zoanthid problems...

[fishnfst]

I will post this in the zoanthid forum as well...

Check out the pics Charles.. Are these the same things you had?

Hello all, I've been having some issues with some of my zoa colonies.. I originally thought it might be nudis but I fresh water dipped and didn't come up with anything.. Some of my zoas have stopped opening up and many were disappearing.. I've lost 4 colonies almost completely.. Maybe 2-3 polyps are still surviving out of an original 50-100.. This is starting to kill me.. I read somethign somewhere about pods that eat soft corals.. I look in my tank this morning about 2am and bam I see these things crawling around on the zoas.. I watched them for about twenty minutes and it looks ilke they were pulling pieces of the zoas off..

Is there any fish or invertebrate that will prey on them.. THey are quite large.. Maybe .25 to .4 of an inch.. I have a foxface and a bunch of juvie perculas but they dont' seem to touch them.. Something nocturnal will be a plus.. I very rarely see them during the day. Only at night.. Someone had mentioned a scooter blenny might work but others said that they aren't nocturnal.. I also got a suggestion of a pipefish.. Any and all info would be much appreciated..



Original colony

Something fish going on

The offending pods!! I can see 4 I'm not sure if there are more..

 

[wakskat]

A sixline wrasse should help.

 

[fishnfst]

I've been getting different responses regarding the pods.. The general consensus seems to be that the zoas are being attacked by something else ie. fungus or bacteria so are alredy dying then the pods are eating the decaying matter.. I'm not sure what it is.. I might still try something to eat them to see if it helps...

 

[-=Zepplock=-]

I had these pods before my SIX LINE WRASSE ;-)
They are harmless to pods, I have them in other tank.

I also had a similar problem with my zoas: closed most of the time, looking like pos, etc. It was happening to 1-2 types out of 10 I have.

I split the colony into multiple pieces, remonted in different light/flow and now it's ok.

 

[650-IS350]

My Mandarin and 6line cleared out most of the larger ampipods..
I only see a couple of large pods once in a while but they don't swarm the colonies like bees anymore....

They colonies that were attacked were all newer colonies put in to the tank and were decimated ( several ) within 2-3 weeks. The colonies that were decimated were all HEALTHY colonies which did not show any predators nor fungal or any other stuff..

What kind of light are you using again? The zoos look like they're reaching out for more light ( stretching out ).. might want to put them higher... from what I've read, if they reachout like that it seems they want more light