Best method to control amphipods?

[darkdruid]

I've noticed in the last week or two that alot of my corals are looking ragged, not like poor water quality, but like they've been chewed up. I got a new leather today so I was curious as to how it was doing, so I grabbed a flashlight and went to check on it. There weren't dozens, not a hundred, but several hundred amphipods on everything. And I'm talking more 3/8" to 1/2" size than I could count. They were on everything from the new leather, to the zoanthids, and had stripped a branch off one of the sps corals. What's the best way to get rid of these things, any certain fish like them better than others? The only way I can keep them off the corals is to leave the lights on 24/7, and that's going to cause a whole new set of problems if I do it for very long.

 

[Pulp Fishin]

I mandarin or Leporad Wrasse will eat a ton of amohipods in no time!

 

[CoachOJ]

Six Line Wrasse will take care of them quick and unlike the mandarin it will eat prepared foods.

 

[mfinn]

amphipods don't strip branches off sps and generally don't eat corals.

 

[Whisperer]

Agree with above. they will dine on dying corals, however. These are scavengers, not really predators. You can control their population with almost any wrasse.

 

[sanababit]

almost any wrasse will control them, specially six lines

sana

 

[darkdruid]

I hate to be the be the one to break it to you guys, amphipods willl eat anything they can find if they are hungry, dead or alive. I know all about RTN, but a perfectly healthy Pocillopora will not lose a 2 inch section of tissue in less than an hour after the lights go out, and stop dead in it's tracks instantly once the lights come on. We aren't talking a normal population here, it looks like you turned the lights on in a housing project kitchen and watched hundreds of roaches scatter, or locusts swarming on the african plains.

A mandarian or a sixline would have a hard time with alot of these amphipods seeing as how a large portion are close to 1/2" in size. It's going to take something bigger than a rock picker to take care of these things. A wrasse might work, but it would have to be along the lines of a lunar or a blueheaded to have jaws big enough to do the job.

 

[Imzadi]

Mandarin in a 35g will be fine until the pods are gone, but is it a big enough tank to sustain one for very long?

 

[400M1963]

Sixlines never stop hunting

 

[sanchoy]

Too many pods...

I am in the same boat.. At night it appears that the pods just take over the tank in the thousands.

I currently have 1 green mandarin and 2 scooters patrolling, however at night they all go to sleep. And the pods just scrounge the land.

I am planning on getting a spotted do help the war against the pods. Will a spotted fight with a green mandarin?

 

[darkdruid]

It's my 46 with close to 75 pounds of live rock. The tank has been running for over 2 years. It could handle a single mandarian with no problem. I'm just afraid I'd come home and these pods would have him tied up, hanging upside down from a leather, throwing snails at him...lol