losing amphipods/copepods

[dmh41532]

I've noticed over the past month all of the copepods in my tank have disappeard, the amphipods are almost gone. Is this good, bad, nothing?

Thanks

 

[celamb89]

do you have a natural predator in your livestock? do you have a sump with Lr and chaeto to keep the population up?

 

[dmh41532]

i have two clowns and an orchid dottyback. yes, and i have macroalgea.

 

[celamb89]

I would think the orchid is preying on the pods... If you have a large enough sump with current pods in it they can reproduce and keep a healthy population... of course this depends on the size of the sump with chaeto and add LR to it if you can...

 

[dmh41532]

that makes sense, i've seen it eating bristleworm . I'm not going to add live rock at this point, I just want to be sure all is well with my tank.

thanks

 

[celamb89]

make sure the orchid is eating, if it runs out of meaty foods such as worms, pods, etc... he'll be out of food, try offering other meaty foods to supplement its diet

 

[Squidmotron]

FWIW, their population tends to explode early on and the sort of retreat some time later naturally. Just because you don't see them as much doesn't mean there are not any.

 

[dmh41532]

the orchid also eats when I feed the clowns. I offer mysis and brine shrimp.