New 36 gallon tank (live rock, no coral). I added a clean up crew of 10 hermit crabs, 10 snails, 1 cleaner clam and 1 peppermint shrimp. All but the clam seem to have survived pretty well (a few snail casualties as well). It's been 5 days since I added this crew and they have made a huge dent in eating the diatoms and algae that were all over the rocks and sand...but suddenly there are a HUGE amount of copepods in the water column. Is this normal?? I've had live rock in the tank for nearly 2 months, so I don't think they suddenly came out of that. I suppose they must have come with the clean up inverts? Is that typical? And should I quickly add a couple of fish to start eating the copepods? What are good fish to do that? TIA!
Sudden Copepods
- Thread starter Wasdal052
- Start date
lmforbis
Well-Known Member
pod populations will explode when there is enough to eat. They lay thousands of eggs and have few predators in a fishless tank. They are a good part of the clean up crew. their population will adjust to the level of food as your water quality improves and your tank matures.
never add fish quickly. You should quarantine them for a good 30 days to make sure they are healthy before adding them to your tank. A 32 gallon isn’t big enough to sustain an adequate pod population for typical pod eaters like dragonettes. And it isn’t big enough for fish like wrasses who need swimming space.
never add fish quickly. You should quarantine them for a good 30 days to make sure they are healthy before adding them to your tank. A 32 gallon isn’t big enough to sustain an adequate pod population for typical pod eaters like dragonettes. And it isn’t big enough for fish like wrasses who need swimming space.