do pods really eat zoas?

Can someone post a macro shot of this pod? I ( we ) would all love to see it. Hopefully we can all work together a try to identify what type of pod this is. It could answer a lot of questions that many reefers will ( have ) had about zoanthids that have crashed ( failed ) for no explainable reason. It is obvious that there is much merit to this and I would love to learn more about this predator.

ktar, If you're having local trouble finding one, send me a PM after the new year and I can possible get a hold of one for you here and send it to you.

Mooch
 
I will try to find one in the next few days.....Not sure how many I have now with my sixline doing his thing.....
 
wow.....
i have been wondering about the sudden decline of my gpe colony and stayed up late one night to investigate. i found the colony was covered in large pods. i never knew they would eat the polyps like that until i saw it with my own eyes.
im just so sorry that others are having this same problem.

anyways......i asked santa for a mandarin for x-mas, hope it does the trick.
 
I've never had problems with amphipods eating any corals. As already mentioned there are more than one type out there.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8789077#post8789077 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mfinn
I am wondering if a mandarin has a large enough mouth for those larger amphipods.
Click to expand...

They mouth is much larger than you realize and would open wide enough to eat these pods. Whether or not they will eat them is another story.
 
HEre is one of the bigger ones I have found, population reduced due to my six line. I have found bigger ones then this....Here is a picture Much asked for if I found a big one....
DSCN0436.jpg
 
I have been saying this for months. It's the common amphipod that is the problem. If they run out of food, they will eat your Zoanthids. They prefer Zoanthus Gigantus aka People Eater's.
 
I came to the same conclusion after loosing 30 or so RPE's added to my display. I could not figure out why they where shriviling up and going away. At night they would be covered with amphipods and the other little pods. I was told by several people that pods do not eat zoa's. My fish were in quarantine tank and the population exploded. My rpe's were the only ones being eaten and they were the latest addition. So...After talking to several people ..We figured it was a bacterial problem and so the dips resumed. Nothing changed until my golden wrasse and other tank mates were re-introduced. I managed to save three polyps out of about 35. They are healthy and I can actually see a runner starting off one of the stalks so I might have four here in a couple weeks.

I think when food sources run out the bigger amphipods eat whatever they can. Like mentioned earlier they just happen to like pe's. Why don't they eat the brown polyps or hydroids?lol
 
i just witness a large pod that was chopping away at my rpe last nite i tried to take a pic but by the time i got back he ran off somewhere.
 
well santa came through and got me a gift card to my lfs
now i have to choose ........6-line ,mandarin, or something else that eats pods......

decisions... decisions.. :)
 
You should check out a Cryptic Wrasse. I've got one and it's really cool. Not as aggressive as a Sixline but should help with the pods. Here's a pic of mine.

CopyofCryptic1.jpg
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8845135#post8845135 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Azurel
HEre is one of the bigger ones I have found, population reduced due to my six line. I have found bigger ones then this....Here is a picture Much asked for if I found a big one....
DSCN0436.jpg
Click to expand...

I've seen those guys take out frags of RPE I traded for!
 
I couldn't find a dime to show the size but I though a penny worked. It really was a big boy after I dumped him back in the tank my clown mouthed it a bit but didn't eat it. I don't know if the pod defended himself or not or it was just to big. I know my sixline has taken my pod population down quite a bit.
 
i have experienced pods eating zoas after i frag colonies. they usually only eat the damaged zoas and don't bother the others. maybe once they get the taste they are like crackheads and hooked. I started to feed my frag tank a little so they have something else to munch on.
 
I have the same problem ever since I started running my refugium. My pod population has increased, and apparently they have run out of food. I have witnessed the pod shown above, as well as the rust colored (and striped) one, at night with a flashlight. The funnything is that they only target certain colonies. I have a colony immediately adjacent to the dessimated colony that remains untouched. Go figure. I'm going to try and get a pic of the rust colored pod as soon as I find my camera filters.
 
I am so glad to see this thread, because about a year ago when i had only been reefing for a few months, I witnessed large amphipods like the one azurel pictured eating on a couple colonies of my zoas. I posted about it and everyone laughed at me and said I didn't know what I was talking about, pods don't eat zoas. But I kept watching and I am 100% sure they were eating the zoas and palys. like previous posters said, they seemed to prefer protopalys like ppe and rpe, and they also ate all my pink zoas. The colonies they were eating looked healthy enough to me. This was at a time early on when my tank was overrun with pods, and I added a sixline wrasse and have never had a recurrence of the zoa-eating problem since.
 
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