Zoanthid-Eating Amphipods

[dRsLy09]

My zoanthids have not been looking so hot recently, and last night I decided to look in the tank at ~2am with a flashlight... I was horrified to find tons of what appeared to be copepods, but much longer/bigger and almost spider-like, clearly munching away at my zoas! They looked exactly like these pictures I found, and apparently they are some sort of amphipod.

What should I do??! I might try to do a freshwater dip tonight, but I don't know if this will be anything more than a very short term fix. I saw tons of those buggers all over the tank and in the rocks.. also I have several large pieces of live rock with zoas on them, so it would be hard to remove a lot of these..

Any advice/input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[twizzlerman77]

You could get a Yellow Coris, Sixline, Melanurus, Mystery or Possum wrasse. If you buy the yellow coris you also have the benefit of it eating flatworms if you ever happen to get any. I also think you could get a Twin Spot Hogfish, but not 100% on that one.

 

[pepino]

have you try a fish that can eats them ? just to get the population down

 

[pepino]

aha twizler bit me while i was typing ..

 

[dRsLy09]

You could get a Yellow Coris, Sixline, Melanurus, Mystery or Possum wrasse. If you buy the yellow coris you also have the benefit of it eating flatworms if you ever happen to get any. I also think you could get a Twin Spot Hogfish, but not 100% on that one.

I already have a fairly large Christmas wrasse in the tank, not sure I could have another wrasse in a 75g.. Other fish include a pair of ocellaris clowns, a lawnmower blenny, and a bicolor angel.

 

[twizzlerman77]

Oh, and for what its worth. I had this same problem and lost about 30 or more types of high end zoas. I only had 2 kinds of palys but the pods wouldn't touch them for some reason. It wasn't until i stayed up late at night with a flashlight like you did and busted them. I went out and bought a sixline, but it was too late. The zoas were all too damaged, and a lot of the skirts were ate off and they melted. The wrasse has since got the population under control, and I am able to keep zoas again without worry.

 

[twizzlerman77]

Coris wrasse stay fairly small. Around 4-5 inches if i am correct.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1379+386&pcatid=386

 

[flyyyguy]

Interceptor will knock the amphipod population down in a hurry and I have dosed a polyp tank with it in the past for the exact same reason

 

[mallorieGgator]

I have those same things in my tank. I have a ton of them. I don't have a problem with my zoas that they're in. But they do aggrevated my corals because they're so big that they just kindof trample the polyps and they close. They are multiplying fast and eat my copepods. I have a ton of them in my refugium. Not sure how to get rid of them either. My blenny won't eat them.

 

[650-IS350]

Interceptor will knock the amphipod population down in a hurry and I have dosed a polyp tank with it in the past for the exact same reason Co-sign Bill.

BTW_ I had 4 wrasses in a 37gal cube tank... wiped out 99.9% of all ampipods

 

[ukguy]

would a Mandarin eat these as well?

How big are these things, and how can you distinguish them from just big Copods?

 

[650-IS350]

No not really unless they're small enough, Mandarins usually go for PODS only not AMPIPODS which are a LOT bigger.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rs/index.php

 

[Jarred1]

i had this problem the way i fixed the problem in my 10g tank was kept the frags on a frag rack in the tank and not feed the tank for about a month and let my clown fish eat the pods up!!! have no more problems with them now!

 

[650-IS350]

Co-sign with Jarred on the frag racks, I keep polyps there that are being attacked by Ampipods to get them back to health.

 

[ukguy]

I already have a flasher wrasse in the tank, and he's ignoring the ampipods, whats a better addition in my 120g, a Coris, or a 6 line wrasse?

I don't want to dose any chemicals, as I don't want to kill the other pods.

 

[650-IS350]

Yellow Coris, not as aggressive nor will not pick fights with other fish like the 6line would.

 

[kichimark]

yeah my 6 line is a real punk sometimes. I have noticed my flamehawk goes after the amphipods whenever he/she seems them.

 

[dRsLy09]

Coris wrasse stay fairly small. Around 4-5 inches if i am correct.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1379+386&pcatid=386

Do you think a coris wrasse would get along with my Xmas wrasse??

 

[dRsLy09]

Interceptor will knock the amphipod population down in a hurry and I have dosed a polyp tank with it in the past for the exact same reason

Any additional info about the interceptor? Like how to dose it, etc.

Thanks!

 

[flyyyguy]

Any additional info about the interceptor? Like how to dose it, etc.

Thanks!

you can find tons of info on it in the sps forum as it is used for red bugs...a microscopic amphipod which harasses sps.........its one of the few treatmenst reefers have found safe to dose a loaded display with.

short story is 1 23 mg pill per 200 gallons, to be safe you can run carbon and do water xchanges afterwards, although the last couple times I have used it I dont even do that...just turn the skimmer back on after 10 hours or so.

you can get it from your vet(beef flavored dog dewormer....yum) and a pill will cost $6-12

For just knocking down an amphipod population you could probably get away with half hat which is the original dose used when people were still afraid of it. The only concerns when using it is that if you keep crabs or shrimp, you will want to get them out as it can be hard on them. Hard= potentially fatal