Pods

[fijiwigi]

Ok, I am still learning and trying to understand about Copepods and amphipods. Or any other kind of Pod. So here is what I know. 1. Fish eat them. 2. they are small. And that is about it here are my questions

1. How are they produced
2. How many kinds are there
3. What do they do for the Salwater Reef aquarium
4. How do you know if you have any(what do they look like)
5. How does it affect the health of the aquarium
6. Can you have too many or not enough?

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Just want to make sure i understand everything so any information on the subject would be great..

 

[Devilishturtles]

1. Most come in off of liverock and then reproduce based on the amount of food they have. This is why tanks that are well balanced have a healthy amount of them and tanks that have too many nutrients have too many of them.

2. I think there are thousands of species of pods, but all except the Isopod are beneficial as far as I know.

3. They help scavenge for debris and eat microorganisms and such.

4. I can see mine most when the lights are off or right after the lights come on. If you have moonlights, check near your sandbed at night and you might see some crawling on the glass.

5 and 6. I don't think the neccesarily contribute to anything besides eating some gunk. You may have too many so that it's unsightly but I am not aware of there being too many so that it's not healthy for your tank.

HTH

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with Lindsay... don't think you can have too many. They're one of those things that will control their own population. If you have too many, you won't have too many for long.

I know when I first started, and my clownfish was the only inhabitant, I had tons. They scurried around everywhere - on the rock, on the sand, on the glass. Then as I added more fish, they seemed to disappear. Either it was normal population control, or free fish food! But lately, I've been seeing more of them in my rocks, so it appears things have struck a balance again.

 

[cmor1701d]

See this article and it's companion and Dr. Ron's article

 

[melosu58]

And

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/rs/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rs/index.php