Swollen Zoas

Aips is short for aiptasia. They are no good. A member of the same family as anemones, they spread like roaches in a tank. Mine are always brown.

p.s. A duplicate of my previous post:

I think I may have found the culprit. I just saw a long, hair-thin worm near the frag that they are on. I can't get a picture that is good enough to show him to you. I think he was maybe 15mm long and maybe a little thicker than a hair. Any suggestions?

 

Anyone?

 

Wish I could help, but I am no good when it comes to I.D.'s. Pictures usually help, but if you can't get one, there are a lot of sites online that have pictures and comments about every reef pest a reefer could encounter.

Hopefully someone else chimes in..

 

It's alright. Today when I got home from visiting my sister ou in College Station another zoa looked picked at and dead. So, I FW dipped it. A bunch of amphipods and a few small, thin, white worms fell out. Hopefully they are going to be ok.

 

Upon closer inspection and researching a seemingly unrelated topic, I've decided that it might be the amphipods doing it. We have a HUGE amphipod pop. and I've seen them all over the zoas and never thought anything of it. Looks like I'll be picking up a six-line wrasse in the next couple days.

 

Got the six lined wrasse today. He's getting used to his new environment, but I've already seen him pecking at the rocks a little.

 

I don't care if he is the answer to my problem or not. It's really nice to have more than one fish in our tank again. Oh, and the ocellaris is being nice to him. Which is nice because she is big, and she has been alone for a couple years.

I've never really liked six-lined wrasses, but I watched him maneuver through the spaces between our rocks with great precision for a while today. I think I've changed my mind. This fish is alright by me.

We'll see what tomorrow has in store. I might be able to nab a picture. I know they have plenty of food within the tank, but I find myself wondering, "Self, should I feed the fish tomorrow as a defensive strategy to prevent domestic violence?" Or would that make them more likely to squabble?

 

They are still playing well together. And it would appear that the six line wrasse did the job. All of my zoas are fully open; I'm even seeing some new growth (though I'm sure that was already under-way). On top of that, I haven't seen an amphipod out in the open since the addition. It makes me wonder, will I need to provide supplemental food for the wrasse, or should he have everything he needs in his 60 gallon home?