help keeping predatory amphipods in check

[Neddy191]

I have a newish tank (~3 mo old now) and have several small zoa frags. A couple are already on the rocks and a few still on plugs. Over the past few weeks I've had a couple small frags/colonies die. I've been looking more and more (and at night after lights off) and see all sizes of large (3/4cm) to tiny amphipods crawling all over the zoas. I'm sure they're the reason they're not doing well. I have several pieces of sps and lps that are growing an very happy.

Today I took out the main rock that I've seen most of them climbing on/out of and dipped in in iodine soulution. I got about 10-12 large amphipods out of the rock. Tonight after lights off I dipped a couple of the frags that I saw smaller ones crawling on and got some more off. I guess I'll keep dipping when I see them for now.

Question is: I hope I've gotten the big adults - now what should I do to keep the juvies in check. Ive read several threads talking about different fish to eat them. I have a small nano (biocube 29g) so size is a limitation.

Suggestions?

 

[kichimark]

They may be taking advantage of the situation and feeding on dead/weak zoas. They have been known to attack but don't rule out any other possibilities. Are your water parameters stable? I have a sixline and a hawkfish in my tank that tend to keep things in check. The problem is they will not eliminate the pods because the fish are diurnal while those pods are mostly nocturnal. It does however work for me.

 

[knutez24]

6-line or many other wrasses would help, mandarins/ scooter bleenys are also known to eat pods.

 

[Friday Night]

+1 on wrasse

 

[Falcao]

after buying a 6-line, have not seen amphipods for a while.

 

[Allmost]

melanurus wrasse !

 

[winkkle]

in a 29g id say 6line but they can get pretty vicious

 

[phasezero]

We have been dealing with a major predatory amphipod problem for the last few months. Parameters are fine, other zoa frags that are safe on a frag rack do fine. We finally got so sick of the amphipods that we dipped every single piece of rock and coral in the tank. We must have extracted at least 300 adult sized amphipods. This is after we had already killed off a few hundred from dipping one particular rock over 2 weeks. Unfortunately for this tank, the inhabitants were 2 adult sized 4-5 inch frog fish, so we couldn't put in a wrasse to keep the pods in check.

 

[Neddy191]

I've been intermittently dipping a few rocks that the worst problem with the amphipods. I got at least 20 decent sized ones out of a rock the size of a soft ball earlier tonight.

Question about wrasses. Is there a reason everyone always mentions sixline wrasses. Would any other types of wrasse be suitable for a small aquarium like mine? I'm not opposed to a sixline just wondering.