Online Pics of Amphipods?

[npaden]

Anyone know where I can find a pic of these little buggers. I am 99% sure that is what is crawling all around my sand and rocks at night, but they have be busy multiplying and there are TONS of them now. Just wanted to check to make sure they are what I think they are. Are to many of them bad? I've got some live sand on the way to add diversity, pretty much right now there are tons of them but all the same little bug/snail whatever. Thanks, Nathan

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[badgers]

http://www.mov.vic.gov.au/crust/list.html
may help. I am not good at biology so these may be the wrong things. I think Amphipods are near the bottom of the page.
thank you for your time and have a good day

[npaden]

Thanks Badgers! :) I found one that looks very similar, but not exact. Here is a picture of it: http://www.mov.vic.gov.au/crust/images/crusties/amphipod.1/j41042.jpg
Should I get something to eat them? Is this why my 6 line wrasse looks fat & happy and doesn't seem to eat much when I feed? Thanks, Nathan

[Kirbster]

Ditto to Ron's comment.
Calling Amphipods good guys is an understatement. There is really nothing bad to say about them. The adults, the juveniles, and the larvae are all critical components of a reef food web.

The grazing of Amphipods is often overlooked. I had a tank that is unfiltered and extremely heavily fed. At others request I had the nitrates measured (50ppm). Phosphate was presumably also a problem. But I never saw a speck of nuisance algae. I had on occaision placed hair algae covered rocks into the tank, but it would not spread and eventually the Centropyge eiblii ate it. The only residents in this 40 gallon tank were a pair of clowns and the angel (and millions of amphipods...literally swarming all over at night.) Then I had a massive brain fart and added a fairy wrasse and some kind of Pseudochelinus wrasse similar to a four-line. They got along great and looked happy. Nothing else changed. Feeding did not increase. Within a couple months the tank was sprouting hair algae everywhere. There was one fat wrasse (the fairy jumped out) and no amphipods swarming any more. I attribute the algae control to the presence of micrograzers such as amphipods, because the Angel certainly wasn't a bold grazer. My addition of unbalancing predators in such a small tank devastated the micrograzer populations and thus my natural algae control.

Reagrding a tank having too many Amphipods, I think the population would become self-limiting after a time in a closed system. There are countless natural ways for animals and plants to limit themselves when they reach overpopulation in an ecosystem that is unbalanced for some reason.

In other words, don't worry, be happy. :)

KA

[npaden]

I have 1 6 line wrasse in my 120 and if anything I have more 'pods now than ever b4. I've never noticed him eat anything when I feed the tank, but he seems fat. I guess he must be eating them? Oh well, this also helps me understand why my snails and lawnmower blenny are starving. (I lost my lawnmower this week - he never took to eating out of the dropper very well) I haven't seen any algae on the rocks, just diatoms on the glass that I clean once a week. I had 50 snails (I got the tank used with a MAJOR HA problem) and am down to around 35 now. (after 2 months) Oh well, let me know if you think the 'pods are what my 6 line is eating. He is still pretty small so I doubt he could be more than 10 of the larger ones a day and I doubt that would put any kind of a dent in the population.
Kirbster, how did you get your nitrates down? Mine are at 10 but I am watching them closely. I am adding the deeper sand, and am thinking about a refugium with macro algae (can't do macro algae in main tank w/ 2 Tangs). Thanks, Nathan

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[alde]

Hi All,

Interesting thread. In my 65 gallon I have seen a couple of Pods now and then but this is very rare. Is there anything I can do to encourage them to multiply (I know, I know a little soft music and champaign). I had a Scooter Blenny for a few months and 2 weeks ago it died. I assume it was eating the pods and finally ran out of food.

Thanks, AL

[npaden]

Alde, Do you check them out in the middle of the night with a flashlight? I couldn't sleep last night and checked at 3 a.m. and that's when I saw a TON of them. I've checked around 7 a.m. and around 12 p.m. and not noticed near as many. I think it has to be near the middle of the dark cycle for ALL of them to be out and about. It had been over a month since I had performed the flashlight trick at 3 a.m. and this time there was MUCH more life. I also noticed a little white worm about an 1 1/2" long and about the thickness of a big stick pin, I've seen a flat worm one time also. With my new live sand, hopefully there will be all kinds of stuff I don't have a clue about. Oh well.

I'm not sure what scooter blennies eat, but I thought they mainly ate algae. Not sure though. Later, Nathan

[alde]

Hi Nathan,

The Scooter was always picking at the rocks. I do think he was eating pods. I have looked into my tank with a flashlight at night, but mostly a half hour after lights out. I have seen a couple of pods swimming around and a some worms. I will have to waite for the weekend to look in the middle of the dark time. I will be getting some new LR soon and maybe this will help seed things.

[alde]

Hi Nathan,

The Scooter was always picking at the rocks. I do think he was eating pods. I have looked into my tank with a flashlight at night, but mostly a half hour after lights out. I have seen a couple of pods swimming around and a some worms. I will have to waite for the weekend to look in the middle of the dark time. I will be getting some new LR soon and maybe this will help seed things.

Al

[npaden]

Alde, I added a lb or so of the dreggs off of the bottom of my LFS LR curing tank. They thought I was NUTS adding that $tuff to my tank! :) That is where I think I got my latest influx of 'pods. FWIW, Nathan

[Biosystems]

Alde,

Depending on your livestock choices you may have something eating the pods. As npaden said, six line wrasses love pods so do mandarins and they base much of their diets on them. If you look at night, they are attracted to the flashlight so you should see many of them at one location if you hold the light still. They can go through cycles in the tank depending on available food sources, etc.

If you wnat to increase the populations you need to provide the environment that the normally breed in/feed in. This would include lush growths of macroalgaes. I have also noticed my pod populations increase when I started feeding the tank at night with nanochloropsus, but do to the cyclical nature of pods, I can not directly attribute this population explosion to the nano.

HTH,
Tim

[rshimek]

Your photo is indeed an amphipod. These are good guys...

They are all purpose scavengers and herbivores and, unlike blue-leg hermits, actually eat algae. In addition, they are good food for many fish. I really can't imagine any tank having too many, but I suppose anything is possible...

Cheers, Ron