Pod Populations

How quickly will the isopods and other small organisms reproduce in the sand if they do at all? BTW...................





1OOTH POST

 

i think it really depends upon the organism, but i think with no predators pretty fast

 

Just some info

Anatomy

Isopods are said to be flattened but few are. Of all the crustacean groups, isopods are the most diverse in body form. The only sure way to tell an isopod from other similar crustaceans is that they have only one pair of uropods and lack strong clawed first thoracic legs. The carapace is lacking which reveals the segmented body composed of a head, a pereon (thorax) of 7 somites (segments) and a pleon (abdomen) of 6 somites. The last abdominal segment, to which the uropods are attached, is fused with the telson (or tail segment) to form a pleotelson. Each of the seven segments of the pereon has a pair of legs, all very similar to each other. Extending out the sides of each segment of the pereon, covering the bases of t he legs are the coxal plates. The first five pairs of abdominal limbs are flat membraneous gills. Isopods have sessile (not stalked) eyes. The figure is of a sphaeromatid isopod. Other families can look very different at first glance even though they possess the same characters. The smallest isopods are microscopic and the largest, from the deep sea, 40 cm long.




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Reproduction

During reproduction, the male isopod carries the female for a short period known as pre-copula which lasts until the moult at which copulation occurs. The sperm are transferred from the male to the female genital duct. In most species , the female releases the eggs into a ventral brood chamber where they are incubated until after hatching. Some species incubate their eggs and juveniles in pockets of the body which open from the brood chamber, while others incubate them internally. Un like crabs and shrimps isopods are not released as free-swimming zoea larva. Instead, when hatched they look very much like adults but have 6 rather than 7 pereonal segments. Some species care for their young after leaving the chamber but most species d o not.

 

how about with predators like sleeper gobies?

 

they would dessimate populations in most standard tanks

think about how many grains of rice you would need to eat to live

 

I see tons of pods running around at night, but during the day, I don't see them at all. So, take a look at night to find out how much of them are running around. If you see just 2-3 at night, you got a low population, but like sostoudt said, in few weeks, if there are not other predators to dessimate them, you will see a lot more.