fish that eat amphipods?

chrismunn

chrismunn

New member
im looking for a fish that will eat large amphipods. anybody have any suggestions?

my tank is small, 14g, and i have an extremely aggressive clown. so that will have to be taken into consideration.

the situation is this; i have a bunch of zoanthids that are literally being chewed to death by large amphipods. the only thing i will consider is natural predation because it will most likely be the easiest solution. any chemical treatments that target an amphipod will also target every other crustacean in the tank, so thats out of the question. and i refuse to rip my tank apart either! :D

i will be removing all the zoa colonies in the tank and giving them a freshwater, or lugols dip just before putting them into my QT. that way i can somewhat ensure that none of the pods will make it into the QT. while the zoas are in QT ill be treating them for another illness, but while theyre there i want to completely decimate the amphipod population in the display so that when i put the zoas back in, they dont get harassed anymore.

thanks :)
 
Are you sure the amphipods are doing damage, and not just munching on algae around the corals? I've never heard of them harming corals.

I don't see why your clown would not eat them. Have you tried to suck any up in a turkey baster and then blow them in front of your clown? I bet it would be a nice snack!

Also, seeing as the tank is only 14 g, you would probably only want one fish or so anyway. I think adding another with an aggressive clown is just asking for trouble.

HTH,

Tim
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13573258#post13573258 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Timbor
Are you sure the amphipods are doing damage, and not just munching on algae around the corals? I've never heard of them harming corals.

I don't see why your clown would not eat them. Have you tried to suck any up in a turkey baster and then blow them in front of your clown? I bet it would be a nice snack!

Also, seeing as the tank is only 14 g, you would probably only want one fish or so anyway. I think adding another with an aggressive clown is just asking for trouble.

HTH,

Tim
Click to expand...

ive been seing the pods on the corals for a while now and always thought the same thing as you. i figured they were eating stuff around the corals, but apoun closer inspection i noticed that they were biting the corals. i checked a website that said they do in fact irritate zoas, and without seing it myself i might not have believed it.

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the clown is the reason i didnt let my LFS sell me a fish already. they said all the fish that would prey on the pods would deffinatly be killed by the clown. but they didnt tell me what exactly WOULD eat the pods. if the clown were going to eat the pods it would have already. more than likely the clown will have to be relocated before any other fish are added. i dont want to add another fish but i have to get rid of these pods!!!
 
you might be able to get away with a small wrasse like a 6 or 4 line. one of these guys should be able to hand with your mean clown too....

any kind of wrasse will make quick work of those pods for you.
 
Most likely the amphipods are eating algae off of the zoanthids. It is possible that the zoanthids are dying, but I doubt it has anything to do with the amphipods. They are good scavengers, I certainly wouldn't want to get rid of them, but that's my .02...
 
I'm with m2434. More than likely there is another predator like a worm that is eating your zoas. Have a surprise check with a red light or be quick with a flashlight about an hour after the lights go out.

Then again.... I don't have much luck with zoas. But I do have a ton of critters in my tank. Mostly different worms but also alot of pods. My sixline is always fat and happy.

Do think twice about a wrass in a small tank. They will deplete the tank of those very valuable pos in no time at all. They too can be aggressive and mine often harrasses my YWGobie.
 
Amphipods will eat the tissue of softer corals. Drop an extra pellet or two to keep them away for now. Goniapora's are really prone to being eaten on by these guys.
 
mandarin dragonettes are supposed to eat copepods and amphipods. Also maybe if you feed the amphipods they'll leave ur corals alone. I notice amphipods always tear away at peices of shrimp and meat when I feed my ricordeas and my mushrooms. they're voracious eaters
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13574307#post13574307 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SMOOTHIE
Amphipods will eat the tissue of softer corals. Drop an extra pellet or two to keep them away for now. Goniapora's are really prone to being eaten on by these guys.
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Ampiopods are gennerally detritivores and will therfore eat DEAD stuff. If they are eating your zoanthids, it is because they are already dying. They are the ultimate CUC. leave them be... Your time might be better spent finding out why your zoanthids are dying....
 
