Copepods

swfishfan

Member
I just set my refugium up, and the reason for it was so that i could house a mandarin dragonette, so the copepods are kind of a big deal, and well i was told to flash a light in my tank at night and id see them, but i dont see much, i see movement but in all honesty i dont know what i am looking for, so could some one place a pic here or a link to some pics of copepods? all different types if possible?
 

swfishfan

Member
Originally Posted by arod268
heres a link

thanks for the link, i appreciate it alot, but a few more questions now, so the clear baby shrimp looking things crawling around in my tank are copepods or isopods? and in my return pump it comes with a built in filter, am i wasting my time with a fuge if that filter is gonna just trap them there?
 

arod268

Member
Originally Posted by SWFISHFAN
thanks for the link, i appreciate it alot, but a few more questions now, so the clear baby shrimp looking things crawling around in my tank are copepods or isopods? and in my return pump it comes with a built in filter, am i wasting my time with a fuge if that filter is gonna just trap them there?

lets bump this for somebody with more expirence
 
S

saltycrab

Guest
From what I've seen with my tank copepods like nutrient rich water. When I had lots of nuts in my water my copepod population exploded. I'm taking about my sand bed crawling with hundred or thousands at night- creepy stuff. I then started running carbon, phosphate remover, and feeding less and the population dwindled.
While my copepods were plentiful I had a small mandarin dragonet. It was doing very well for a month or so. It was constantly eating and was active. I lost it because I had a large amount of large hermit crab in my tank. Mandarins usually rest on the sand bed and one of my hermits ripped its whole tail off. It survived for a few days but the hermits would not leave it alone and it died. So make sure you have lots of copepods and get rid of any crabs that might be an issue.
 

swfishfan

Member
Originally Posted by SaltyCrab
So make sure you have lots of copepods and get rid of any crabs that might be an issue.
so the small crawly's in my tank are the copepods correct? and i belive that my crabs should be ok do to the fact that the dragonette i am looking at my lfs is in a tank with some blue leggs in that same tank and he has been there for about 2 weeks now and looks fine
off that subject does anyone know if my efforts are futile in having a fuge, if my return pump has a fliter built in?
 

al mc

Active Member
Most of the return pumps with filters inside can be opened and the filter can be removed. There is much debate about the survival rate of pods 'shot' through pump impellers even withouit a filter. I feel that many survive as I have two tanks each with a fuge and have two happy mandarins.
If you are concerned about pods survival....Some people will hang a plastic
'sponge/soap holder' that you can buy in a dollar store and put a handful of macroalgae from their refugium in the 'dish' and place it in their DT...........instant copepod factory in the DT

IMHO the critters you describe are 'pods'
 

swfishfan

Member
nice idea al mac, i appreciate it and i will try that out but i would just have to place it out of sight i dont like the idea if it just being there in sight but thanks for all
 
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