Different Seasons = Different Critters?

[MrKite]

I'm curious if the seasons have any effect on what kind of creatures will arrive in TBS rock. Is there a "better" time of year to avoid Mantis Shrimp, for example? Or maybe there are more Porcelain Crabs in summer vs. winter? Are coral types and "quantities" affected by the seasons in the Gulf?

A few words on the matter in general would be appreciated, with emphasis on Spring, since I'm planning a TBS rock purchase any day now... ;-) (Soon as I can trap those two Clarkii Clown monsters and get my water mixing/change procedure perfected.... Any day now!)

Thanks,

--Charlie Henderson

 

[docklink]

MrKite, take a look here:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=263125
HTH

 

[shanekennedy]

i believe you're more apt to get bad pods during warmer season

 

[shanekennedy]

Dr Ron quote from this thread:

"My thoughts are that if the tank has a lot of diversity of suspension feeding and surface deposit feeding organisms, the planktonic and spore forming life stages of the parasites are consumed by these animals. Such diversity won't do anything to control the parasitic isopods or other predatory animals such as mantis shrimps or crabs that hitchhike in on live rock.

However, you are right. It is an old thread, and to some extent has been superceded by events. Subsequent to this thread, the incidence of parasitic isopods became significantly more common in reef tanks, and quarantining live rock may help detect those. At the time I wrote the statement, I considered the likelyhood of getting such organisms to be small. That is no longer the case, particularly in the spring to early summer with some live rock from Florida.

On the other hand, isolating the live rock is not likely to prevent those organisms from entering the tank, as with the exception of crabs, most of them will not be apparent in a isolation system."