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12/16/2014, 03:48 PM | #1 |
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Mandarins and zoa eating nudi's
I spotted a couple of days ago that a zoa frag was reluctant to feed. Close inspection revealed nothing. Today however I found lots of pinhead sized creatures. I'm almost certain that they are newly hatched nudi's as you could see the ring of tentacles.
I've taken the frag out and its now in QT but I have lots of other zoas which I could never get out as they have encrusted. My tank has a mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) and I was wondering if these had been documented to eat zoa nudi's or if it would be better looking for another alternative, providing this isn't an isolated incident. I don't have a wrasse due to the mandarin but know the usual species which would work for this problem. TIA |
12/16/2014, 04:00 PM | #2 |
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No they won't eat them, mandarins feed on copepods.
Manual removal and dips are best. Some wrasses like Yellow or Green coris might do the job. Do research.
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12/16/2014, 04:42 PM | #3 |
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Thanks, I know lots of wrasse species which have been documented to eat them but was just wondering if mandarins would as they happily eat flatworms ime and a small nudi isn't that great a leap.
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12/16/2014, 06:37 PM | #4 | |
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wrasse may not be an option as they will clean out your pods.. I had to manually remove the whole rock and fresh water dip it to remove nudis...
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12/16/2014, 07:07 PM | #5 | |
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Quote:
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12/17/2014, 04:46 AM | #6 |
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Mandarins definitely do eat flatworm (well from my experience of some individuals). I've also used wrasse for the same purpose, normally H. chrysus but like above don't want it to outcompete the mandarin in this case.
It was really only anecdotal experiences i was after as i have had this zoa frag for 6-8weeks (can't remember exactly) and it was dipped with Coral RX before being added to the tank. I have seen nothing since then until last night where baby nudis the size of a pinhead were seen. I therefore believe they had only just hatched that day. I was under the impression that the eggs take 3-4 days to hatch but as there were no adults present (at least none on this frag or that i could see in the surrounding area) that perhaps the adults had been eaten by something already. The only fish that would fit and that actually scours every inch of the tank is the mandarin, so that would be my likely answer if they were being eaten. |
12/17/2014, 12:42 PM | #7 | |
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babies come out and are barely visible by eye and about the size of dust or small salt grains, they grow to about 1mm within days |
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12/17/2014, 03:06 PM | #8 |
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Interesting thanks. In that case they would have been a couple of days at most.
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