Amphipods and Copepods in chaeto

huckjai · Dec 22, 2019

Hey Reefers.
I have some chaeto in my refugium and trying to grow my pod population. I've noticed some amphidods in the chaeto. Will they eat the copepods?

Thanks.

Flippers4pups · Dec 22, 2019

huckjai said:
Hey Reefers.
I have some chaeto in my refugium and trying to grow my pod population. I've noticed some amphidods in the chaeto. Will they eat the copepods?

Thanks.

No they shouldn't.

lapin · Dec 23, 2019

Pods will compete for food. Usually, over time, 1 species will dominate.

UNREEFER · Dec 24, 2019

As mentioned sometimes one pod species will compete with an another for food in a refugium depending on the size. However in the display you will have generally have normal populations of both.

ThePurple12 · Dec 24, 2019

I'm sure I read somewhere that amphipods do eat copepods. They are significantly larger than copepods.

ThePurple12 · Dec 24, 2019

Maybe @Reef Nutrition knows

stanleo · Dec 24, 2019

I have a thriving population of both. Neither seems effected by the other.

TheShrimpNibbler · Dec 24, 2019

Yes, amphipods will eat copepods. IME, it can be devastating to copepod populations, if the amphipod populations are not kept under control.

huckjai · Dec 25, 2019

TheShrimpNibbler said:
Yes, amphipods will eat copepods. IME, it can be devastating to copepod populations, if the amphipod populations are not kept under control.

How do you get rid of amphipods? I have yet to see any in my DT. Only a few in my chaeto.

TheShrimpNibbler · Dec 25, 2019

huckjai said:
How do you get rid of amphipods? I have yet to see any in my DT. Only a few in my chaeto.

They’re great clean up crew members when kept under control, so I wouldn’t try to get rid of them all. I’ve found that gobies are great at keeping them under control though. I only had that problem because my tank was going fallow, and there was nothing that ate amphipods. Eventually, there were so many amphipods that they had to resort to eating each other and copepods.

ThePurple12 · Dec 26, 2019

Yeah, amphipods are definitely desirable. Your fish will keep them under control for you.

Reef Nutrition · Dec 26, 2019

ThePurple12 said:
Maybe @Reef Nutrition knows

Amphipods are cannibals. Most copepods, especially ones that are non-parasitic, are also cannibals. @TheShrimpNibbler is right: Amphipods will eat copepods and Isopods, as well. Copepods will eat larval amphipods and Isopods, too. With enough habitat and food to reduce competition, they can live together. Since amphipods are much larger than copepods, they tend to get picked off by fish more readily, which helps to keep their numbers down so that the copepods don't get wiped-out faster than they can reproduce themselves.