Help control the pod population....have your pod spayed or neutered

[flipper263]

I have discovered what I believe to be a pod population in both my 120 and my 29 gallon tanks. (pictures don't turn out) They are tiny shrimp like creatures and there are hundreds of them. They race around the live rock and on the sand bed. They swim too but are too tiny and too fast to photograph well.
My question is, do I need to do something to control the population? Do I need to get or do I already have what I need to keep it under control?
I have no fish in the 29 gallon, only
a brittle star, a sea urchin,
2 peppermint shrimp and
2 cleaner shrimp(these will be moved to my large tank next week after the 30 day ick cycle is finally done)
in the 120 I have
1 brittle star,
2 searpent stars,
2 firefish,
1 perc
1 brown tang,
4 peppermint shrimp
both tanks have a variety of blue or red legged hermits and snails.
Brenda:jumping:

 

[viper_930]

You don't need to keep them under control. They just multiply if there is enough food, or die off if there is not enough. They don't harm anything either.

 

[tizzo]

Yeah, I remember when my tank had that problem... Now I am lucky to find a handful, and I have no known predators eating them. I am thinking that your's will also dwindle in time. I don't know where they go (maybe they run out of food or something) but they will die down soon!!

 

[squidd]

Pod populations come and go...at this point in your tank conditions are "favorable" for this particular type of "pod" as populations continue to grow they will meet or exceed a sustainable level and die back then conditions will be favorable for another type and so on...
Enjoy the changes in your little "mini ecosystem" and as your tank matures it will find a balance and stabilize at sustainable levels for each type of organism...and then you can "change things" by adding natural predators or differing nutrient levels...
At one point I had an overabundance of little "swirly worms" now I just see one here and there...at another point my rocks were just crawling with little shrimp like things...now I just see them if I look for them...
It's all good...

 

[flipper263]

That's all good...I was just wondering if I needed to do something to keep it under control...but if it takes care of itself...then fantastic.
Besides Mandarins...who..or what likes pods? I don't want a Mandarin...though they are beautiful...becuase I don't know how to keep the pods coming to keep the mandarin fed...so for now I will pass. Is there another critter that would enjoy the pods?
Brenda:jumping:

 

[steven the fish]

I was told that my canary blenny will eat pods

 

[belothsurf]

Definetly do not do the spay or neuter thing. I tried that once. Pain in the butt. My vet would only take 5 at a time, and it took him like 20 minutes to tell if they were male or female, to be able to tell if he should spay or neuter. Anyway, after about the 10th trip to my vet, I got waaaay tired of it. Besides, It was getting to the point, that when I was trying to catch them for the trip to the vets', I couldn't tell which ones had already been ...."whatever'ed".

 

[squidd]

Originally posted by belothsurf
Definitely do not do the spay or neuter thing. I tried that once. Pain in the butt.
I hear ya, I know exactly whatca saying...
I was thinking more along the lines of "Mass Steralization"....
So I exposed my tank to radiation thinking that would do it...
Then I looked in the fuge to see if it worked ...
And I found this "Pod"crawling on the rocks....

 

[belothsurf]

WTH is that thing?

 

[squidd]

I'm not sure,
But I'm not sticking MY hand in there to find out...:nope:

 

[belothsurf]

I hear ya......:scared:

 

[flipper263]

Originally posted by Steven the Fish
I was told that my canary blenny will eat pods
Thanks for the reply...I will look into it. Just figured since I have a nice pod population that it might be fun to have something that would enjoy them
Brenda:jumping:

 

[yellowtail]

looks like a turantula(sp) spider

 

[jsb]

My tank went through that. I had so many they were all over the glass. I bought a scooter, and now they are what appears to be depleted. Now I'm having to feed him brine and such. He's doing alright but he's not as fat as he was.