question on pods.

[sonicboom1]

I have a scooter blenny in my saltwater fish tank, and he eats pods. Are these pods visible or how do I know he is getting plenty of food to eat? I dont want to starve him but I am also not sure if he is eating enough..

 

[speg]

If you have liverock in your tank you most likely have pods in there too.
They are visible.. but are small. Copepods are hard to see because of their size. If you have dark areas in your tank you may be able to see them playing around in there. I also notice I have a ton that hang out in my overflow box and you can see them playing in there quite easily. Also at night they come out and you can tell then that you have them. Sometimes you can look at your glass and see very small specks that seem to hop around the glass.. those are them. .<-- seriously about the size of that period.
Animals that depend on certain things to eat in your tank (like dragonetts) will starve quickly if they deplete your population of pods. Building a refugium and keeping plenty of plants (which copepods love) in there will help ensure that your scooter will not starve to death.

 

[trainfever]

Buy some live brine shrimp, he will eat them also.

 

[speg]

Its a rare chance if you get a dragonette to eat froze/live food. It happens but.. not often. Also brine shrimp will cause him to slowly die even if he eats a ton. They have practically zero nutritional value and do the animal no good.

 

[sonicboom1]

Sometimes the scooter eats a few flakes of food, I will have to feed him my brine and see if he takes a bit of it