mxpro32 Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 i keep hearing how good pods are for the system. i am just wondering what exactly they do that is so good? i have alot of the little guys running around in my tank. some are pretty big. today when i fed the tank i saw them snagging pieces of flake and running off with it. anyway i was curious what they do for the tank. thanks Link to comment
Sahin Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 The pods and other sand/rock critters come in various sizes/species. I think they help in keeping sand and rocks clean. Many are detritivores and they eat the crappy stuff lying around. The critters also help keep your sand DSB mixed etc. Baseline is that they perform a function needed to maintain the healthy ecosystem you are trying to create. Though I must admit I am not sure of the specifics yet-I too have a lot to learn. Link to comment
BlondeNaso1 Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 I think also it is a measure of how well you system is doing. If you have a high pod population it means that your tank is very stable, mature, and doing very well. Link to comment
cj7jeep81 Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 They can also be a source of food for some fish. Link to comment
HuBu Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 fish like mandarin gobies. pods come in on every LR. the longer the system the better the number of copods. Link to comment
gabe3eb Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 What you saw what most likely an Amphipod... They are around a 1/4" in size while a Copepod in comparison is only about 1/10 of that size... Let me see if I can find a picture of them... So as you can see, you were probably looking at an amphipod. These little critters do serve many advantages in your tank as well... Hth, gaber Link to comment
BustytheSnowMaam Posted June 6, 2002 Share Posted June 6, 2002 If I look in my tank a few hours after lights out, I will see clusters of them on the glass eating the algae on the back glass of my tank. Tasha Link to comment
mxpro32 Posted June 6, 2002 Author Share Posted June 6, 2002 yeah that pic was what i saw eating the scrap flake food. i also have a bunch of tiny pods running around. so they are a good cleanup crew then? Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted June 8, 2002 Share Posted June 8, 2002 Some are detrivores but quite a few species are herbivores and will eat algae durring the night. Kida like getting an extra snail or two! They also, as others mentioned, will act as a food source. The adults are obvious food for fish such as manderins, but their babies can be eaten by verious things in the tank ranging from shrimp/porcellain crabs to corals. Not to mention that they are just plain entertaining :roll: Link to comment
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