Pod eating zoas?!?!?!

[fishnfst]

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

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c306/fishnfst/DSC03028.jpg

Something fish going on

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c306/fishnfst/evilpods001.jpg

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

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c306/fishnfst/evilpods99.jpg

[dc_909]

I doubt those are the issue, but a sixline will help keep the popultaion in check if that is what you are worried about. Chances are they are eating the decaying pieces of the zoas.

[fishnfst]

could it be those little white spots in the pic? Some sort of bacteria outbreak or fungus?

[fishnfst]

Ok just went downstairs to look at my zoas again.. 5 of my other large frags that have been looking really good are covered with the pods... They were fully open last night before the lights went out.. The frags are about 30-50 polyps are covered.. Probably about 25 pods on each frag.. I'm getting the swarm of bees impression with the pods...


Gonna go shop for a wrasse today to see if it helps.. Even if just to control the sheer volume of pods in the tank.. I guess they aren't subject to predation in my tank..

Maybe I'm not feeding enough for them so they are going after anything soft and tasty...

Are they primarily detrivores or just scavengers that will eat whatever is in the tank?

I tried to get a pic of them but the first shot came out blurry and the flash made them all scatter...

[tkeracer619]

Good idea on the wrasse. Pretty much any wrasse will tear them up. I recomend fairy wrasses due to their pretty colors and flashy fins.

WARNING: Wrasses jump. Often. Cover the tank or you will loose it.

[jessp]

get a yellow coris, they keep my pods in check and don't jump like fairy's

[cutnup]

i have those pods in my tank too they kinda look like underwater cockroaches

[fishnfst]

Got back from my Lfs just now and everyone was out.. I went to 3 different places and the only wrasses I saw were a fairy. a biclolor and a maori.. Gonna go check out a couple of more places tomorrow after work.. Hopefully I'll be able to find one before these things do any more damage...

[rabid frog]

I got a 8 line wrasse for the exact same reason. I lost a whole frag, about 15 polyps of green people eaters. the 8 line in keeping them in check, along with the bristle worms.,

[Lpabsolute]

Good Luck, I know my 6-line would have a feild day in your tank !!!

[MinibowMatt]

9 out of 10 pods are not eating your zoas. There have been reports of the larger harpacticoid(sp?) pods (tigger pods) eating some though.
more often it is a water quality isue or a previous infection set off by water params.
How is your temp? higher temps will let infections grow and spread faster. Read up on zoa pox as well.

[john76]

Those in the pics are gammarus(sp) shrimp. They are beneficial to the tank since they eat decaying matter. I doubt they are harming your zoos.

[fishnfst]

Dang I'm not sure then... My tank temp is right around 77-78... When I looked into the tank early in the morning when its still dark there were 40-50 of them swarming on some of my larger colonies.. Looked like bees all over it.. They were all looking good and open the day before then the day after I see all of the pods or shrimp or whatever they are , are closed up and don't open... If its not them I'm not sure whta it is.. I fw dipped a couple of colonies after they wouldn't open worrying about nudis but didn't have a single one out of the 4 colonies I dipped... Yesterday I saw them swarming all over another colony and this morning they are no longer opening..

[Ti]

man those look evil!

[Questin]

How about a mandarin goby for the pods, beautiful fish that need pods to live.

[fishnfst]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9519493#post9519493 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ti
man those look evil!

Hahahaha.. Thats what I thought.... Reviews seem to be mixed so far...

As far as a mandarin I'd be concerned about his food source once the pods were depleted...

[Peter Eichler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9513993#post9513993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by john76
Those in the pics are gammarus(sp) shrimp. They are beneficial to the tank since they eat decaying matter. I doubt they are harming your zoos.

I used to say the same thing... I now how very little doubt that they will attack and eat Zoanthids and they particularly like PE types.

[fishnfst]

Peter could you elaborate please?? about the pods of course... What class do you autox in and what sanctioning body?

[ficklefins]

Let me tell you that there are pods that will eat your zoas/palys, especially if they are located on or near your rocks.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d168/ficklefins/Pattern.jpg

The pic on the left is a frag that was being eaten by pods. Pics are a bit unclear sorry.

#1 Arrow showing that most of the disc is missing and a part of the polyp is healing with what looks like a bald bulb like thing.
#2 This polyp is pretty much gone. Just a tiny shrivel of a mess.
#3 This polyp is just a bald bulb with no signs of a skirt or oral disc.
#4 Closed up and not too happy.

Pic on the right is the same exact zoa type right next to that other frag. The only difference between the two is that this frag is extending out a bit from the rocks and not sitting flat on the rock. You can see the frag disc in the upper right corner are the polyps from the first pic.

I can say for sure that there is no difference in flow or lighting. Only difference is night time predation by pods.

[fishnfst]

Fickle, what did you do about the pods?

[ficklefins]

I used some eggcrate to create an elevated frag stand. I did it just today but as of tonight there are not pods on my zoas.

If you remind me I'll give you feed back on how well it works. My theory was that if the frags were away from the rocks and the sand then it would be harder for pods to get to them. Can they still get to them, sure! But this way it would not make it as easy as coming out of a hole in the rock and feeding on my PEs. I witnessed it twice the other night and that was enough for me.

[Peter Eichler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9528409#post9528409 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishnfst
Peter could you elaborate please?? about the pods of course... What class do you autox in and what sanctioning body?

Ficklefins did a pretty good job showing what happens. I had a colony of about 100 RPEs that was doing poorly and I couldn't figure out what the problem was. They weren't dying like a sick or unhealthy zoanthid would, they were being slowly eaten away and always looked beaten up. Many late nights with a flashlight showed that the only thing happening was amphipods of the Gammarus variety were swarming the pieces that were looking bad. I started to believe it was pods at that point and added a Mandarin and started feeding more heavily. The problm has gone away and what I had left of PE are recovering and spreading again.

I was in STX with my WRX, and will be in SM with my Evo (most likely) once I get some new tires and get around to doing my brakelines and pads. Though I much prefer HPDEs and often am bothered by wasting a whole sunday for less than 10 min. of track time. It's through the SCCA and I've gone to different chapters in WI and IL.

[fishnfst]

Kewl good info..

I've been seeing more and more street mod evo's lately.. That class had been dominated by a lot of supercharged m3's out here for some time.. Glad to see a few japanese imports coming up in that class...

[Peter Eichler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9534698#post9534698 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishnfst
Kewl good info..

I've been seeing more and more street mod evo's lately.. That class had been dominated by a lot of supercharged m3's out here for some time.. Glad to see a few japanese imports coming up in that class...

If Daddio had stuck with autox, I have no doubt he would have won SM this season in his Evo. I believe he is done, for now at least, and will be running in some more serious events this year. I don't know if AMS has confirmed this yet, but I think he's going to be driving their new time attack car in at least some of its events this year.

[Rosseau]

I've had a similar issue with my zoa's.

One large piece of rock bought at an LFS was covered in polyp's. So much so that the best way I could arrange it still left some buried a but in the sand. I figured they would die, and being lazy didn't rip them off.


This area along the sand where the polyp's were decaying (I believe due to lack of light) were covered in pods. It looked like an army of little ants, just everywhere.....


The rest of the colony isn't doing very well. So, I too am not sure if these pods were eating the dead, or the living.

Thought I would say that you're not alone...