ok!! who is eating my yellow polyps

broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
From your picture - they appear to me to be either a type of amphipod or isopod.
Looks like they have an elongated tail.
Most amphipods are welcome in a reef tank.
Some isopods are predatorial, although I've never heard of them attacking and eating corals.
Maybe try a search on cirolanid isopods - and see what you find.
Other than that - I am stumped.
 
reefnjeff

reefnjeff

Member
I stayed up all night and observed my tank with a flashlight, at one time I seen 5 of these bugs at the base of 1 polyp this morning the polyp is gone, when I hit the rock with light I swear there can be more than a dozen amongst the colony. I also observed them in my sea matt colony and they were all over my duster tubes, they did not seem to bother the star polyps, shrooms or anomone and once I have a positive ID I will post it.
 
kris walker

kris walker

Active Member
Although this doesn't help you much, and so perhaps a moot point, scavengers often go after things that are in the process of dying. They can smell or sense somehow dieing tissue. This argument has been applied to hermits going after snails before, but IMO doesn't always explain all snail-eating observations.
If they are truely eating live healthy coral tissue, maybe they came in on the sea mat that introduced into your tank a week ago.
Good luck,
sam
 
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