My wife and kids are away for a bit and I have more free time now, so I thought I'd share my experience with some magician paly-munching pods in my one tank and how I beat aptasia in that same tank without losing my corals.
I got some magicians ~9 - 10 months ago (thanks Ray!), but ended up losing them to some pods that developed a taste for them. I had read mixed things about pods munching on corals, so just assumed they may have been "cleaning up" after the magicians started declining in health (which I attribute to my overzealous coverage of a larger aptasia near them with super glue gel). I've always encouraged pods in my tanks and have let them go fishless for the first 9 - 12 months after setup to help with this endeavor. Mainly to help with cleanup and keep algae growth down, plus I find them amusing.
Anyways, after several sessions with glue (which only fazed the aptasia for a day or two each time...), the magicians closed up and never opened again. Then they started slowly getting smaller (apparently melting away). I found this very odd, since they had been eating mysis readily and had grown from a couple polyps to about 12 over several weeks (a side note - I've found palys generally take mysis and will grow really well if target fed; my tanks are small so it's not much of a hassle). A few nights later, I checked on my tank in the dark and pods were all over the magicians, but not anything else. These were the larger pods, the ~1 - 2cm ones that look like little shrimp that run around on their sides. But they weren't running around, they were actively chewing on the magicians. Took about a week, but they ate them completely. They have never touched anything else in the tank before or since, including other misc zoas, palys (including a PE very close to the morphology of the magicians), rics, 'shrooms, some LPS and a couple SPS (about 50 - 60 different varieties in my 20 gallon "colorful" tank).
A couple of months ago, I saw some magicians in AquaWorld's $5 frag tank and thought, "Sweet, for this price, I *have* to try them again." I put them in that tank, they opened up and I was happy. The next day, they were closed up and looked terrible. I watched the tank that night and there again were the pods chewing/scraping away for all they're worth. Two days later, the magicians were gone. Unfortunately, I only had a 15 watt flourescent tube on my other 20 gallon saltwater tank at the time, and the magicians wouldn't have survived under that. Some corals do fine (I have pompom xenia, duncans, rics, mushrooms, regular button polyps in there), but typically not the more colorful zoas and palys - even yellow polyps didn't do too well there under that low light.
Cut to last week. I've upgraded my lights (slightly) and am getting the frags from AquaWorld that I mentioned in the last post. They still have the magician palys (albeit less polyps per $5 frag than when I first saw them, must be popular), and I decide to try one more time. Since then, I've read a couple other posts about pods getting a taste for certain corals (although not a specific type - more general like all the LPS or soft corals) and suspect that's probably what I'm dealing with. I put the frags in, check *that same night* and there are the pods *only* on the lone magician polyp (closed up and getting bitten quite furiously). I immediately yanked him and put him in my other tank and a week later - he is fine and growing out his mat.
For what it's worth, I *used* to have a lot of pods in that other tank - until I kept a six line wrasse in there (just 'cause he looked *cool*). Since then, not much of a trace of anything little - pods, stars, worms... nada. He was fun to watch hunt for the several years I had him, though. And nothing else in my "colorful" tank has ever been touched by the pods. But they definitely have a taste for magician palys. I guess the moral of the story may be that if you keep losing a specific type of coral in your tank every time it's introduced and everything else looks good (i.e. water parameters fine, it's not getting stung, skimmer/carbon/polyfilter are pulling the allelopaths out of the water, etc), pods with a taste for that type of coral may be one more thing to consider. I basically sidestepped the problem which may not be an option for those with just one tank, but I honestly like the pods, stars, worms, etc... when they're well behaved.
As for the aptasia in my "colorful" tank, I took care of them with 3 peppermint shrimp from Wet Pets. I tried about 8 months ago with just 1, but he got eaten by one of the larger aptasia after a single day in the tank. After much trial and error (and consideration), I finally made a plan and started by taking the rock out of my tank that had the largest aptasia (~2" tall), using a hammer and screwdriver to break it up (to salvage the parts that were coral encrusted) and used a pair of cutters in the tank to cut off the pieces off of another rock that had a couple larger aptasia on it. At this point, I just had smaller aptasia (none big enough to eat shrimp), so I moved onto the next step.
I spoke with Brian at Wet Pets and told him about my experience with the one shrimp, and he said peppermint shrimp typically hunt in groups (at night) and recommended I get at least 3. First time I'd heard about the groups part, so figured I'd share that info. He also said that he uses the same peppermints in the store tanks when the aptasia start becoming a problem - basically puts them in during the evening and the next day the tanks are usually clean, then back in their regular sales tank they go. In other words, the peppermint shrimp are experienced aptasia hunters.
I've read a lot of mixed experiences with these guys tearing apart LPS corals (even ones confirmed not to be camelback shrimp), but based on what Brian told me I decided to give them a try and two days later my tank was completely clear, 2 or 3 weeks later it remains that way, and they haven't touched any LPS in my tanks - except when I give mysis to my corals, but usually keeping a large chopstick above the tank and chasing them a little keeps them at bay long enough for the corals to ingest the mysis; honestly they're easier to keep at bay than the cleaner shrimp in my other tank. Confirming what I read in one of the posts, the peppermints do go after my rics if they're hungry (since they're basically a type of anenome like aptasia) but I found that feeding them every day (i.e. a few sinking shrimp pellets - the tiny kind) stops this.
Before this, I tried gluing over the aptasia, injecting them with vinegar, and injecting them with boiling water, none of which kept them away permanently. My tank wasn't completely overun (after removing the several larger ones, I had 6 or 7 smaller ones and probably many more babies...), but I've read enough to be aware of what leaving them be results in and I wanted to start feeding my corals again (which I stopped about 6 months ago when the aptasia started growing along with the corals). Anyways, hope that helps someone find good peppermint shrimp that get the job done without too much collateral damage. I know I was pleased.
