Question About A Bug I Spotted In My Reef Tank

[Archer917]

Was looking in my tank today and seen a little ant looking bug crawling across the bottom, little booger could move pretty fast too! Did not appear to be swimming any at all just crawling very fast. it was a medium brown color on the top half and a lighter beige color on the bottom half also was maybe 1/8in long. I had dug a small trench in the sand earlier in the day to put a feather duster in and had added some crushed coral as well after I got the duster in place.
Is this a pod of some kind or a parasite?
I have a mandarin goby and he picks a bite off the live rock about every 8 to 15 seconds, but I have never seen what he is picking. My daughter got him for me as a gift not knowing that they are hard to keep, have only had him for about 2 months now.
So can any one tell me about the creature I watched crawling around?
Thanks

 

[reefrunner69]

Sounds like a copepod.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Well i dont think you know how difficult it is to keep a mandarin alive, do you know about their diet? What he is picking at are copepods, and they need thousands just to keep from starving. They should only be put in large tanks with many mnay pods or else they will die.

 

[Archer917]

Well i dont think you know how difficult it is to keep a mandarin alive, do you know about their diet? What he is picking at are copepods, and they need thousands just to keep from starving. They should only be put in large tanks with many mnay pods or else they will die.

Was looking in my tank today and seen a little ant looking bug crawling across the bottom, little booger could move pretty fast too! Did not appear to be swimming any at all just crawling very fast. it was a medium brown color on the top half and a lighter beige color on the bottom half also was maybe 1/8in long. I had dug a small trench in the sand earlier in the day to put a feather duster in and had added some crushed coral as well after I got the duster in place.
Is this a pod of some kind or a parasite?
I have a mandarin goby and he picks a bite off the live rock about every 8 to 15 seconds, but I have never seen what he is picking. My daughter got him for me as a gift not knowing that they are hard to keep, have only had him for about 2 months now.
So can any one tell me about the creature I watched crawling around?
Thanks




Yep sure do know how hard they are to keep but LFS would not take it back as they know it will die as well as I do, and I hate that as he is a beautiful fish!

 

[Archer917]

Sounds like a copepod.

Thats what I'm hoping it is kinda what it looked like to me but I have only seen pictures of them.
Thanks I will be looking and hopefully see more of them.

Archer917

 

[reefrunner69]

You can buy live amphipods and copepods online to supplement its feeding and hopefully it will take prepared foods as well.