Amphipods eating coral

[Scott48]

If they're actually all Echinos why would the pods only be attacking one of three Echinophyllia?

Exactly, they were and are all echnos. Its weird and i was wondering the same thing. The watermelon was the newest addition and was closest to where the pods were eating the acans and palys, maybe they wanted to explore idk. But i still dont see why one was attacked over another.

 

[tmz]

I think all 3( waermelon, mummy eye and bubble gum) are ecnhinophyllia aspera but it's always a bit of a guess.

 

[Scott48]

I think all 3( waermelon, mummy eye and bubble gum) are ecnhinophyllia aspera but it's always a bit of a guess.

thats exactly what they are.

 

[Gravesj1s]

Hi graves,

The alk was good at 9.2 dkh, light shock on the amphipods, could you explain? these ones if i havent mentioned are only out at night. these guys have been in my tank since the start 3 years ago but in the past 6 months their numbers have taken off.

thanks for the help graves

-Scott,Your welcome but unfortunately , for the most part I'm just getting my feet wet again,so theres lots of things that are brand new to me.Chalices ,acans ,interceptor,the list goes on......just trying to learn from when I was a reefkeeper last.

By lightshock I was refering to the corals not the amphipods directly.Many retailers Im noticing are keeping them under indirect or low light leds for the better apperance and pop in color. Suddenly placed under higher light conditions could weaken or kill an already stressed coral.WE should take into account they just came out of a completely differnt set of parameters.As another poster mentioned some forms are opportunists,maybe just feeding on sloughoff or dead tissue.(Refering to the amphipods or copepods).Just a possibility.Hope you figure it out ,it really sucks to lose things like that when you not sure why.

 

[Scott48]

Oh i saw the placement and type of lighting and took that into consideration in placement, if anything their probly in lower light in my tank and acclimated slowly for sure. The only parameter problem was nitrates were a little high, but these pods gotta be predators. Does anyone know of a fish or anything i can get that will come out at night thast reef and invert safe, because thats the only time the pods are out?

 

[Willistein]

I bet there's a good chance they are carnivorous amphipods, just a hunch. Snap a pic if you can.

 

[Scott48]

sorry i cant get a pic, all i have is my phone and it wont pick up the pods clearly but i did post pics of what they look like on pg.1

 

[tmz]

My Bangai cardinals Pterapogon kauderni prowl around at night. Don't know if they'd eat those pods but maybe.

 

[Scott48]

Bangai's might do the trick but is theyre anything else, maybe something not quite as docile as bangai's?

 

[dan10342]

Scott,

If you are having so much issue with pods... dose your tank with interceptor and kill them all.


though you might have other issues to deal with after all the death occurs.

best of luck
dan

 

[tmz]

Once established the bangai is anything but docile ime.

 

[pascal32]

Can you dip the corals to get the little guys out? You might get lucky and dip while they are on there.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Once established the bangai is anything but docile ime.

I agree. They're ferocious crepuscular hunters.
Personally, I wouldn't nuke the whole aquarium with interceptor unless all other options were exhausted and the problem persists.

Tom- have you ever had to nuke a system to kill pests?

 

[tmz]

Gary, I went through some acanastrea lordhowensis losses a few years ago. Randy O and Brent T were having some luck with interceptor( heartworm med for dogs) which was originally touted for red bugs on sps as a full tank treatment. Others noted success with red bugs on the sps forum and some spoke of success with acans. So a theory about micro crustaceans effecting acanastrea, and various chalice species from Australia in particular was born. As far as I know both Brent and Randy and others had success with repetitive whole tank interceptor treatments.
I got the interceptor but had some shrimp I didn't want to kill nor did I want to kill all the critters with extoskeletons in my whole system so no I did not do a whole tank treatment. I took out affected corals : set up a separate heated bin and treated them for 12 hours. Seemed the deterioration slowed down but it didn't solve the problem. Probably since the eggs or bugs themselves were still in the tank.

If I have that problem again I'll probably set up a separate tank for all affected species and treat that tank with Interceptor . I'd give the corals a Revive dip before placing them in the interceptor tank.I wouldn't return corals to the main system for a few months in the hope that the bugs if any in the system would starve.
The whole issue makes a good case for quarantining at least certain if not all corals and I may do that at some point particularly if my appetite for Aussie acanastrea lordhowensis returns.

 

[tmz]

Just for clarification. I'm not sure it's crustaceans at all . Could be bacteria, a dinoflagellate or ... I do know that Aussie lordhowensis will be attacked by peppermint shrimp(lystmata wundermani) and then there seems to be no return once they start to deteriorate. I'd love to hear if anyone did a microscopic examination. Nonetheless, the anecdotal successes with interceptor treatments seem very credible.

BTW .The bangai I have in my 120 hunts most of the night under some intermittent mild lunar lighting. I have some boisterous fish in there and the bangai doesn't shy away from them at all.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

thanks for that info, Tom. I had a feeling that you never nuked a whole reef display

The nightlight suggestion is worth repeating for others: a very small amount of light somewhere near an aquarium during the night will allow fishes to see nocturnal bugs.

 

[Scott48]

i may have to try a bangaii but i feel my tank is topped out in amount of fish.
i will have to try the lighting at night, maybe with a small flashlight over top or maybe i'll pick up a single moonlight since my system has no moonlights. thanks all for the info.

i dont know much about the interceptor but id have to take the coral out and dose seperately seeing how i have shrimp and wouldnt want my copepods all gone.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

the light need not be fancy

the light need not be fancy

I use a regular old nightlight plugged into an electrical outlet in the kitchen (about 20' away from the aquarium).

 

[Willistein]

I wanted to revive this thread because I'm pretty sure I have some monster amphipods munching on a healthy acan. I've seen them at night at the edges of the acans. I think that when amphipods get large enough they get powerful enough to get at healthy flesh. Anybody else ever deal with this or am I crazy? I've read about interceptor having a positive effect and I'd be willing to bet it's because it kills pods.

 

[phasezero]

I wanted to revive this thread because I'm pretty sure I have some monster amphipods munching on a healthy acan. I've seen them at night at the edges of the acans. I think that when amphipods get large enough they get powerful enough to get at healthy flesh. Anybody else ever deal with this or am I crazy? I've read about interceptor having a positive effect and I'd be willing to bet it's because it kills pods.

You aren't crazy. Just when i thought the amphipods in my tank only had a taste for zoas and pally's, which is the reason i switched to an SPS tank only, just this last two weeks i found out they'll even go for particular sps too. I had a pocilllopora frag that had been doing great the last few weeks, I moved him to the rocks and just over night, i wake up to find the tissue chewed up a little with every single polyp eaten. It's 100% not RTN, nothing has flaked off leaving bare white skeleton. Two weeks before i woke up and found 2 or 3 large amphipods chomping away at my yellow fuzzy acro. After i blew them away i found the same type eroded tissue that i saw on my pocillopora. The fuzzy is doing great on frag rack.