Coepods

[Chameleon Bob]

I've been reading on here and all around the web that it in the ocean there are thousands of different types of coepods living with the reefs. My question is if I buy different types (if their even different) and put them in my already established system is one going to over power another basicaly leaving me where I started? or will I have a multi-coepod system?? In the wild there's a lot more space for colonies to hold their own. kind of like ant hills.

[Ninong]

Have you checked your tank at night yet? If you started out with decent live rock, you should already have a decent supply of copepods and amphipods. Wait a couple of hours after all tank lights are out AND all of the room lights are out. Then use a red flashlight. If you don't have a red flashlight, then use a regular white flashlight but look fast because as soon as the white light hits them, they will scurry back into their hiding places. What you should see are hundreds (thousands) of very tiny dark critters moving very fast across the surface of the live rock and the sand bed. Copepods hide in holes in the live rock for the most part and amphipods hide the the top surface part of the sand bed.

[Chameleon Bob]

I have a ton of coepods and that's not what I'm trying to get at. My post might of gotten confusing, but I was trying to ask if you buy coepods from fiji, carribean, totoka and another reef so you have a diverse array of bugs will they all survive or be over run by one? The reason I ask is I read a thread about dragonets about having diverse food in the wild. Just trying to see if buying these different coepods would do anything from what I have. I might of made this too complicated.

[Ninong]

I understood your question. I was just trying to point out that you may not really need any more copepods. When I started my tank, I did purchase copepods, along with several other items, from Inland Aquatics. However, I did that weeks before I added any fish to my aquarium. I allowed five weeks after starting up the tank before I added the first fish, and it was a herbivore.

In their natural environment, mandarinfish consume mostly copepods (up to 95% of their diet). I have no idea which species they eat. Sometimes they can learn to eat commercial foods in an aquarium but a decent amount of live rock is still necessary for them to thrive.

I would think that copepods would be just like all of the other critters that inhabit our systems -- some thrive and multiply and some don't. This is why people who strive to maintain fully functional deep sand beds (mine was 6" deep) try to obtain new additions every 12 to 18 months to 'refresh' their mini-ecosystem. Most copepods eat phytoplankton and detritus; however, amphipods do eat copepods.

You should also want to make sure that your aquarium is inhabited by a wide array of the really tiny critters (microcrustaceans and polychaetes) that help to keep the sand bed functioning. The only way that I know of to do that is to obtain small quantities of real live sand from different sources (I purchased from five different online sources). My first copepods and amphipods came in a "detritivore kit" from Inland Aquatics; however, my live rock was already jumping with tons of copepods shortly after I put it in the tank. Almost every time I ordered anything online, I would ask the vendor if they had just a small amount of live sand that they could sell me (usually just two or three pounds). This would be sand from the bottom of their live rock curing tanks. Most vendors put live sand in the bottom of their live rock holding tanks and they will usually sell you a little bit of that sand if you ask.

[Parrothead]

I don't think Bob has a dsb or a sb, I believe he prefers crushed coral

[Chameleon Bob]

When I first started the tank I bought live rock from 2 different stores for really no reason but now I know it was a pretty good idea for diversity. And I also got a cup of sand from one store, I'll ask the other 2 stores to see if I can get some of theirs. I do have a crushed coral bed in the display, but also have a 4-5 inch sand bed in my refuge. I do have a ton of critters running around(some that could be from outer space) and I was really just trying to figure out if there was a point of having different bugs from other places but it sounds like I'm doing great with what I have. oh i did also add 2 containers of DT's coepods in the refuge when I started it. Thanks again guys.