Need help getting rid of predatory amphipods. Is there a trap I can make?

N

Neddy191

New member
I have a small 29 gal reef thats been up for several months. When I started adding corals the first things I added were zoas. They kept dying even though water params were good. I kept watching, including at night, and saw hundreds of tiny amphipods crawling on the zoas. I moved all the remaining ones to frag racks and they've done well since. I got a sixline wrasse and since getting it I haven't sen many of the tiny ones, I have seen several BIG ones still jetting around occasionally. Over the past few weeks I've tried putting some of my blasto and zoa frags onto the sandbed down from the frag rack they've all been for months now. It only takes a day or so until they don't open fully and if I leave them down for more than 2 days I start to see skeleton exposed around the edges. When I move them back to the frag racks they look happy again a few days later.

I suspect the large amphipods that my wrasse hasn't gotten/can't eat are the culprits though I haven't caught them in the act.

Any suggestions on getting rid of them? I can dip 2 or 3 pieces of my live rock but not the rest so that won't really work well.

Is there any sort of trap I can make? Any other suggestions?
 
get a mandarin?..

Actually the same thing is happening to me. I had a colony of zoas and i found some nudis in there but it seems the amphipods are also irritating the coral somehow. The last thing what would go are zoas if your water parameters are not good.
 
My 6 line never touched my amphipod infestation. I bought a Melanarus wrasse, and he is a great hunter and is keeping the populations in check. Now I barely see any but I'm sure they are still there.
 
How high up are the frag racks?
I don't doubt the predatory amphipod thing, I know some have had a lot of trouble with them, but did you think maybe the corals just aren't doing well on the bottom and prefer more light and/or flow higher up on the racks? Amphipods will clean up dying/sick corals. Just a thought.
 
SushiGirl said:
How high up are the frag racks?
I don't doubt the predatory amphipod thing, I know some have had a lot of trouble with them, but did you think maybe the corals just aren't doing well on the bottom and prefer more light and/or flow higher up on the racks? Amphipods will clean up dying/sick corals. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

I mounted one frag to the rocks at about the same level I have my frag racks. Its starting to show the same tissue regression and exposed skeleton like the frags that I leave on the ground, its just happened slower. I might try moving one of the frag racks closer to the ground near where I had them on the sand and see what happens for a few days. I really don't think its a light/flow issue though.
 
I am having the same problem with some zoas. I have split what's left of a 30 polyp frag. 4 on one and about 8 on the other. I keep dipping in DI to kill off the larger ones. Some are 1/2 inch, and though I haven't tried to figure out what species they are, they are what is eating the polyps. People keep saying they don't eat polyps and these do. They look like large amphipods, the ones we normally see, but they might actually be some species of isopod. I have what is left in a barren tank with one piece of live rock and a fat mandarin. I will keep dipping until they are recovering. I have the equipment to shoot underwater high def with night vision, but I don't know how well the macro will work. If I get a sacrificial frag, I would like to show the feast time lapsed. No better proof than video. I just don't have the time to try right now, or the polyps.

Neddy, you are not crazy! We just need to classify them, and trap or find a predator/s for them. Not sure the mandarin can handle them, she is small.
 
I too bought a piece of green radioactive zoa's that closed nearly a month later and has rarely opened as of the last few months. Few nights ago I dipped in freshwater for about 30 seconds and all kinds of things fell off of the zoas. There were about 15 pods of different sorts and 2 nudi branches that were all laying at the bottow of the bowl after the quick dip.

now the zoas are slowly opening. More and more each day.

If you are going to fresh dip make sure all zoas are closed completely, and I did this because I figured it couldn't hurt since it was not openeing as it was. Plus I read about freshwater dips.
 
A friend is experiencing the same in his tank. You can see these large pods all day long on the glass taunting us.
 
all zoas should be dipped prior to entering ones tank. i had something similar happened when first started in the hobby. i took the zoas zoas and dipped it in freshwater. a big ugly zoas eating slug came out.
 
I think the interceptor idea is intriguing. I have dogs and use interceptor for their heartworm prevention so I have plenty of it around.

Does anyone have any experience using it for amphipods? I'm tired of having all my blasto and zoa frags up on frag racks stuck to the side of my tank.
 
I had this problem a few times, I put the damaged frags on a frag rack close to the top of the tank. I also began feeding the tank more often to get the amphipods to eat the left over food instead of my corals. Once they stop eating your corals introduce a predatory fish into the tank and don't feed the fish for a week or so (A week of no feedings should be fine, I went almost two weeks of no feedings with no ill effects). The fish will find the pods and eat them!
 
Neddy191 said:
I have a small 29 gal reef thats been up for several months. When I started adding corals the first things I added were zoas. They kept dying even though water params were good. I kept watching, including at night, and saw hundreds of tiny amphipods crawling on the zoas. I moved all the remaining ones to frag racks and they've done well since. I got a sixline wrasse and since getting it I haven't sen many of the tiny ones, I have seen several BIG ones still jetting around occasionally. Over the past few weeks I've tried putting some of my blasto and zoa frags onto the sandbed down from the frag rack they've all been for months now. It only takes a day or so until they don't open fully and if I leave them down for more than 2 days I start to see skeleton exposed around the edges. When I move them back to the frag racks they look happy again a few days later.

I suspect the large amphipods that my wrasse hasn't gotten/can't eat are the culprits though I haven't caught them in the act.

Any suggestions on getting rid of them? I can dip 2 or 3 pieces of my live rock but not the rest so that won't really work well.

Is there any sort of trap I can make? Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

I have been using a bristle worm trap to catch this suckers. I have been placing the trap every night for about 2 weeks now and every morning I'm getting rid of 7 to 10 amphipods.
 
I've got these buggers too, and they're ****ing me off!

Currently, they're killing off a nice Blasto that's been doing great in the tank. After lights out, the frag is literally crawling with the little bastards, and the blasto is smaller every morning. It's all but gone now.

My tank is full of these guys, some definitely 1/4" or larger. I don't know what to do!
 
Hi All,
Here is a photo of amphipod eating one of my zoa's. I did get a 6-line and he did take care of the problem.
The photo is not the best, but amphipod do eat zoa's.
Barry
 

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    Zoa eaten.jpg
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I had a bunch of amphipods that were doing the noble work of clean up crew until I added a frag of mixed red and green zoas.
The pods devoured the green zoas in broad daylight and left the reds untouched.
I eventually got a small yellow candy hogfish who has done nothing but hunt pods and has now reduced them to invisible numbers.
Too late for my green zoas, but now I'm not scared that any new frag might become pod food anymore.
 
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