Plankton

[JPloman]

Hello everyone.

I have had my tank set up for about 8 months now and I noticed the other day these little tiny shrimp looking things. I took them to my local fish store and the owner said they were plankton.

Does anyone know where it would have come from? Also does anyone else have this in their tank?

Is it good to have plankton? I cant imagine that its bad, but I have never heard of anyone having it in their tank before.

 

[wrightme43]

Little white guys? probley amphiopods, and copepods. Good news. Not really plankton, in my mind. Fish love them to eat. Some of them eat algae and help to keep your tank free of junk (to a degree) They are not a bad thing at all. Do a search on pods, amphiopods and copepods. You should find some very interesting articles. Search button is at the top in the reef frontiers header. HTH Steve

 

[JPloman]

I have Pods too. These are totally different in appearance. These are much smaller than the Pods we have.

It all started when I saw these things in my tank I had never seen before... allow me to discribe them. They were about the size of a fingernail in thickness and I would say like a 1/16 of an inch long. They would just float around the tank, in and out of the stump. Then one day they were gone. Then these tiny, tiny shrimp looking things showed up. Could they be a different kind of Pod that maybe I dont know about?

 

[mojoreef]

JP thier probibly copapods, they are very small, pretty much planktonic. The larger pods you also have are Amphipods they are the larger breeds that you will find running around the rocks.

hope it helps


Mike

 

[NaH2O]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

Here's a little reading on them: 'Pods Delicious and Nutritious

and an image from the article:

 

[orion76]

I have Pods too. These are totally different in appearance. These are much smaller than the Pods we have.

"pods" is a pretty generalized description that covers hundreds if not thousands of different critters.