John
I got some magicians ~9 - 10 months ago (thanks Ray!), but ended up losing them to some pods that developed a taste for them. I had read mixed things about pods munching on corals, so just assumed they may have been "cleaning up" after the magicians started declining in health (which I attribute to my overzealous coverage of a larger aptasia near them with super glue gel). I've always encouraged pods in my tanks and have let them go fishless for the first 9 - 12 months after setup to help with this endeavor. Mainly to help with cleanup and keep algae growth down, plus I find them amusing.
Anyways, after several sessions with glue (which only fazed the aptasia for a day or two each time...), the magicians closed up and never opened again. Then they started slowly getting smaller (apparently melting away). I found this very odd, since they had been eating mysis readily and had grown from a couple polyps to about 12 over several weeks (a side note - I've found palys generally take mysis and will grow really well if target fed; my tanks are small so it's not much of a hassle). A few nights later, I checked on my tank in the dark and pods were all over the magicians, but not anything else. These were the larger pods, the ~1 - 2cm ones that look like little shrimp that run around on their sides. But they weren't running around, they were actively chewing on the magicians. Took about a week, but they ate them completely. They have never touched anything else in the tank before or since, including other misc zoas, palys (including a PE very close to the morphology of the magicians), rics, 'shrooms, some LPS and a couple SPS (about 50 - 60 different varieties in my 20 gallon "colorful" tank).
A couple of months ago, I saw some magicians in AquaWorld's $5 frag tank and thought, "Sweet, for this price, I *have* to try them again." I put them in that tank, they opened up and I was happy. The next day, they were closed up and looked terrible. I watched the tank that night and there again were the pods chewing/scraping away for all they're worth. Two days later, the magicians were gone. Unfortunately, I only had a 15 watt flourescent tube on my other 20 gallon saltwater tank at the time, and the magicians wouldn't have survived under that. Some corals do fine (I have pompom xenia, duncans, rics, mushrooms, regular button polyps in there), but typically not the more colorful zoas and palys - even yellow polyps didn't do too well there under that low light.
Cut to last week. I've upgraded my lights (slightly) and am getting the frags from AquaWorld that I mentioned in the last post. They still have the magician palys (albeit less polyps per $5 frag than when I first saw them, must be popular), and I decide to try one more time. Since then, I've read a couple other posts about pods getting a taste for certain corals (although not a specific type - more general like all the LPS or soft corals) and suspect that's probably what I'm dealing with. I put the frags in, check *that same night* and there are the pods *only* on the lone magician polyp (closed up and getting bitten quite furiously). I immediately yanked him and put him in my other tank and a week later - he is fine and growing out his mat.
For what it's worth, I *used* to have a lot of pods in that other tank - until I kept a six line wrasse in there (just 'cause he looked *cool*). Since then, not much of a trace of anything little - pods, stars, worms... nada. He was fun to watch hunt for the several years I had him, though. And nothing else in my "colorful" tank has ever been touched by the pods. But they definitely have a taste for magician palys. I guess the moral of the story may be that if you keep losing a specific type of coral in your tank every time it's introduced and everything else looks good (i.e. water parameters fine, it's not getting stung, skimmer/carbon/polyfilter are pulling the allelopaths out of the water, etc), pods with a taste for that type of coral may be one more thing to consider. I basically sidestepped the problem which may not be an option for those with just one tank, but I honestly like the pods, stars, worms, etc... when they're well behaved.
As for the aptasia in my "colorful" tank, I took care of them with 3 peppermint shrimp from Wet Pets. I tried about 8 months ago with just 1, but he got eaten by one of the larger aptasia after a single day in the tank. After much trial and error (and consideration), I finally made a plan and started by taking the rock out of my tank that had the largest aptasia (~2" tall), using a hammer and screwdriver to break it up (to salvage the parts that were coral encrusted) and used a pair of cutters in the tank to cut off the pieces off of another rock that had a couple larger aptasia on it. At this point, I just had smaller aptasia (none big enough to eat shrimp), so I moved onto the next step.
I spoke with Brian at Wet Pets and told him about my experience with the one shrimp, and he said peppermint shrimp typically hunt in groups (at night) and recommended I get at least 3. First time I'd heard about the groups part, so figured I'd share that info. He also said that he uses the same peppermints in the store tanks when the aptasia start becoming a problem - basically puts them in during the evening and the next day the tanks are usually clean, then back in their regular sales tank they go. In other words, the peppermint shrimp are experienced aptasia hunters.
I've read a lot of mixed experiences with these guys tearing apart LPS corals (even ones confirmed not to be camelback shrimp), but based on what Brian told me I decided to give them a try and two days later my tank was completely clear, 2 or 3 weeks later it remains that way, and they haven't touched any LPS in my tanks - except when I give mysis to my corals, but usually keeping a large chopstick above the tank and chasing them a little keeps them at bay long enough for the corals to ingest the mysis; honestly they're easier to keep at bay than the cleaner shrimp in my other tank. Confirming what I read in one of the posts, the peppermints do go after my rics if they're hungry (since they're basically a type of anenome like aptasia) but I found that feeding them every day (i.e. a few sinking shrimp pellets - the tiny kind) stops this.
Before this, I tried gluing over the aptasia, injecting them with vinegar, and injecting them with boiling water, none of which kept them away permanently. My tank wasn't completely overun (after removing the several larger ones, I had 6 or 7 smaller ones and probably many more babies...), but I've read enough to be aware of what leaving them be results in and I wanted to start feeding my corals again (which I stopped about 6 months ago when the aptasia started growing along with the corals). Anyways, hope that helps someone find good peppermint shrimp that get the job done without too much collateral damage. I know I was pleased.
John
