isopods.

mecold · Nov 21, 2006

First thing first, No pictures due to my basic point and shoot camera and lack of a good zoom.

I was moving frags around in my tank today to put them in their new homes and noticed a strange "bug". These bugs were on the bottom of a frag disk on my sand bed. At first, I thought flatworms, greattttttt! So I did a freshwater dip trying to kill the little b's. The fw dip worked after about 5 minutes. On a closer inspection of a living one, I noticed these things had what looked like legs underneath them. Also with my unscientific touch test, these things felt like they had a shell like some kind of pod. I think these things are isopods.

So questions now.

What eats em? Will they harm corals? What are your experiences with them?

Pazazz · Nov 21, 2006

They are great for your tank.... Wrasses, Mandrins eat them they are actually classified as a form of zooplankton. they eat detris and phyto/alge blooms. I have them and they will hide in the rock work and in frags but in 17 years total in reefing I never had one cause issues with living corals in my tanks....

mecold · Nov 21, 2006

I was researching them after posting to find out a little more about them. From what I have found thus far, for the most part, they are ok with corals. I am going to get a sixline wrasse anyway. Maybe a target mandarin (180lbs like rock with a fuge FULL of pods to feed it) because I love that fish. Thanks mike.