what eats copepods?

[clowdy]

do corals eat copepods or just fish. i know you need copepods for a healthy reef tank but i'm not sure why.

[Pandora]

Copepods are dentrivores, which means they process a lot of the "gunk" on your tank bottom that would otherwise rot and turn into toxic compounds. Most corals (with mouths) won't eat anything as small as a copepod, though a larger amphipod, maybe... most likely they wont touch any of the live stuff in your DSB. The fish that eat them include (but are not limited to) mandarin dragonets, blennies, smaller gobies such as the firefish, some small wrasses such as the 6-line; also some smaller crustaceans like peppermint shrimp will eat them sometimes. Most bottom-feeding fish prefer to hunt amphipods, which are bigger.

[sdreefer21]

My neon dottyback hunts them all day through the lr.

[DAN THE MAN]

Cleaner Chrimp and Coral Banded Shrimp also eat them.