Is it possible to have too many copepods?

[HaveFishWillTravel]

Based on your response you are taking yourself way to seriously. Read between the lines on all these answers.... Pods are good, that's what everyone is telling you.

I get it. It was kind of a dumb question. I honestly had no idea. Any ideas why my zoas are dying? No worms on them, no nudibranches at least that I can see. I looked at these things trampling on them and I think they are Amphipods or ‘the big ones’. They’re huge! My beautiful little blue 10 headed no idea what it’s name was zoa now looks no different than the rock he is sitting on. Makes me sad and I don’t know what I did or what to do next time...

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

If you put a small damsel or a small wrasse in there, your pods will disappear in no time and then you will wish that you have more pods.

I did a bunch of reading and went to my LFS yesterday. Pretty much don’t know why it’s happening and maybe never will. Probably not the Pods. Gonna do my usual water change today. I started cleaning up and sorting things today. Maybe that will help. You all are saying that you can’t have too many, it’s hard for me to believe that the amount that I am seeing can possibly be a good thing. It appears quite unbalanced and I honestly have been looking at this tank at night under light like this for months and have never seen swarms of these creatures like there are right now. Too creepy. Maybe I just don’t like bugs. I did find a very pretty and young possum wrasse that I could pick up that could easily munch away these guys. This is a new tank, but I have 3 fish that came from my original Nano (they are 4 years old). The clownfish should be okay because they are blind and they stay pretty much to themselves, but I have a somewhat feisty Damsel that might not appreciate a tank mate after ruling the roost all these years. Any thoughts on that?

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

If you put a small damsel or a small wrasse in there, your pods will disappear in no time and then you will wish that you have more pods.

I have a little Damsel and he still likes to be fed every other day. So do my clownfishes. You would think with such a smorgasbord available that they would be stuffed to the gills...

 

[Robinreefs94]

Are you sure it is pods? There are some small creatures that reminds of pods but in fact they live on the coral flesh, which irritates the coral slowly to death. I have only witnessed it and read about it regarding Euphyllias though.

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

Are you sure it is pods? There are some small creatures that reminds of pods but in fact they live on the coral flesh, which irritates the coral slowly to death. I have only witnessed it and read about it regarding Euphyllias though.

I am wondering the same thing myself. I was just looking at pods and these things are big and seem to have legs. I am trying to get a photo, but they scurry away too quickly. They look like they have a crustacean body, but more rectangular, antenna and eyes.

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

Are you sure it is pods? There are some small creatures that reminds of pods but in fact they live on the coral flesh, which irritates the coral slowly to death. I have only witnessed it and read about it regarding Euphyllias though.

These bigs ones seem to be mainly on one rock in the front of my tank. I have been thinking about putting on a glove and removing the couple zoas on it and chucking the entire rock. One sort of medium sized zoa and my now probably dead zoa is all that is on there. It’s one of the more porous rocks in the tank. It’s probably filled with a zillion creatures...

 

[mvbrandt]

There are some rumors of amphipods nomming Zoas if their other food sources are limited, but it's not consistent or common. A Wrasse will help, though will first decimate the copepod population, which is quite desirable to keep alive (something less desirable will replace the copepod place in the food cycle if they aren't there anymore).

 

[Robinreefs94]

I am wondering the same thing myself. I was just looking at pods and these things are big and seem to have legs. I am trying to get a photo, but they scurry away too quickly. They look like they have a crustacean body, but more rectangular, antenna and eyes.

Okay. A picture would help but I know it's not the easiest task. The bugs that do occur on Euphyllias are small, maybe 1-2 mm at max size.

 

[Robinreefs94]

There are some rumors of amphipods nomming Zoas if their other food sources are limited, but it's not consistent or common. A Wrasse will help, though will first decimate the copepod population, which is quite desirable to keep alive (something less desirable will replace the copepod place in the food cycle if they aren't there anymore).

Interesting. I've never come to the conclusion that pods disturb them during my 10 years in the hobby. Often it's other bugs (nudibranchs I'm looking at you) or no nutrients in the water column the problem. A picture would help a lot to see what the thread starter has.

 

[CyberGuy]

I did a bunch of reading and went to my LFS yesterday. Pretty much don’t know why it’s happening and maybe never will. Probably not the Pods. Gonna do my usual water change today. I started cleaning up and sorting things today. Maybe that will help. You all are saying that you can’t have too many, it’s hard for me to believe that the amount that I am seeing can possibly be a good thing. It appears quite unbalanced and I honestly have been looking at this tank at night under light like this for months and have never seen swarms of these creatures like there are right now. Too creepy. Maybe I just don’t like bugs. I did find a very pretty and young possum wrasse that I could pick up that could easily munch away these guys. This is a new tank, but I have 3 fish that came from my original Nano (they are 4 years old). The clownfish should be okay because they are blind and they stay pretty much to themselves, but I have a somewhat feisty Damsel that might not appreciate a tank mate after ruling the roost all these years. Any thoughts on that?

I have a Starcki damsel that I put in my nano tank (only 20 gallon) with a pair of clown fish and the damsel never bother my clowns.

That damsel wiped out my pods population in 2 days. I had a bunch of Tigger and Tisbe pods in my tank after seeding the tank with 4 bottles of the pods and the damsel that was added 1 day later quickly wipe them out in 2 days. What an expensive meal for the damsel. I even have a refugium with cheato, dragon breath, and bio media for the pods to hide and reproduce too but after three days, I cannot even see 1 pod. The damsel ate probably 95% of pods in 2 days and the pods were extinct on the 3rd day.

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

I have a Starcki damsel that I put in my nano tank (only 20 gallon) with a pair of clown fish and the damsel never bother my clowns.

That damsel wiped out my pods population in 2 days. I had a bunch of Tigger and Tisbe pods in my tank after seeding the tank with 4 bottles of the pods and the damsel that was added 1 day later quickly wipe them out in 2 days. What an expensive meal for the damsel. I even have a refugium with cheato, dragon breath, and bio media for the pods to hide and reproduce too but after three days, I cannot even see 1 pod. The damsel ate probably 95% of pods in 2 days and the pods were extinct on the 3rd day.

That’s pretty crazy! My Damsel hasn’t eaten any of them as near as I can tell.

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

Okay. A picture would help but I know it's not the easiest task. The bugs that do occur on Euphyllias are small, maybe 1-2 mm at max size.

I tried to get photos last night with a blue light so it didn’t scare them off, but that didn’t work. I just checked my ruler and my guess is these guys are more like 3mm. They look more like a cricket. I read there are over 5K different species of Amphipods and Copepods. I suppose it could be almost anything...

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

Interesting. I've never come to the conclusion that pods disturb them during my 10 years in the hobby. Often it's other bugs (nudibranchs I'm looking at you) or no nutrients in the water column the problem. A picture would help a lot to see what the thread starter has.

Thank you everyone for giving me ideas and helping me to understand these tiny creatures better. It must be something else that I am doing that is messing with them. I appreciate it! JL