amphipods eating zoanthids

scuba guy ron

New member
So on saturday I started a thread for ring of fire zoas lighting requirements since the 4 polyp frag I purchased on friday refused to open bigger than a pin hole showing a little orange. After close observation I believe I found the culprit(s). After the lights went out last night I saw a bunch of amphipods congrigating around my new zoa. I figured they were eating the thin film of brown detritous on the rock they came on. after an hour or so they looked like they were concentrated more on the zoas. I figured I'd see how they looked in the AM. Well this morning I have 2 less polyps and there were still a bunch of amphipods on the zoas so I moved the rock off the sand and up onto a rock to try to save the last 2. Has anyone had this happin to them? Is there any answer to this problem as I do not have a frag tank. All my other zoas are doing great.
 
Yes I had the same thing happen! From what I've seen in my tank they only attack damaged or sick zoas"¦
 
It has happened to me also. I had a zoaspider on my frag, Removed the spider but the Zoas never looked the same. the next day I see the pods all over the Zoas.

Is it too late for my frags. They have not opened up in 6 Days.

Sorry, didn't mean to thread Jack :-(
 
You may be right about them targeting only unhealthy ones. The two I lost were the tinyest ones. the two left are larger.
 
It happens trust me, especially the LARGE ampipods... they will at times also target new incoming polyps. Which is why I place my new ones in my frag tank hardly void of pods, 6line takes care of pods and 4 wrasses take care of the main tank.
 
Yeah. I recently started to notice more and more pods since my red headed wrasse died about 2 mos ago (reason to still be determined since he had been in this tank for over 3 yrs.) I think it may be time to get another. which wrasses do the best job? I never really cared for the six line but would consider him. Is there anything I need to worry about with the six line?
 
My Green Mandarin and Wrasse annihilate the pods but they keep coming back ;). I have definately noticed that the pods as well as hermits will attack sick (unhealthy) zoas. Not much you can do but try to keep the Zoas happy and healthy
 
click my red house for tank pics and video's.

IMO mandarins don't have large a mouth and too slow to go after ampipods, copepods yes.

I'd go with lined wrasses, leopards and especially yellow coris or green seagrass wrasses.
 
+1 on the yellow coris wrasse

lovely fish, had one a while ago and I've been on the search for one again

I used to have mysterious disappearance of zoas on a single frag once in a while. Not since i got a spotted mandarinfish. just my experience.

even the larger pods have decreased since I put a spotted mandarinfish into the tank about 6 weeks ago. He's nice and fat, now.
 
Maybe i'm wrong(probably) but dont the coris wrasse's have a history of eating hermits & snails. I had a friend that had that species of wrasse and it would pile empty shells in the front corner of the tank so he knew which ones he already gotten to.
 
most coris are voracious predators, true. I had a red coris wrasse that ate anything and everything possible, this was before I had corals.

but i had the experience of having a yellow coris wrasse that left inverts alone. very docile fish, and tough. he got beat up and still swam around my tank for about 4 months with a kink in his spine. He swam around with an "S" shaped spine (left/right bends, not up/down bends) and was still too fast for me to catch w/out tearing down the tank.
 
Some coris like the red grow to about 1' 1/2 will turn over rock etc.. yellow coris about 6" or so, very docile, mine even gets punked by a red FAIRY wrasse off all wrasses. My mystery, leopard don't bother anyone...all wrasses spend all day hunting. I also have a royal gamma that goes after pods as well.
 
Rite now I have 1 blue chromi, false perc clown and blue devil damsel(which the wife brought home unexpectedly a yr ago). The clown punks everyone including the damsel. I worrk about adding another wrasse because of this. Maybe the mandarin would be the best bet for this situation. any input since you are saying the yellow choris is pretty hardcore when it comes to tuffness?
 
Definitely seen this happen. Amphipods seem to especially like PE type zoas/palys. They wiped out several different zoas of mine. I got a sixline in my polyp tank and everything recovered and was doing great. It jumped about a month ago and now everything is slowly starting to decline again. Ordered some clear mesh from jimsflies and hopefully a sixline will turn the tank around again. Seems like its always something with zoanthids....
 
If you have frag racks, move them up there. They are more likely to go after them if they are on the sandbed, main rock work. The ampipods are less likely to go after them if they're way up on the walls. Makes them more of a target if they're in the open trying to get to the racks.
 
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