copepods or ghost shrimp?

[herbbie]

Remember, I'm new, so don't laugh. Every day, a couple of times a day, I see these big, well 1/4" size bugs floating through the water. I don't know if they are dead or alive, but they are see through and they have antennae, and their bodies are curved, and they look like they have shells on them. A while back I saw a thread, that either had a link or an attachment, and they actually showed all of the different varieties of pods with pictures. So, my question is...are these ghost shrimp or copepods? And if anyone remembers that link or thread where they showed the different pictures, please post that also. Thanks!

 

[waterbury guy]

Was this the link:
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/mai.../faq_water.htm

 

[herbbie]

Thank you, yes that's the link. I think What I am seeing is an amphipod. I believe from their description that the copepods are much smaller, and probably the life I see living in my sump/refugium. They are really tiny, and crawling on the sides of the glass of the tank. I know in my lr I see a variety of different bugs running around, all different sizes. I am assuming that what I think might be ghost shrimp is amphipods. The link for the mysid shrimp was broken, and the picture wasn't very clear. Is the mysid the same as ghost shrimp? Somewhere I remember hearing that ghost shrimp are food for something, but I can't remember what. The amphipods that I see floating in my water must be dead? My Tang hurries up and eats them when he see's them, but he doesn't seem to have an interest in the live ones running around the lr. I'm going to be adding a pair of mandarin gobies on Thursday. I've watched the bug life for the last few weeks, and it's pretty heavy on both my lr and in my sump/refugium. My tank has been up and running for a couple of month's. with my lr being cured for 2 month's prior to that. I think it's OK to put 2 gobies in now. If anybody has another link to "bugs" that would be great, as most of the links from that page are missing. Thanks!!

 

[waterbury guy]

herbbie glad that helped. I woudl HIGHLY discourage you from putting two mandarins in your tank this early. My tank was established in Feb of this year, in June I put one Scooter Dragonette (same family as a mandarin) in my tank that was crawling with pods. He completely wiped them out in the course of two months, then slowly starved to death. I then had to buy another detritivore kit to get my pod population going again. How big is your tank and how much LR do you have? If you really want one I would suggest having a refugium set up to keep the pods breeding. Just my $.02.

 

[herbbie]

Thanks W.G. for your help. I would not want the gobies to starve to death, so I will wait if I need to. I hope that whenever I add the gobies, I will be able to keep them supplied with food. I have a 220 gal. tank with about 200# LR. and another 100# (?) of the dead kind. (hope that makes sense). My tank is deeper than most as it was custom sized to build into a spot in my house that we just built. I was going to go free standing, and decided to build in after, so the wall was there already, and had to make the tank fit. So, he said that it was better to put the less expensive rock underneath the live, as it was going to get all covered up anyway with LR. Does that make sense? Tank size is 60# W x 36# H x 24# D. I think I have a sort of refugium. I have an ecosystem, with LS and calurpa growing. So, it acts as both the sump and refugium. I am going to check with my lfs guy, who got me set up how to use that as a food source. He did tell me to wait on the gobies, when I first got set up, but with the bug activity that is going on, he thinks I'll be OK. Again, he also knows better than I do for what I got in equipment, and he is coming in once a week to help educate me, and keep my tank in shape. So far, the tank is really doing great. I'm still a little confused on what all the different bugs are that are in my tank, so if anyone has any other great link son bug life, I'd love to see it. I couldn't say for sure if the bug population is enough, so more input would be greatly appreciated. I know that my lfs guy has been great, and I hope that he wouldn't want to just make a sale, knowing the gobies would die of starvation.

 

[jonthefb]

in that large of a system with an ecosystem running, you should be ok, but i woud still wait a little while just so things can get more establised. now when you say you are getting a pair, is this going to be a sexed , amted pair? the reson i ask is because if you put two males in the tank together they will almost always fight until th eweaker one dies. However you may not run into this as much in your large tank. anyhow, i would wait a little while longer, jsu tfor things to establish themselves a little better, and then maybe just get one mandarin, unless someone is going to --- them for you so that you have a male and a female!
good luck
jon

 

[herbbie]

Thanks for the input. When I asked my lfs if I should get one or 2, he said a male and female would be fun to watch. He knew for sure he had a male, and would have to check the other ones to see if there was a female. I will only go with a male & female. I'm still waiting to hear more feedback from other members, but so far the consensus seems to be to wait on the gobies.