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Amphipods eat zoos?

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Topic: Amphipods eat zoos?
Posted By: Josh95
Subject: Amphipods eat zoos?
Date Posted: April 29 2011 at 11:06pm
Okay, I recently got a frag of zoos from rusty. I placed them in my pico, after a week the most I have seen are 2 of the 3 heads only partially open.
The head that had never opened had always had an amphipod on it.
After a couple days of watching it and trying to get it to open i noticed it was getting eaten by this amphipod. What should I do?



Replies:
Posted By: lilnicky864
Date Posted: April 30 2011 at 12:00am
this is what i did when i had some little amphipod critter that come as a freebie on some zoos i got via mailorder. I just got a pair of my wifes sharp point tweezers put frag in a cup of water and waited till polyp opened to where i could see the critter and grabed it with the tweezers. 


Posted By: wickedsnowman
Date Posted: April 30 2011 at 2:04am
What did this bug look like? If it was in fact eating the zoo I can almost guarantee it wasn't a pod.


Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: April 30 2011 at 8:06am
I also think we should know whether this is really an Amphipod that we are talking about.

The head is on the right. They stretch out and crawl all over anything but that does not mean they are eating it. Amphipods will eat dieing flesh but the living part of coral are usually safe. Amphipods are an amazing part of the Clean-up-Crew.Big smile

So lets talk about this coral that's not opening up...
Have you noticed any other coral having trouble?
What size of tank?
Temperature?
Salinity?
Alk?
Ca?



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Posted By: Josh95
Date Posted: April 30 2011 at 12:06pm
Okay, yes it is an amphipod, 110% sure.
Won't leave the 1 polyp and always had head down inside what was a polyp.
3g jbj picotope
78* F
salinity is 1.024-1.026
alk is 10.
ca is unreadibly high.


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: April 30 2011 at 4:03pm
Originally posted by Josh95 Josh95 wrote:



Okay, yes it is an amphipod, 110% sure.
Won't leave the 1 polyp and always had head down inside what was a polyp.
3g jbj picotope
78* F
salinity is 1.024-1.026
alk is 10.
ca is unreadibly high.


The only time I ever had this issue was with a 3g pico as well. I used to have amphipods eat my zoas all the time. I think it was because I had no fish in it (so no natural selection going on) and because no fish I had no detritus from feeding or fish poop for the amphipods to eat, so naturally they turned to coral. I put a clown goby in and it seemed to solve the issue as the population went down drastically. There were so many at one time that I could put my hand in the tank and come away with 15+ on my hand when I pulled it out.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: Josh95
Date Posted: April 30 2011 at 10:06pm
Same, checked tonight, 1 head gone, and eating the 2nd head.
I wouldn't be so mad if it wasn't my utter chaos zoos I just got. Eat the mohawk paly that won't grow. Next plan in amphipod assaination.


Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: May 01 2011 at 7:35am
The tank is starving. Just sprinkle in a tiny bit of flake food rubbed between two fingers. That will take their attention away from the coral. A tiny bit of frozen will also be a good dinner a couple times/week.

Do you have another tankQuestion You could transfer the coral over for a while to see if it does better.

Why is the Ca so high that it's unreadableQuestion Have you been adding supplemental chemicals? We can help with that if we know a little more.

You said there is also a  Palythoa that is not growing. Any other coralQuestion I have a hunch that this tank might not be in the best of health. I believe it's likely that the Amphipods began by cleaning up the dieing flesh of this recently added zooanthid and just never stopped munching.

Is there any Macroalgae in this tankQuestion Algae is a good food for many bugs including Amphipods. Caulerpa has a growth tip and a dieing end. Both can be good food for hungry Amphipods.

Speaking of hungry Amphipods, have you noticed their behavior? One large Amphipod will usually be the Alpha and chase away or catch and eat the lesser Amphipods.

How many snailsQuestion Too many snails will compete for algae sprouts which the Amphipods could be eating. Just throwing out some possible causes here. Smile
 
When the tank was set up there was dieing organic matter. That and the resulting algae was enough for the bugs to eat and multiply. Since there are no fish, I assume you have not fed the tank for a while. The population ate up all it's regular food and has turned on the coral. Fish are the same way, especially Butterflyfish that we put in a tank to eat Aiptasia anemones. If they aren't fed a supplemental food that satisfies them, they eventually turn to coral. It's inevitable.

A good fish for a 3 gal tank is a Damsel. I like the Alans Damsel. It's very peaceful and lives okay on it's own. The Damsel will eat the smaller bugs and it's poop feeds the remaining population.

When I need to remove an annoying large Amphipod, like in my clownfish larvae tank, I use the spot feeding tool that I made from a large syringe, a length of airline tubing and a plastic straw. I simply suck up the Amphipod and squirt it into another tank. Smile
After selling it all and moving to St. George, to marry my love, this was our first tank.



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Posted By: Josh95
Date Posted: May 01 2011 at 11:14am
I moved the coral to the large tank.
The amphipod was caught munching again. definately the alpha, 2x as large as the others.
I have not fed the tank in 5-6 weeks.
2 hermits, 3 cerith snails, and 1 margarita snail.


Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: May 01 2011 at 4:30pm
That's good. Smile
Feed the tank a little.
One last Last thing I would suggest is to remove the Hermits. They can end up being trouble in several ways, especially in a 3 gal tank.


-------------
Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:
www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244
Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member


Posted By: Josh95
Date Posted: May 01 2011 at 9:00pm
I gotta ask why mark. 4 snails and 2 hermits seems like a good CUC in there.


Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: May 01 2011 at 9:02pm
Since you haven't fed the tank in a long time and have already had the amphipods turn on you it's only a matter of time before the hermits turn on you as well. They are scavengers and opportunistic and will eat coral if starving. I'd take them out.

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None at the moment
Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront


Posted By: ninja_brandon
Date Posted: May 02 2011 at 12:16pm
Funny, my friend was having the same issue and I called his bluff thinking he was mistaken.  I now know why they were eating his zoas thanks to this thread.  :D


Posted By: Josh95
Date Posted: May 02 2011 at 2:12pm
Glad my issue helped someone else.



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