All adding a predator will do is cause your amphipods to become more nocturnal .A six line wrasse will hunt them during the day so that is when they will hide.I don't believe that there is any non-drastic way to rid your tank of them. If you reduce your feedings that should reduce their population that is if they aren't eating your zoo's (something I have never heard of or seen) not saying it can't happen though. I guess it is time to start another tank for just zoo's!!!
 
If you can see the amphipods on your zoos, take a turkey baster and suck them up from the rock. If you sneak up on them then suck in the water, you should be able to suck them off the rock. Then, blow them in front of the clown, and I am positive the clown will eat them. Any planktivorous fish will try and eat an amphipod if it sees one - I guess seeing is the main part to them eating it.

Tim
 
amphipods will prey on zoas if they're isn't enough food for them to eat, check the zoa forum if you don't believe it. i had some smaller ones eating my zoas. if you can i would relocate the clown like you said and get a wrasse, a sixline should work. throwing some food in for the amphipods isn't a bad idea either.
 
I'm sure many people in hte zoa forumn think that, but I doubt they are preying on the zoas, maybe stealing food from them, which I could be bad... I see amphipods crawling over my zoas all the time, but they are not dying off. If you notice your zoanthids are dying and decide to look in when the lights are out, and see ampipods crawling over them, you say hay that's the problem. It certainly has been the conclusion of many aquarists. The problem with this theory, is that if you happen to look at a healthy zoa colony, at night, you will also likely see ampipods crawling over them.

For example, lets take another example. A yellow tang. When I first started in the hobby I saw my yellow tang eating some zoas and thought that the tang was killing them. Actually, as it turns out that colony was dying off from zoa pox and the tang had an opertunity to go after the stuff inside.

Zoas are tough to keep, there are many predators and they can be sensitive to water and lighting conditions. A wrasse will eat many of them. The problem is a wrasse will eat benificial organisms such as amphipods...

Here is a list of possible preditors and irritators. It does list ampipods as an irritator, but since ampipods are gennerally nocturnal, and zoas are closed at night, I'm not convinced that this is even a problem...
http://www.zoaid.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=384
 
i read the information in the link m2434 and thats what initially prompted me to do something about the pods.

it seems that only the zoas on the floor of the tank are being bothered by the pods. originally all my zoa colonies were up higher on the rocks, and were all doing fine. but in the last week and a half i removed a bunch of colonies and put them on the floor of the tank. my BTA was beginning to move towards those colonies and i didnt want them to get zapped to death so i put them on the bottom until the BTA settled down. i never noticed any pods on any of the colonies untill i put the at the bottom, and thats about the time things started going south. typically i dont see the pods during the day. those pics were taken at night. in any case i dont really care for the pods and wouldnt mind if there were none. :D if i had something that solely survived on them it would be a different story.

ive since moved one colony of zoas into QT to see if i can rehabilitate it? its the colony in the first 2 pics. i gave it a freshwater dip, then a bifuran dip, and then another freshwater rinse before adding it to the QT to make sure none of those pesky pods make it into QT.

within the next couple of days ill be adding all my zoas into QT for a treatment of bifuran and freshwater dips. not only do i have the pods poking at them, but a few colonies are showing signs of pox, and another colony introduced zoa eating nudis. ive only found the nudis on that one single colony, but ill be treating all the colonies. perhaps the nudis got to that colony in the pics and did the real damage and all i saw were the pods trimming up some of the remains? even so, the one colony i did see with nudis didnt take nearly the hit that the one in the pic did, but im not even sure if that was nudi damage???

we'll see if within the next couple of months i decide to add another fish to keep the pod population down. i probably wont, but in about 2 months when QT is over ill add a test colony back into the tank for a few weeks to see what happens?

thanks for all the help fellas :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13578654#post13578654 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Punikin
Mandarin Gobies are great at eating pods. That's pretty much all they eat.
Click to expand...

copepods though right? these amphipods are way too big to fit in a mandarins mouth
 
they do eat the zoos and not only that they eat soft corals too, where there is a small damage they will make a hole rather than letting the colony recover. and was thinking that is the stupidest thing to say until i figured out why my zoos are always closed and i watched amphipods eat my zoos about 5 minutes ago. also blue tangs eat zoos too, if anyone is surprised. though they're also suppose to be herbivores. just because most don't do it doesn't mean that its impossible.
 
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