Apoc pods Survivability in tank

Hermie · Feb 22, 2019

Hi all, wanted to get your take here...
I introduced a bottle of Apocyclops Paramensis to my tank a few weeks ago, however I am pretty sure none of them have "taken hold" or even really survived up to now. I see no adults and after looking under a 60x magnifier, the organisms eating my algae films appear to be rotifers and not nauplii.

What are your experiences with Apoc/Apex pods inhabiting your tank or refugium? I have a QT tank full of Tigger pods (and who knows what else), which are easier to see since they prefer to inhabit the glass/surfaces.

Do you think Apoc pods are not benthic? Perhaps I filtered them out incidentally from my filter floss?
Are they super sensitive?
My next plan is to try tigger pods in my tank, and based on the QT tank experience I think they have a much better chance at surviving...

Flippers4pups · Feb 24, 2019

Kamden Uelton · Feb 25, 2019

If you run Mechanical Filtration you will see little to no pod life... If they were a larger strain of pods they were probably taken out by the filter floss.

Hermie · Feb 25, 2019

Kamden Uelton said:
If you run Mechanical Filtration you will see little to no pod life... If they were a larger strain of pods they were probably taken out by the filter floss.

Dang. And this is one of those things I've been trying to configure into a setup w/ copepods. I have a hard time accepting a setup without any mechanical...

Crustaceon · Feb 25, 2019

Pods need food. If you keep your nutrients low, they tend to thrive less. It really has nothing to do with filtration.

Hermie · Feb 25, 2019

Crustaceon said:
Pods need food. If you keep your nutrients low, they tend to thrive less. It really has nothing to do with filtration.

Well there's no shortage of food in my tank. So I don't see how this applies

Crustaceon · Feb 25, 2019

NotASpammerDude said:
Well there's no shortage of food in my tank. So I don't see how this applies

Nitrates and phosphates are usually indicative of decaying matter. They love it.

Hermie · Feb 25, 2019

Crustaceon said:
Nitrates and phosphates are usually indicative of decaying matter. They love it.

Perhaps I needed to feed them a specific species of phytoplankton

Kamden Uelton · Feb 26, 2019

NotASpammerDude said:
Dang. And this is one of those things I've been trying to configure into a setup w/ copepods. I have a hard time accepting a setup without any mechanical...

I don't run Mechanical cause I keep purely pod eaters, It's an easy switch just have to do a little more water changes