Noticing a few of these many legged critter

jy808 · Mar 31, 2020

Just noticed about 3 of these. Can i get some help to identify these and if they are good or bad for the system.

I did have copepods in the system before but have not seen them, plus these seem to have many legs and an antenna.

jy808 · Mar 31, 2020

Zydan777 · Mar 31, 2020

Looks like Amphipods. They are good

jy808 · Mar 31, 2020

Ni

Zydan777 said:
Looks like Amphipods. They are good

Nice thanks.

jy808 · Mar 31, 2020

Do they breed well in tank? Would love to get a mandarin goby for my tank!

Zydan777 · Mar 31, 2020

They can breed in tank but I have a Mandiran that I have been struggling with eating and It will only eat Tisbes or Tiggers and I cant keep enough in my tank because my clowns love eating them too. I think the Amphipods are a little too big for them.

Flippers4pups · Mar 31, 2020

jy808 said:
Do they breed well in tank? Would love to get a mandarin goby for my tank!

They can, but most amphipods are nocturnal and can be kinda quick for a Mandarin to catch and as @Zydan777 said, copepods are a mainstay for mandarins. Much smaller and much slower. Really need a very mature system to sustain even copepods. A refugium with chaetomorpa algae helps give copepods a safe place to reproduce and feed the system.

hermocentricorbit · Mar 31, 2020

jy808 said:
Do they breed well in tank? Would love to get a mandarin goby for my tank!

They breed really well if the conditions are right! They love reproducing in chaeto and sea lettuce and my mandarin devours them; he loves to hunt, not just be fed. I harvest smaller amphipods, juveniles, perfect size. But you’ll need a lot of them, at least 50-100 to maintain a steady population for one Mandarin.

On top of keeping a robust pod population of course, a varied diet is the best one.