Tiny Copepod eating fish suggestion for Evo 13.5?

[Loring]

Hello,

I currently have an Evo 13.5 stocked with a tailspot blenny and a small pair of picasso clownfish as well as some soft and LPS corals. I do weekly 2.5 gallon water changes. I noticed this morning when my lights started ramping up that there is kind of an alarming amount of copepods and what I imagine are some sort of amphipods running around the rocks. I never really considered a fourth fish before and I'm not sure if I can house that many fish in this tank so I was thinking of something as small as possible perhaps. So I guess I have couple questions.

Can I keep 4 fish in here safely if so what are any possible tiny copepod eating fish that would be reef safe?
Do I then need to continuously re-stock copepods or do these buggers reproduce enough on their own?
Do I even care about the copepods to begin with and I should stop worrying and just enjoy my tank?

Any help is appreciated thanks.

 

[blaxsun]

4 fish would be fine. A small wrasse would probably really enjoy your bounty of copepods.

 

[Loring]

4 fish would be fine. A small wrasse would probably really enjoy your bounty of copepods.

Any suggestion on what kind perhaps? I don't know much about Wrasses and it looks like my LFS has 27 different ones pictured here... I didn't even realize there were that many kinds available.

 

[clownfishdaddy]

Hello,

I currently have an Evo 13.5 stocked with a tailspot blenny and a small pair of picasso clownfish as well as some soft and LPS corals. I do weekly 2.5 gallon water changes. I noticed this morning when my lights started ramping up that there is kind of an alarming amount of copepods and what I imagine are some sort of amphipods running around the rocks. I never really considered a fourth fish before and I'm not sure if I can house that many fish in this tank so I was thinking of something as small as possible perhaps. So I guess I have couple questions.

Can I keep 4 fish in here safely if so what are any possible tiny copepod eating fish that would be reef safe?
Do I then need to continuously re-stock copepods or do these buggers reproduce enough on their own?
Do I even care about the copepods to begin with and I should stop worrying and just enjoy my tank?

Any help is appreciated thanks.

you can definitely add another fish although one that is sustained on pods is highly unlikely thinking in comparison to dragonets they are prolific eaters consuming more than 2,000+ pods a day, a tank that small doesnt have room for pods to keep reproducing enough to sustain a pod eating fish but i did have good luck training a pair of scooter dragonets to eat frozen food in my old fluval 13.5 they ended up spawning everyday at 8 oclock until lights out in that tiny little thing, i had to rehome them because i couldnt stand watching them not have enough room to rise up into the water column during spawn

 

[undermind]

My vote would be to not worry about them and enjoy the fact that you have a healthy population of them. They're beneficial to your tank and a lot of people scramble to try to get them in their tank because they can eat bad things like dinos.

If you decided you definitely wanted a fish, I would consider a Target Dragonet, aka Psychedelic Dragonet. Or a Ruby Red Dragonet. Both are smaller and beautiful. I've had good luck getting Targets to take frozen food. That's a tougher task with Mandarin Dragonets.

But keep in mind that Dragonets feed all day nonstop, and will wipe out your copepod population. Or at least reduce it greatly. Copepod behavior also changes with a predator in the tank, and they'll be much less visible.

Wrasses are less "dependent" on live foods than the Dragonets and could get by on frozen alone if needed. But you'd need a suitable wrasse in a tank that size, and they will absolutely jump if you don't have a lid to keep them in.

 

[rmorris_14]

Depending on the size of fish, personally I think 4 fish will be pushing your bioload to a place where you are constantly battling high nutrients in that tank. Probably, ok if you went with some of the smaller goby species.

 

[NanoJHB]

A rainford goby could be a great little addition ! Won't need as much swim space as a wrasse and should help out with all those pods

 

[DeniseAndy]

I would not get a pod eating fish specifically. They are just constantly eating and will starve unless eating frozen/pellet foods.
The pods do no harm and the other fish you do have will eat them. Maybe a small goby could be added (or two).

 

[Loring]

I would not get a pod eating fish specifically. They are just constantly eating and will starve unless eating frozen/pellet foods.
The pods do no harm and the other fish you do have will eat them. Maybe a small goby could be added (or two).

Yeah I was hoping for something that would maybe help with the pods but not be dependent on them, my blenny doesn't care and my clowns are useless hosting my inlet most of the day. I assume a goby would eat pellets and maybe some pods then?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Rainfords (Jester) goby would be good. Also, you could get a few of the trimma or eviota gobies too. Captive bred and so fun and little.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Just saw, where in Minnesota. I am originally from MN.

 

[Loring]

Just saw, where in Minnesota. I am originally from MN.

Nice, currently in Maple Grove

 

[DeniseAndy]

I went to St. Thomas for college. Lived in St. Paul a while. Grew up much further south.

 

[undermind]

Yeah I was hoping for something that would maybe help with the pods but not be dependent on them

Regarding "help with the pods"...

I must emphasize pods are never a problem. They won't grow out of control, and there is no need for you to find a solution to keep their population in check or anything like that. A decimated pod population would be a bigger concern in my opinion than one left uncontrolled. They eat detritus, diatoms, and keep bad stuff at bay.

I let my tank go fallow for 76 days early on with my current tank, and the copepods and amphipods went absolutely bonkers. This of course had no detrimental effect other than the fact that the amphipods did annoy the zoas. They became quite brash with no predators and would run around all day and night out in the open. The amphipods were big enough that they would annoy the zoas when they ran over them. So they started staying closed, which became a legitimate problem. But in your tank, I don't think this would ever, ever happen as long as there are fish of any kind (referring to your existing fish)

 

[tydeck]

I have a 6 line wrasse in my EVO V. Eats pods like crazy. He’s fat and sassy