Sand fleas

[reeferdude]

My girldfriend's nano has been set up for about a month now with only coral in it. There are these little bug things crawling around in on the bottem of the tank. Are these sand fleas and are just there cause there are no fish to eat them?

 

[iswimnotchoke]

sand fleas find it hard to live in coral...so it would be a low possibility of that, if you want to identify them most sandfleas have a little bit of orange underneath their heads...do u have pictures?

 

[lobstergrabber]

Chances are you are seeing some type of pod not a sand flea. Pods would have come in on live rock and they will multiply without fish eating them. They are usually considered good and if you let them keep building to a good sized population you could someday introduce a mandarin into a food rich environment that most people would kill to have. HTH
Rich

 

[reeferdude]

I am pretty sure they are a type of pod too and I think the absence of fish is what is getting their numbers up.

 

[lobstergrabber]

Like I said befor eI would love to have that many. I had a bunch and then I added shrimp(1 cleaner, 2 peppermints and 2 CBS). I think they did a number on them because I don't see nearly as many as I used to. I wasn't planning on getting in fish that rely on pods anyway. I really wanted a mandarin but realized I could not realistically house it for an extended period of time.
Rich

 

[reeferdude]

Ya, my problem is that my girlfriend doesnt want a mandrin, she wants nemo. I would love to have a mandrin but like you say, I cant house it for a long period of time.

 

[lobstergrabber]

put the clown in there and it they keep multiplying then maybe down the road.
Rich