I found what is killing my zoas! Pics and report included...and I need your help!!

[CNGH]

i had huge pods too, bigger than in that pic above. they ate their way thru a colony of magicians () and started on some other nice PEs i had. the final straw was when they ate a large colony of japanese zoas (from about 60 polyps to 3) i finally ended up getting a 6line (RIP). within a week i didn't see anymore pods.

i have another wrasse now, and no pod problems.

edit to add:

i should have said also that i watched them do it. they were so brazen they wouldn't even scurry away when i shined the flashlight on them.

 

[RedAnt78]

Man, I'm glad I posted this! If I knew they could be a problem, I think I would've gotten a wrasse a long time ago! It seems like it's just the big pods doing it, the small ones don't seem to bother my corals. I wonder if it has to do with them getting big and just needing more "variety" or something.

 

[Bignate]

I have never seen those pods eating my zoas and I have a tank full of them. I have no fish in one of my tanks and they are all over the place. I have seen that snail mentioned earlier eating the zoas. I was loosing one at a time and noticed that little snail attached to the base of one. I removed it and all is well.

 

[CNGH]

I have never seen those pods eating my zoas and I have a tank full of them. I have no fish in one of my tanks and they are all over the place. I have seen that snail mentioned earlier eating the zoas. I was loosing one at a time and noticed that little snail attached to the base of one. I removed it and all is well.

i think they only eat them if there isn't enough other stuff for them to eat. the pods get started on the injured/sick zoas, then develop a taste for them and mow them down. that's my theory at least.

 

[RedAnt78]

i think they only eat them if there isn't enough other stuff for them to eat. the pods get started on the injured/sick zoas, then develop a taste for them and mow them down. that's my theory at least.

I agree with your theory. I don't think it's "all" pods and I'll definately always have them in my tanks, but now I know that I just need to keep an eye out when my corals aren't doing so well...and have a wrasse or something to keep their numbers in check.

 

[scuba guy ron]

I think that they target sick or ailing zoas IMO. you may not even know the zoas are sick or ailing but i believe the pods do.

 

[RedAnt78]

I think that they target sick or ailing zoas IMO. you may not even know the zoas are sick or ailing but i believe the pods do.

I think that is very possible too, I wouldn't be surprised if it was both, they munch on an injured/sick one and then develop a taste for it.

 

[xlayedoutx]

I'm not sure. My Zoa's looked completely healthy before the PODS started muching on them. Since I bought The Sixline on Monday though I haven't noticed any pods out around the zoas and zoas are looking better and opened more.

 

[joshnola]

Just to mention my experience... I began to see a decline in my zoa populations across my entire tank. I began to pay close attention throughout the day and the only culprit i assumed was my asterina stars. Some hobbiests have hypothesized that the asterina become a Zoa destroying problem when their population size gets too large. This was definitely the case in my experience.

I tried to pick them out whenever I saw them, but they multiply too rapidly. I finally decided to get a harlequin shrimp. Sure enough the shrimp destroyed my asterina population and I now have fully recovered colonies of zoas! It's a trade off as no starfish are safe with a harlequin in the tank, but I like my zoas more than my stars!

 

[UltimateWarrior]

Interesting.

Per the OP, I had a similar problem. I freshwater dipped my zoas and that seemed to help. I also had HUGE amphipods that would come out in broad daylight. I got a sixline and within a week they were gone. I haven't seen the big guys lately. I do see their exoskeletons floating around sometimes, so they have to be in there.

Lately, some polyps have gone missing. I'm seeing new growth all around, but occasionally individual polyps vanish. I have small enough colonies to keep track of numbers, so I do. About a week ago I jumped up from 16 to 20 polyps of Radioactive Dragon Eyes. This week I'm down to about 18. I have no idea where my two rogue polyps went. The whole colony is growing on an orange sponge that holds the frag in place on the front of a rock.

 

[saltygeek]

Any update on this? Are there any fish that would hunt them at night when they're active? I just found one munching on a zoa last night. Tried to suck it up with a turkey baster, no luck.

 

[RedAnt78]

Well I got a flasher wrasse because none of my LFS's had a yellow coris. So far I haven't seen him feeding on any amphopods and I've almost lost another small colony of zoas
I was thinking about getting a coral banded shrimp, I would bet it would hunt them at night.

 

[CrazyZoa]

RedAnt,

Sorry to hear your new wrasse is not getting the job done. Like I said in my other post in this thread I had a huge pod problem just like you. I bought a simple yellow tailed blue damsel and it cleaned out my tank in only a couple of days. It started feeding on them as soon as I put it in the tank. Best of all the damel was a whole $7.00!!

Later,
Tim

 

[Scott-CapeCoral]

I read somewhere that pods will pick at an 'already dieing zoanthid'.

 

[Jared J]

My zoas weren't opening lately and the other night right before the lights went out I found a small nudibranch that was slightly purple with 'feathers' on it's back heading toward them. I sucked it out and put the zoas in a lugol dip and they have been full open lately. Hopefully I got whatever was eating them.

 

[phungcpu]

HEy guys.. i got the same prob.. i got all three.. coris, green and a 6 line and they do a great job hunting those things down and eating them.

 

[Jhutto]

Agree

 

[therman]

Same experiences, no matter what anyone tells you, they will eat healthy zoas, especially PE/Magician types. First you'll notice missing tentacles and pinched discs and before long there will be nothing left. Sixline did wonders for me, mine carries the big amphipods around in his mouth like a dog with a bone

Amazing regenerative abilities once you get rid of them though. After being reduced to a gray ball of tissue smaller than a single polyp, both my magicians and a speckled PE have recovered into 6+ polyps since the sixline addition.

Good luck, down with amphipods!
-Tim

 

[saltygeek]

I guess I'll start with a sixline. Hope he doesnt carpet surf though.

 

[suta4242]

I don't know whether the amphipods are responsible for your problems or not.

But I do know they can be a problem. According to a local coral collector:

Although not confirmed in a controlled study, we have made observations of amphipods eating zoanthus. We have lost entire seemingly healthy colonies. Once the amphipods get a taste for a type of zoo latter additions of the same zoo are also eaten, even though there may be several other types of zoo in the same system un molested. We always now keep pipefishs, sea horses or dragonets with our zoo's controlling amphipod numbers.

From:
www.oceanarium.com.au