Copepod Explosion

[brclark82]

My tank is 2 months old. Right after my initial cycle I put in a bottle of copepods from Algaebarn. Then a couple weeks ago I put in quite a few bottles from Jay’s Reef Bugs (highly recommend). I have been feeding with Ocean Magik about 3-4 times a week.

I have been looking regularly to see if I can see any swimming around or on the glass and I have never seen a single one over the 2 months.

Well today they are EVERYWHERE. All over the glass on all 4 sides, some areas they are super dense. They’re literal thousands that I can see.

I wonder what the difference to make them all come out literally overnight. I watch my tank pretty often and I swear they weren’t there just yesterday.

 

[Red2143]

Is it only a certain species you can see or any type with sufficient number?

 

[brclark82]

Is it only a certain species you can see or any type with sufficient number?

I have no idea how to tell the difference between them tbh but all of the bottle I’ve added have have many different species in it

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

When ai ordered aboclypse pods this happened to me after the timing of the first clutches would have hatched, which makes ne think it might have been the tisbees I added a month prior.

They absolutely exploded and were everywhere, but have since dwindled. It seems to come in waves, i think even with a constant abundance of food for them, the combination of using felt filter socks and running UV at night knocked them back down. Right now I dont see very many copepods, maybe like 10 or so on the front flass if I don't scrape, but the isopods and amphipods are everywhere.

 

[legionofdoon]

Mine grow in waves too. I'll see a few and then next day hundreds. When they explode I usually can tell because the glass on my refugium looks a lot more clean.

 

[a007grif]

I dont run UV and moved to less micron filter socks to allow them all through and circulate more. My pod population is insane at the moment, even with 2 gobys. I too have seen them dwindle but i either just wait and them cycle back to large populations or I buy a few more bottles and dose. Oh, I have been buying from Florida Reef Labs for years and i can see differences in each species easily in the bottles before adding. I have tried a few other online big name vendors and some of them say they are selling a certain species but put under microscope and not what was ordered. :0

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I dont run UV and moved to less micron filter socks to allow them all through and circulate more. My pod population is insane at the moment, even with 2 gobys. I too have seen them dwindle but i either just wait and them cycle back to large populations or I buy a few more bottles and dose. Oh, I have been buying from Florida Reef Labs for years and i can see differences in each species easily in the bottles before adding. I have tried a few other online big name vendors and some of them say they are selling a certain species but put under microscope and not what was ordered. :0

I can't find a site for that vendor, I can only find the ICP testing. Interested in checking out their pods

 

[Snoopy 67]

jaysreefbugs.companysite

 

[a007grif]

I can't find a site for that vendor, I can only find the ICP testing. Interested in checking out their pods

I can't find a site for that vendor, I can only find the ICP testing. Interested in checking out their pods

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Florida Reef Labs is a family owned and operated Licensed Florida Aquaculture Farmer. We specialize in live copepods, live phytoplankton, marine rotifers, macroalgae ( Live Chaeto) for sale.

www.floridareeflabs.com

 

[Dinkins Aquatic Gardens Verified Sponsor]

Since copepods experience exponential growth, what you see is not uncommon at all. Tisbe and Apocyclops in particular grow rapidly (egg to egg in 1-2 weeks). If you had 100,000 females that each laid 30 eggs and half survived, you could literally have 15x the population in a matter of days (under the right circumstances). As has been previously mentioned, pods are like any other clean-up crew in your tank, in that their population will rise and fall (rapidly) as resources dictate.