a glass jar so that the amphipods could not climb and get to it. After 4 days and tissue looking very much healthier and even starting to spread over dead areas, I can now say that I am 99% sure that the amphipods were the culprit. The acans are now expanded more than they were pre-jar.

I have no fish in the system and only feed the corals occasionally, so I think the little amphipod buggars are hungry. I've read other anecdotal evidence that supports this. I've also read that interceptor treatments have been helpful and it's no secret that interceptor kills anything with an exoskeleton. I think that amphipods will resort to certain types of LPS when they are hungry. They have left all of my other LPS alone including Welsophyllia, Duncan, frogspawn, hammer, etc. For some reason they like the $20 per polyp lord.

Thoughts? Anybody else have experience with this? I'm not sure what the solution will be since the jar isn't exactly my idea of nice aquascaping...

 

[jacksonpt]

Tagging along. I've read other posts similar to this one, so I'm curious to see if it's a common problem.

FWIW, I have 2 acan frags and a VERY healthy amphipod population. I've had no problems to date.

 

[Willistein]

I have a suspicion that it is either a specific type of amphipod, specific types of acans, or both.

I'd love to get close up video of them eating healthy tissue. I'll try to get pictures of the amphipod too, for reference.

 

[jacksonpt]

I have a suspicion that it is either a specific type of amphipod

That was my thinking as well.

I have these guys... at least I'm pretty sure they are the same. Same size and shape, mine appear a bit lighter, though that could be a variety of reasons...

I can try to get some pics from my tank of both my acans and my amphipods, just so we can compare.

 

[Willistein]

I'll get some pictures tonight. My amphipods are lighter and have white stripes on their segments. The big ones are almost 1/2" long.

So Amphipoda is the order and then there is family, genus, species and sub/super/infra categories as well.

Anybody doubt that with the 1000s of species of amphipods, that some munch on acans?

 

[Willistein]

As a side note, read Ron Shimek's amphipod article found here:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rs/index.php

At the end he retells an account of amphipods trying to eat his face! Seriously:

"On April 2, 1983, I was diving in an area called Pole Pass, in the San Juan Islands of Washington. During this dive, my dive partner and I came across a large sea star, Pycnopodia helianthoides, that was spawning. It was absolutely covered by a swarm of the amphipods and they were tearing off pieces of its upper surface. As we attempted to get close, the swarm rose and a portion of it settled on my face and before I knew what was happening the bugs were biting my face and lips. I rapidly "back pedaled" and managed to brush them all off, but by the time I had done this, they had managed to break my skin in several places and I was bleeding quite profusely. NASTY LITTLE BUGS!!!"

 

[smogl00]

I'm interested to hear the conclusion that you come to. I had to transfer all of my acans out because they were going down one colony at a time all of the sudden. I have TONS of amphipods

 

[Willistein]

Steve, if they are otherwise healthy and your water, light, etc are good then I would suspect them for sure. Take a look at night with a flashlight.

 

[boosted chemist]

how does one eliminate these pest? Pretty sure my manderine wont eat them.

 

[cardiffgiant]

A nice reef safe wrasse could end up overweight in a system like that.

 

[5380]

I used to have pieces of acrylic on the bottom of my tank, amphipods would congregate underneath and torment my mandarin. I'd assume that the mandarins feed on the small ones. I've also seen my tang take the adults they fall off when I'm moving frags.

 

[iamwrasseman]

i would suggest that you dose your tank with interceptor to eliminate the Amphipods . if you leave it up to a wrasse or two then it will first take to long and will be a recurring situation . at the same time the wrasses will further hurt the acans because they will be picking at the tissue in an attempt to eat the pods . especially when the pods get really small and the larger ones are gone the wrasse will still attempt to dine on them and further hurt the tissue .

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

fwiw

fwiw

any and all of my fishes will take the pods shown in that pic.... and rather quickly I might add!

Dan and Jackson- what temps do you run your aquariums at?

 

[iamwrasseman]

~and they will further damage the tissue in doing so

 

[Willistein]

78.5-79.5

 

[jacksonpt]

79, +/- 1 degree

 

[jacksonpt]

any and all of my fishes will take the pods shown in that pic.... and rather quickly I might add!

My clown has never shown any interest in them, and the bigger ones are too big for my Rainsford goby.

 

[jacksonpt]

Not the greatest pics in the world, but it was the best I could do in the dark (hard a really hard time getting the camera to focus). All pics were taken at about 6am this morning.

 

[Willistein]

The pods in the first and second picture look exactly like the ones I have. Were they on the acans? I can't tell from the pics.

 

[jacksonpt]

No... I've never seen pods harrassing any of my corals. I have seen them crawling around in zoos (no apparent damage or ill effects), but in those pictures it is on a type of red bubble algae.