Help! Some type of Pod eating my coral.

sly65sally200

sly65sally200

Member
Alright, I have this pink stylophora sps coral. I looked at it this morning and noticed that these rolly polly looking pods are eating into my coral. It appears they have been digging into it for awhile. I currenly have no fish in my tank due to ich. And won't get anymore for a couple of more weeks. Tank has already been empty for a month. These white long pods are getting out of control especially in numbers. What can I do. And my camera got left at my mom's house, so I can't take a picture. Any clue what they are? What can I do?
 
hypertek99

hypertek99

Member
You said rollie pollie looking. Does it look like this??? If so catch it and kill it. They are a parasite isopod. Will suck the blood out of your fishes. They are called cirolanid
 
sly65sally200

sly65sally200

Member
After observing them for a little while, I have notice that the pods have front claws that curl inward under their body. And their butts curl up underneath them. They don't quit look as fat as that one in the picture. The are a little longer. I did notice some of them have some little brown stripes to them. So, not all are purely white. The biggest one I have since is over a quarter inch long. And they are just digging in to the sps skeleton, they are burrowing into rocks. Anywhere to hide and breed.
 
yosemite sam

yosemite sam

Active Member
Acro bugs are very very small and red, and, as the name implies, eat acros. I don't think they bother other corals.
They sound like amphipods, but I've never heard of them eating corals. If you don't have anything that eats them, pods can rapidly reproduce, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
What are your water parameters, lighting, filtration, etc? How long have you had the stylophora?
 
sly65sally200

sly65sally200

Member
SG 1.025
Temp 81
ph 8.2
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 30, Will be doing a water change this Sunday-day off
I've had the tank two months, the Guy I bought it from had it 6 months, so ITS 8 months old. It went through a mini cycle when I had to set it up.
It currently has no fish in it due to ich problems, but has a clean up crew and sandsifting starfish.
I've Had the pink stylophora for about a month and a half. You can pick it up and see the powder collecting under it from these guys burrowing into it.
 
sly65sally200

sly65sally200

Member
As for filtration, I have a bs2 berlin sump, with a c180 protien skimmer with uv sterilization.
As for lighting, I have a current usa outer orbit with 2x150w 10k hqi metal halide and 2x130w with dual actinics.
 
coral keeper

coral keeper

Active Member
Originally Posted by Yosemite Sam
http:///forum/post/2453123
They sound like amphipods, but I've never heard of them eating corals.
I have seen amphipods eat my zoas before but now they don't. Same thing happened to another person at the same time it happened to me and another person was talking about amphipods eating his corals like 1-2 weeks ago. So, it is possible. Same thing here too.
 
ecooper

ecooper

Member
I had a whole bunch of those. My mandarin has eaten every one of them.
However, I never had them eat corals... Weird.
 
volcom69

volcom69

Member
Never heard of these things eating an sps or any coral of that matter are u sure its not AEFWs i know they can be very nasty to sps and they will lay there eggs on them to. Take the coral out and test it for these flatworms. Tropic Marin makes this stuff u can dip ur coral into and these will die off i would try that.
 
itom37

itom37

Member
reefkeeperZ sent me some zoa frags that got damaged during shipping (ie, died). They were eaten by amphipods. ReefkeeperZ told me they will do that with dying coral. No pods in my tank have ever touched healthy stuff.
 
lucky?

lucky?

Member
I have some easy to keep corals and in my 1 overflow i have hundreds of those pods some look like they could be fully grown shrimp-(dinner size), maybe my tangs eat them but I don't think they would harm your coral to the point of death just my thought- If thts the case I want a mandarin - beautiful!

[hr]
good luck
 
sly65sally200

sly65sally200

Member
Originally Posted by volcom69
http:///forum/post/2454850
Never heard of these things eating an sps or any coral of that matter are u sure its not AEFWs i know they can be very nasty to sps and they will lay there eggs on them to. Take the coral out and test it for these flatworms. Tropic Marin makes this stuff u can dip ur coral into and these will die off i would try that.
Does anyone have pictures of flatworms? Since the upgrade on this website, none of the old pictures are showing up.
 
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