Copepods? The benefits.

[Ryan15236]

I’ve been thinking about pods some lately. I believe they might be a good indicator of your tanks microbiome and overall healthy. Probably more specifically a breeding population of pods. If algae increases does your pod population also? When I notice I’m getting more algae on glass than I have recently it seems that I also see lots more of copepods on glass. It may seem obvious more food = more pods but if you don’t have a healthy breeding population then algae may get uncontrollable. I don’t think regularly buying pods will help much unless feeding certain fish like a mandarin. Adding some on occasion might add diversity to gene pool for breeding population.

I have been thinking about getting a mandarin myself but wonder if that wouldn’t put too much pressure on my tanks breeding population of pods

 

[mcarroll]

I've seen grazing fish pick at pods like blennies, but it could be just algae or diatom. Regarding the larger fish, I'm not sure either... my LFS mentioned that one of his yellow tangs always pick at rockwork, which I assume could be filled with pods.

I've read that grazers are most often not grazing the algae for the algae – they apparently graze it for all the critters that live among/on the algae. Pods, dino's, diatoms, et al. Steak & salad!!