Copods?

I just turned on my lights and noticed my small clown picking at the glass so when I went to look at what it was they are tiny white bugs and they are covering all of my glass. How do they just appear on their own? And is this a sign of a tank maturing?

 

They live in the live rock, free fish food, very good sign your tank is doing well.

 

sweet

 

Many fish feed on these, some solely (unless trained). Such as the mandarin goby (dragonette). Very beautiful fish but a little harder to keep unless you have lots of pods in your sump or train it to eat frozen

 

Those things on the glass are Herpactacoid Copepods. They are high in protein and omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids which boost the immune system of your fish and prevent many diseases. Herpactacoid copepods are an essential part of a real reef.

here's a picture of them from my tank. my fish could live on these for a month without me ever feeding them.






Its good to keep them in your tank. Feed them DT live marine Phytoplankton(2-20 microns in size) and/or Marine Snow(0.2-150 microns) to keep a healthy population growing.

Turn off filtration while feeding. Pumps can be left on.

 

Do they reproduce fast because I have never seen them till today and they are everywhere on my glass? And do they ever become a problem if they get to be to many?

 

Cool, I have some of the dts I just don't use as much of it that it calls for, I have only a few mushrooms and a colony of polyps that I use them for.

 

I do not have many copepods (I also do not have a sump). I may order some and some DT's while I am at it. Think this is a good idea infamous?

 

Okay, I have a bioball system. I need to stop this while feeding the DTs?

I was going to buy a jar myself but now I guess I don't have to. Still seems wierd that they just appeared, I havn't added any rock for along time.

 

Yes they reproduce fast and are very good to have. You are lucky to have so many. The more you have the better, they will not cause a problem. They feed on the extra algae and waste in your tank and keep your tank clean. Some coral feed on these aswell.

I would stop the bio ball system because the tiny fragments of food can stick to the bio balls and start decaying. I could be wrong about this since i don't have bioballs.

You don't need a sump to get copepods in your display tank. Yes its good to order some copepods and also DT. Its better to buy DT live in your local fish store since they are alive and need to kept in a cold environment. You can buy some from precision aquatech. When you get these, add them at night after acclamating them to your tank and keep the lights off for 48 hours feeding them phytoplankton and/or marine snow every 8 - 12 hours.

Thats the bottle of 5000 copepods. Ive ordered from them before. Great packaging and delivery. Check out their website.

................http://www.precisionaquatech.com/