Copepods

[Zombiex]

I seeded my tank around fragfest but left didn't think they made it. Are these pods?

 

[kapelan]

they are

 

[Painter Steve]

+1 with @kapelan

 

[Zombiex]

Ok i wasnt sure. I didnt put them in my sump right away. Left them in fridge for a month or so wasnt sure if they would make it. Other then feeding them is there any special care to keep them populating?

 

[kapelan]

unlikely you will be able to get rid of them
One day you will see them a lot, another period they will be rare guests.
Do not know the reason, looks like no one knows.

 

[Matt1997]

unlikely you will be able to get rid of them
One day you will see them a lot, another period they will be rare guests.
Do not know the reason, looks like no one knows.

It’s actually very similar to snails in a freshwater system. You may notice one day your tank is absolutely littered with them then a month later may struggle to find 10. I believe it’s related to a population balance. When you first introduce pods there is a high amount of waste for them to feed on. So they explode in population size. At a certain point they will run out of a food source resulting in a reduced population. Eventually waste will accumulate once again and you will notice pod populations increasing. This type of cycle is characteristic of all populations that occur naturally as well. The most widely used example is often an arctic hare and an arctic fox amongst biology textbooks. As hare population goes up so does fox. Once fox population reaches a certain level both hare and fox populations decline. The same cycle occurs on the microbial level. I notice in my system pod populations stay relatively stable. My rocks are always littered with larger pods at night with a high population of babies as well. The gobys appear to have created a stable population within my system.

 

[Pistol]

I seeded my tank around fragfest but left didn't think they made it. Are these pods?View attachment 17748

That's an amphipod not a copapod