bluegill
Member
We all see the question about "little bugs in my tank" posted on one of the forums here... and it is virtually always met with what seems like the somewhat cliche answer "it is probably copepods. these are ok and are a good sign of a healthy, matured tank."
I admittedly have hundreds of them (little crawlers that is) in my 55.
However, I spent some time researching disease today and found a lot on these crustaceans and that they are NOT always a good thing... if ever.
Almost all of the information I have found by professional biologists suggests that copepods are in fact species-specific parasites that can cause rapid fatality when attached to gill regions.
So I'm hoping, and wondering, that the information presented here when telling everybody that copepods are a good thing is supported by knowledge and not just the cliche answer that people post because they heard it here.
Perhaps this is similar to the phenomena of bristle worms, in that they were once thought to be harmful to a system, yet some new studies show that they might in fact be beneficial.
Or possibly, the "beneficial" copepods so many people like to talk about are a different species than the parasitic, harmful ones. IF this is the case, then I wonder why on dozens of posts I have read here concerning copepods it has always been positive, and nobody mentions that, hey, they might not be so good.
I admittedly have hundreds of them (little crawlers that is) in my 55.
However, I spent some time researching disease today and found a lot on these crustaceans and that they are NOT always a good thing... if ever.
Almost all of the information I have found by professional biologists suggests that copepods are in fact species-specific parasites that can cause rapid fatality when attached to gill regions.
So I'm hoping, and wondering, that the information presented here when telling everybody that copepods are a good thing is supported by knowledge and not just the cliche answer that people post because they heard it here.
Perhaps this is similar to the phenomena of bristle worms, in that they were once thought to be harmful to a system, yet some new studies show that they might in fact be beneficial.
Or possibly, the "beneficial" copepods so many people like to talk about are a different species than the parasitic, harmful ones. IF this is the case, then I wonder why on dozens of posts I have read here concerning copepods it has always been positive, and nobody mentions that, hey, they might not be so good.