Coral Eating Amphipods - Images/movies

[podBoy]

Finally got some pics of one these guys. I also managed to capture a short movie which I've converted into a gif.

 

 

 

Retreating back into the cocoon -

[podBoy]

 

This coral is fairing quite well, it's not showing nearly the damage that these guys can wreak on other corals.

[Calvinorc]

Ok, my zoas have been getting attacked big time the last several days. 4 days ago I noticed they were all closed (5 heads on a frag disk), and when I looked closer there was a little Asterina star on them. So... The Purge began. I'd just bought this biocube 29 from a guy that had it running for two years, last several months he had nothing in it but a turbo, 2 live rocks (one covered in palys) and a Zoa frag. And a TON of brittle stars, asterinas, bristle worms, pods, etc. I've pulled at least 40 of the little buggers out in the last 2 days. I thought that should fix that little problem!!

 

However, 2 nights ago when I was looking at things under the moonlights, I saw a little amphipod on my zoa frag! Then he disappeared! Then last night, I sat watching 2 decent sized ones tag teaming the poor zoas with a few little ones. I'm planning on starting to add corals to the tank in a few weeks, and don't want this to be a recurring problem.

 

Update as I was typing this on my iphone, I looked at the zoa, and it had -TWO- asterinas on it!!!!

 

Called the LFS and talked to the owner. He suggested dosing the tank with Flatworm RX, just in case it's something like a zoa eating nudi, not an amphipod. Anyone ever seen this work??