Pods irritating zoa's

[althemean]

I recently added some new frags to my tank. They seemed to be healthy and after a 6-7 hour drip acclimation (I set it up before I went to work along with an airstone and small heater) The zoa's opened up.

Now approx 1.5 weeks later, one small colony (goochers I think I dont really care about the names) is withering away. I found my nassarius snails nibbling at them as well as being covered in pods. I have a second frag of Jupiter dust paly's that the same thing is happening to. The snails have not touched them but at night you can see the pods crawling all over the polyps. Some of which are now shrivleing up, looking skinny, and withered.

Before this they all opened up and looked fine. Other colonies of zoas are doing just fine.

Water param's

SG 1.025
amm, trite, trates, 0
phosphates.... (undetectable with my test at least)
calcium 440
dkh 8
temp 80

sig should have all tank specs.

Any help would be appreciated. I searched and see others reporting the same irritations but no solutions.

Tank mates are:

1 pep shrimp
5 turbo snails
4 nassarius
1 true perc
1 royal gramma
1 GBTA
acan echinata frag
acan lord frag
millepora frag
tridacnid crocea
various other colonies of zoa/paly frags

[aquarius77]

Amphipods are know to destroy zoos. I would bet thats what happening from you description. I had this problem and added a sixline wrasse to eat the pods. I dont know of any other way to safegaurd your zoos other than some type of pod predator.

[althemean]

I was sorta leaning that way but arent six line hit or miss with harrassing tank mates as well as nibbling at corals? Or am I mistaken?

I dont know if the pod population is large enough to sustain a mandarin or a CBB either.

I also did a freshwater dip of those two frags and the pods fell off like mad. I then moved them into a higher flow area to try and help.

Just wondering why they dont bother my other colonies of frags. Must be attacking the weaker ones.

[CapitalO]

I have a sixline wrasse; contrary to a lot of peoples image of sixlines, he is the most peaceful fish in my tank (and my favorite). Ive never heard of them nipping at corals. They are extremely good at hunting down pods, maybe you should try one out.

[althemean]

thanks for the help everyone. I will do a little more researchinto the wrasse. I also need to clean up my quarantine tank.

[aquarius77]

There are other pod predators besides the six line. Mine is the most agressive fish in the tank, but he keeps my zoos safe.
I cant explain why they go after one colony at a time but that is exactly how they were doing it im my tank.

[althemean]

Thats why maybe a mandarin is a better choice. The tank is roughly six months old but has a healthy population of pods. I know from research that the mandarin is primarily a pod eating fish and that they have a tendancy to starve in poor tank conditions. But I need something peaceful.

I reviewed my list up top and realized I left out two fishes. ( I was in a hurry on my way to work)

1 yellow tail damsel
1 juvenile regal tang

yes I am aware of the tank size requirements so please no lectures as this fish is only 2.5" tops and yes I will be upgrading next summer to a larger tank. The fish is healthy, active and has been for five months.

that being said. I do not want to introduce a fish that may be aggressive but at the same time the damsel is semi-territorial. It actually follows the tang around quite a bit. But it did harrass the royal gramma for the first few days. Luckily my rock work is full of holes/caves so for the fish to hide and stake out new territory is fairly easy. ( you can see the tank in my gallery)

Anyone have any thoughts on the copper band butterfly as far as compatibility with existing stock? Problem is, by the time I quarantine the fish (any fish for this problem) I may lose my zoa's

[650-IS350]

I'd go with a yellow coris / banana wrasse instead... it dosn't get as aggressive as the 6line type genre. Other fairy/leopard wrasses will also suffice.. they aren't agressive and also really nice looking...

[Curlsoc]

Can you take that rock of zoas out and put it into a QT? I just did that, dipped it and put it in my QT, I think I'm having the same problem. A Yellow Coris Wrasse is also supposed to be a good pod eater and will eat zoa nudis too, I'm looking to get one of them.

[althemean]

I can take it out. I just dont know how good my QT is right now. I had an outbreak of cyano in there from all the LR I QT'd. I ended up sucking up all the substrate but the glass and remaining rubble still has the cyano on it.

I may do just that as a major WC should solve any probs in there.

[althemean]

just got home from work and found the colony of jupiter dust zoa's to be swarming with pods. My remaining colonies not quite as bad but they have pods on them. How frustrating. Especially when you read on here "dont worry pods are a sign of a healthy tank. They are harmless."

Moved into QT to say the least. I hate to get a fish and forgoe QT to solve one prob when it may cause another in the long run.

[beansandmia]

My sixline is best buds with the tangs, he also never bothers my polyps, he is alwayson the hunt for stuff moving in the tank, he is a good guy :)

[650-IS350]

BTW- 6lines don't have the best history about getting along with others in the tank , especially new comers when the 6line has already been established... a lot of other reefers has gotten that experience..

CharlesV

[CapitalO]

I definitely concur with delsol about the sixline having a bad rep, theres a lot of reefers that have aggression issues with them. A lot of factors are at play though, such as:

The type of tank mates and there aggressiveness (small and slender fish that resemble the wrasse tend to become targets)

when they were introduced (if other fish have already established territory)

And of course, it really depends on the individual.

My wrasse was purposely the last introduced fish (the tank already had an Ocellaris and a damsel). Even when the other fish posture towards him, or even nip at him, he totally ignores it. The only aggression he shows is towards his own reflection in the glass. This happens at night, when the room is dark and tank lights are on. If you introduce them following these guidelines to your favor, your risk of the wrasse becoming aggressive quickly diminishes.

[althemean]

well...I got a spotted mandarin. I basically temp acclimated it. I really hate taking the risk of not quarantining and I always do. But in this case it was really a matter of losing the zoa's. I do trust my LFS as most of my fish have come from there and they maintain healthy tanks.

So I will sit back and see what happens.

[althemean]

for an update...The frag colony of jupiter dust which had roughly 15-17 polyps was in bad shape. I decided to try and save the few remaining apparently healthy polyps. I counted five. When I removed the rock they were on from the tank, I noticed a bad smell coming from it. Apparently the mat that connects all of them had been decaying (most likely due to being fragged the first time around) I was able to pluck the heads off with little resistance. I the superglued (gel) these to another peice of rock rubble I had. The five polyps opened up within hours and look better than the original colony.

So for the meantime, I believe that the pods were attacking the frags due to decaying tissue connecting the polyps. Fragging them seems to have been the best choice (wish I wouldve done this sooner instead of buying the fish) as it removed the decaying tissue attracting the pods. I have only seen one pod on the re-fragged zoa's and even that one has disappeared over the course of the day. (frag is back in my DT)

This would also seem to explain why the pods did not target my healthy established zoa colonies.

Now the new challenge.....caring for a spotted mandarin (who his hanging out under my rocks right now) the only one seeming to give him a little grief is the damsel. But I know that will go away in a few days. He just has to let the new arrival know he's there.