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Cultivated Reef

What Do You Think?


MrObscura

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About zoa eating amphipods? Do they exist? I recently bought a number of zoa frags that have been sitting on a frag rack open and happy for two weeks. Then on Friday I mounted them with all my other zoas. 2 of the 3 new ones opened immediately and look good, but my white zombies didn't open. I figured they were just being finicky and I'd give them time.

I did noticed a bunch of amphipods close in on them immediately , small and big ones, but figured they were just cleaning up as ive seen them on other zoas without issue. But it's been a few days and the zombies haven't opened at all and I noticed the pods were setting up shop right in the middle of the polyps. And there appears to be bite marks/damage.
20190409_000143.jpg
My only guess is they went after these because they are quite small. I've searched and there doesn't seem to be any concensus regarding zoa eating pods. Some people are positive they eat coral, others that they don't. But that looks like damage to me? I've since moved them back to a rack, think theyll recover?

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6 hours ago, MrObscura said:

About zoa eating amphipods? Do they exist? I recently bought a number of zoa frags that have been sitting on a frag rack open and happy for two weeks. Then on Friday I mounted them with all my other zoas. 2 of the 3 new ones opened immediately and look good, but my white zombies didn't open. I figured they were just being finicky and I'd give them time.

I did noticed a bunch of amphipods close in on them immediately , small and big ones, but figured they were just cleaning up as ive seen them on other zoas without issue. But it's been a few days and the zombies haven't opened at all and I noticed the pods were setting up shop right in the middle of the polyps. And there appears to be bite marks/damage.
20190409_000143.jpg
My only guess is they went after these because they are quite small. I've searched and there doesn't seem to be any concensus regarding zoa eating pods. Some people are positive they eat coral, others that they don't. But that looks like damage to me? I've since moved them back to a rack, think theyll recover?

 

That’s a loaded question! 😄

 

i believe that they can eat corals but most would debate the reason why. In my experience I have only seen them bother corals that otherwise weren’t doing very well for whatever the reason. 

 

 

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That's what a lot of people say, but these white zombies opened immediately after being introduced to the tank and were looking beautiful for the past 2 weeks on the rack. 

 

Then after being mounted they were swarmed by pods and haven't opened since. 

 

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1 minute ago, MrObscura said:

That's what a lot of people say, but these white zombies opened immediately after bring introduced to the tank and were looking beautiful for 2 weeks on the rack. 

 

 

But why didn’t they come eat them on the rack? My amphipods crawl everywhere. 

 

(Im not questioning your experience mind you, just asking the question.)

 

Maybe try putting them them back on the rack and see if they recover.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Yea, I never see pods on the rack, or glass, etc. only on my rock and the bottom of the tank. 

 

I did put them back on the rack. Im annoyed that I waited to until I saw damage, wanting to believe the pods werent eating them. Hopefully they recover. I really liked them

 

20190325_212142.jpg

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I know it's crazy, but they were open and happy up until the second i mounted them. And within minutes pods were on them. 

 

My only guess is that these zoas are much smaller than the rest. And perhaps their flesh wasn't as tough. 

 

They looked like they do in the pic above for 2 weeks on the rack right until I mounted them. 

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4 minutes ago, MrObscura said:

I know it's crazy, but they were open and happy up until the second i mounted them. And within minutes pods were on them. 

 

My only guess is that these zoas are much smaller than the rest. And perhaps their flesh wasn't as tough. 

 

They looked like they do in the pic above for 2 weeks on the rack right until I mounted them. 

 

See what I mean? 🤷🏻‍♀️ Its the chicken and the egg. 

 

Did the pods eat the zoas because the zoas were sick or were the zoas sick because the pods were eating them?

 

 

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Well, in this case im 99.9% sure nothing was wrong with the zoas. Open everyday, all day for weeks looking great, and swarmed by pods immediately. 

 

The pods do crawl all over my other zoas, and were all over the other new ones right away as well, but they dont seem bothered, and the pods dont seem to set up shop munching on them. 

 

I did notice the pods liked the section of the zombies right in the middle where they close up. Maybe these aren't capable of closing as tight, allowing the pods to get to the softer inner flesh? 

 

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, MrObscura said:

Well, in this case im 99.9% sure nothing was wrong with the zoas. Open everyday, all day for weeks looking great, and swarmed by pods immediately. 

 

The pods do crawl all over my other zoas. And were all over the other new ones right away as well, but they dont seem bothered, and the pods dont seem to set up shop munching on them. 

 

I did notice the pods liked the section of the zombies right in the middle where they close up. Maybe these aren't capable of closing as tight, allowing the pods to get to the softer inner flesh? 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll never know, which is why we all keep up the debate. I’ve been there. 😊

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 I would argue that with visual observation you can't be anywhere close to 100% sure they were OK. Zoanthids are one of the most finicky corals out there.    maybe the most finicky.

 

Amphipods are detritivores which means they do not eat living things, they dead things. The only thing that changes that equation is starvation.

 

Most organisms will branch out when they are starving in order to not die.

 

What is driving the population of amphipods to be so large in your tank? Do you know?   seems they must have had a large food source to grow in numbers as they have. If you aren't supplying their food source, then it probably ran out and they are starving.

 

 I think I agree with the opinion of moving them back to the frag rack to let them continue growing, recovering from whatever stress is ailing them. 

 

Are you testing nitrates and phosphates? What are your levels? How about alkalinity and calcium?

Edited by mcarroll
holy cow dictation is bad
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Well, I did say 99. 9%. As mentioned weeks of looking happy and healthy and no signs of stress until the pods.

 

I do think there's something to the starving angle. I dirtied up the tank to combat dinos about a month ago which caused the population to explode and have since cut back on feedings to keep nutrients in check. Currently they're at 30ppm or so no3, and po4 is somewhere above 0 and below 0.1(salifert kit's a Pita to read). Alk 8.7, cal 450 or so(again color reading is a Pita lol), and mag is as usual reading high on the read sea kit(1550 or so) which means it isn't low. 

 

I think being small these zoas were simply easy targets for hungry pods. Unfortunately, I think I may have waited to long to get them back up on the rack and I'm not sure they'll recover. 

 

 

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I have a good population of amphipods ranging in size from pinhead to over 3/8 inch, Saw several crawling over my rastas which immediately closed and I thought I was going to have a real problem. Strangely enough, in the last few months my zoas have never looked better or multiplied faster. The rastas have gone from 4 to 12, some greenish ones on a branch have gone from 7 to 15, and these little green ones have not only covered the flat disc they were on but are actually spreading onto the sand around it.

Go figure.

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Yea, I've see them on other zoas, but they never set up shop right in the middle of them clearly munching away like they immediately did with the white zimbies. 

 

 

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