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How Do copepods start.?

trockafella

By trockafella,
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YHSublime Neptune Reefer

YHSublime

Great question, I've often wondered myself. I always thought they don't just "appear" or grow in a cycling tank, but are introduced with additions to a tank, like a piece of live rock to seed, frag, etc.

 

I'm interested in what the answer is.

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Sharkey18 Legendary Reefer

Sharkey18

In order to get copepods, you need to add copepods, or copepod eggs (maybe?). 

 

But if there is nothing alive in the tank…. the sand is dead and the rock is dead…. no copepods will magically appear. 

 

No what I don't know is if dead sand / rock could possible harbor a dormant copepod cyst that could then hatch, but I doubt it. 

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howaboutme Legendary Reefer

howaboutme

Good question. I've always wondered about this as well.

 

I hear the statement that a healthy/mature tank must have pods a lot reading through various forum threads, etc. That statement must not be true, at least not as it is presented, which is to say that a tank w/o pods is not healthy/mature.

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YHSublime Neptune Reefer

YHSublime

Good question. I've always wondered about this as well.

 

I hear the statement that a healthy/mature tank must have pods a lot reading through various forum threads, etc. That statement must not be true, at least not as it is presented, which is to say that a tank w/o pods is not healthy/mature.

 

IMO, if you have heard the statement "that a healthy/mature tank must have pods" it is usually before or after a statement like "If you want to keep a Manadarin or a Wrasse..."

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Jon Lazar Oracle Reefer

Jon Lazar

(edited)

Even if you use dead rock and sand, you'll wind up with copepods and other microfauna if you add corals.  Copepods arrive as hitchhikers on things like mushroom rocks, other bits of rock new corals are attached to, and frag plugs.

 

Copepods release mature eggs into the water column to hatch, so you could also get fertile eggs from the bag of water when you add a fish from another tank.

 

Copepods don't have cysts.

Edited by Jon Lazar
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sachabballi reef Oracle Reefer

sachabballi reef

IMO, if you have heard the statement "that a healthy/mature tank must have pods" it is usually before or after a statement like "If you want to keep a Manadarin or a Wrasse..."

+1 i think that is livestock dependent. Copepods and amphiopods etc all eat detrius and are an important part of a healthy tank, they don't MAKE the tank healthy....it is just all part of a diverse CUC. 

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howaboutme Legendary Reefer

howaboutme

IMO, if you have heard the statement "that a healthy/mature tank must have pods" it is usually before or after a statement like "If you want to keep a Manadarin or a Wrasse..."

 

Yeah, that would make sense. But one incident is at one of our LFS..An employee was not convinced my new tank was cycled and said, "have you looked at night to see if pods are running around?" I said, I'm pretty sure I don't have pods. I bought fish anyways because the customer is always right.. :) So no, that statement was not always qualified by a mandarin or a wrasse.

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lutz123 Master Reefer

lutz123

What, if any life will naturally occur when you start with dry everything.?

  

 

Technically, with completely sterile rock, sand, and water nothing would be present to grow. If the rock and sand is simply dry you may get algae. Or who knows, if it's not been cleaned well there could be dry eggs that hatch when hydrated (like artemia does).

 

 

Do copepods need sand to survive in a tank?

No, they would be there.

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Jason Rhoads Grandmaster Reefer

Jason Rhoads

You will get algae unless you keep your tank in a vacuum sealed bubble. Algae spores can travel through the air, and will populate an otherwise sterile tank. I don't think pods operate the same way but have never researched. Good question!

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gmerek2 Oracle Reefer

gmerek2

lol yea they hitchhike on corals. When I dip, I look at the bottom to see what has fallen off. There is almost always a pod or two on every coral that comes in. I also find lots of other hitchhikers that fall off I had no Idea that a tiny coral can host that many organisms. The pods don't need sand. Mine live in live rock, in my overflows lol, in chaeto, in my algae scrubber, you name it and i have seen them there. I see less now that I have a 6 line wrasse eating them but now that some are safe in my fuge, my chaeto looks like a bees nest full of pods. If you start to get bigger ones, you will see them molt and will see clear pod skin floating around the tank. My fish will typically won't swallow the skin but if they get hungry enough I see them eat it. 

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zygote2k Neptune Reefer

zygote2k

Ok- we get that they can hitchhike on corals.

If anyone has studied the lifecycle of 'pods', then I'm sure there might be something about how long eggs/cysts/spores/plankters can survive in live rock. Maybe rock takes forever to dry out and there might be a million eggs on a rock....

I do know that if you dig a big hole in the ground and fill it with water, you'll have fish next year. Birds bring fish eggs to ponds so I could assume that fish could bring pods to tanks.

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dave w Grandmaster Reefer

dave w

(edited)

In temperate waters most copepods produce resting eggs (called cysts) in the fall which overwinter.  These cysts rest in the mud or sand.  Many copepods also produce resting cysts during times of environmental stresses unrelated to temperature.  So if your sand was collected during cold weather or stayed dry there is a good likelihood that resting cysts may be present.  I'm not positive but I think I've read that even tropical pods can make resting eggs.  There has been a lot of commercial interest to provide the right water conditions for resting eggs, then collect and sell them, but to the best of my knowledge nobody has yet found a way to make that commercially feasible.

 

Keep in mind that most copepods are like any other small invertebrate life form.  If food, salinity and temperature are good, the entire population is female, and every baby is a nonsexual female clone of momma.  When environmental stresses are encountered, the population dynamics change.  Mommy produces both male babies and sexual female babies so a variety of DNA combinations can result in a number of different types of offspring and better adapt to changing cultural conditions.

 

One more thing, many resting cysts have amazing longevity once they are dried out.  If they are like other life forms (lotus flower seeds germinate after 700 years, resting bacteria come to life after a couple of million years) it is very likely that your dried out sand still has many viable cysts.  I think larval jellyfish do the same, they can dry out in a hard shell and rest for a long time.

 

Sorry to sound academic and technical, but that's the two minute answer.  Maybe if I took 10 minutes I could make it more simple and easier to follow.

 

By the way, now that i've gone back and edited twice for bad grammar, it's been way over 10 minutes, so maybe i should have just made the answer more clear to begin with!

Edited by dave w
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