WHAT IS A COPEPOD AND AMPHIPOD?
COPEPOD - Harpacticold copepods (copepods, pods)
-1 mm long
-tropical seas
-small tanks 10 gal or larger
-lighting immaterial
-Foods and feeding: Microalgae, small particulate matter.
-Common, detritivores, food for fishes, quite desirable
The tiny crustaceans that scuttle around ocean bottoms and in aquariums are likely all harpacticoid copepods. Most aquarists notice them about a week or 10 days after setting up a tank. They appear as small white specks moving on the glass, or swams of tiny white dots in the water. Small, teardrop shaped animals, they move in jerky spurts. They enter tanks on live rock or in live sand. They feed by scraping small algae or bacteria off rocks. They reporduce rapidly and are excellent food for many aquarium animals. No special care is necessary. They thrive in reef tanks and do especially well in tanks with a good sand bed. They are particularly good food for mandarin fishes, and a good population of them may be neccessary for the survival of these fishes.
AMPHIPODS - Gammaridean amphipods ( scuds, side shrimps, gammarus shrimps)
-to about 2 in. aquarium forms are usually less than 0.4 in long.
-all seas
-small tanks 10 gal or larger.
-lighting immaterial
-Aquarium forms are usually detritivores.
-harmless good food for other animals, easy to raise in a refugium.
Common in most marine tanks with live rock or sand. These highly successful crustaceans lack a carapace. Unlike shrimps, all body segments are visible. Colors vary from colorless to browns or greens. Flattened a bit from side to side. Hindmost visible appendages tend to be longer than the anterior ones, and the terminal segments are splayhed out to the side, allowing the animal to stand upright like a bicycle with training wheels. Most in our tanks live by scraping algae off the substrate. They are good fish food and seem to know it, so they are seldom visible during the day. They can be cultured in a refugium. Chaetomorpha crassa algae is a good species for amphipod culture, as are the various filamentous green algae referred to as hair algae.
COPEPOD - Harpacticold copepods (copepods, pods)
-1 mm long
-tropical seas
-small tanks 10 gal or larger
-lighting immaterial
-Foods and feeding: Microalgae, small particulate matter.
-Common, detritivores, food for fishes, quite desirable
The tiny crustaceans that scuttle around ocean bottoms and in aquariums are likely all harpacticoid copepods. Most aquarists notice them about a week or 10 days after setting up a tank. They appear as small white specks moving on the glass, or swams of tiny white dots in the water. Small, teardrop shaped animals, they move in jerky spurts. They enter tanks on live rock or in live sand. They feed by scraping small algae or bacteria off rocks. They reporduce rapidly and are excellent food for many aquarium animals. No special care is necessary. They thrive in reef tanks and do especially well in tanks with a good sand bed. They are particularly good food for mandarin fishes, and a good population of them may be neccessary for the survival of these fishes.
AMPHIPODS - Gammaridean amphipods ( scuds, side shrimps, gammarus shrimps)
-to about 2 in. aquarium forms are usually less than 0.4 in long.
-all seas
-small tanks 10 gal or larger.
-lighting immaterial
-Aquarium forms are usually detritivores.
-harmless good food for other animals, easy to raise in a refugium.
Common in most marine tanks with live rock or sand. These highly successful crustaceans lack a carapace. Unlike shrimps, all body segments are visible. Colors vary from colorless to browns or greens. Flattened a bit from side to side. Hindmost visible appendages tend to be longer than the anterior ones, and the terminal segments are splayhed out to the side, allowing the animal to stand upright like a bicycle with training wheels. Most in our tanks live by scraping algae off the substrate. They are good fish food and seem to know it, so they are seldom visible during the day. They can be cultured in a refugium. Chaetomorpha crassa algae is a good species for amphipod culture, as are the various filamentous green algae referred to as hair algae.
