Are these pod looking creatures eating my candy cane coral??

aleok

Member
So about a 1-1.5 months ago, i noticed my huge candy cane, 80+ heads, started to have 1 or 2 head show skeleton. I thought nothing of it, i thought spot feeding would bring them back. But nope its not doing jack and the death and skeleton has spread to like 10 heads.

I see these little pod looking guys hanging around the dying heads. are they pest, that are eating/killing my big beautiful candy cane? i have 3 other candy cane colonies and none have been effected yet.. all other corals are fine.

salinty: 1.025-26
alk: 6.0 (pre dosing and just did a big water change)
cal: 400 (after big water change)
 

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Looks like Amphipods to me on the phone screen.
It is highly unlikely that the Amphipods are responsible for the coral dying.
If this looks like something is eating the coral heads I would look for flatworms, nudibranches, and snails as the cause as those are the typical predators of corals. Most of them are highly specific in their targeted coral genus or even species. Flatworms and nudibranches generally have or take on the color of their prey and are therefore difficult to see.
There are also some pods that live off corals, but the ones I know of are limited to SPS corals like Acropora.

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OK thanks, thats what I thought. I looked around last night with my red flashlight and didn't see anything besides the Amphipods.

Anyone have any ideas about what it could be? I really really hate to loose this whole colony.
nothing in my tank has changed in months. Last thing I added was a small torch frag was property treated, 9 months ago.

Thanks
 
Alk is very low, CA a bit low
The correct level and maintaining stability is key.
Rise and falls in Alk really cause problems

My levels in a mixed are
Alk 9.5 and this does not vary much using a doser
CA is 460....
MG is 1360

Is that the problem, I don't know, but as I said, keeping Alk stable is so so important

Also what are your N & P levels, just checking to make sure they are available in the correct amounts, zero will starve corals.

Mine are nitrate 2-5ppm and phosphate 0.03-0.07, .15 max before using GFO
 
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