No copepods

[ReeferNoob4ever]

So I have a strange issue that I have never ran into in all the years of keeping reef tanks (off and on). All my tanks have always had pods of some sort. I can always hit the tank with a red light at night and see them crawling everywhere. I still refer to them as bugs. However, my current situation is different. I have a 10 gallon that has a ton of pods and worms. My 20 gallon only has worms and they are peanut worms. I had bristle worms and spaghetti worms but once I put in my banded coral shrimp he went HAM on them (bristles) and eradicated them from my tank. Now I have seen him mincing up the peanut worms. I have a cheato reactor and have added live pods but after only a couple days they were gone. I have a black face chromis and an engineer goby. I suspect maybe the chromis is eating the pods and I have witnessed the shrimp eating the worms. I feed my tank mysis, brine, flakes, pellets, etc. Whatever I feel like feeding that day and everything eats so I'm not starving them.

Should I be concerned? I have a fighting conch that sifts the sand and obviously the engineer rearranges the substrate on the daily.

 

[mcgyvr]

A lack or abundance of copepods or worms doesnt make or break a tank.
An abundance may point to an excessive food/detritus issue as their populations tend to self limit/grow based on available food..

 

[ReeferNoob4ever]

Agreed. I would tend to think that if my Nitrates weren't 12ppm and Phosphates .10ppm. My cheato grows like kudzu.

 

[AlSimmons]

As long as your fish are eating the flakes, pellets etc I wouldn't worry too much about the pods. They're nice to have and all, but they don't really do much for a tank as far as keeping it clean goes, they're just there. (or not) Now if you had a Mandarin or perhaps a Pipefish it would be a different story. Specialized feeders like these need a self-sustaining pod population to thrive.