No pods in my refugium. Why?

[edsbeaker]

Hi all,
My tank has been up and running for a bit over three months now. It has had a refugium with cheato and live rock from the beginning. I feed the tank "Rods" food almost exclusively. I don't seem to have any pods at all in the refugium and I'm not sure what the reason is. The only possible thing I can think of may be a banished coral banded shrimp down there. Do shrimp eat pods?

Ammomia-
Nitrate- All undetectable
Nitrite-
Phosphate-


Also my sump is layed out in three sections.
Drain and skimmer in first section, cheato and live rock in the second, and return pump in the third section.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[HappySkittles]

if you cycled the tank with the live rock and the cheato anything that was alive on it probably died during the cycle. i killed many an amphipod that was on my cheato D:

you can buy live copepods and just throw them in. that should jump start a population
after my tank cycles thats what im gonna do. i have 2 bottles ready

 

[edsbeaker]

Thanks, that makes sense. The cheato was added after cycling, so I'm not sure whether it ever had much life on it to begin with.
I'm still curious, though, whether the coral banded shrimp will dine on the copepods that I will add. If he will, I'll need to find him a new home.

 

[HappySkittles]

maybe this will help?

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/shrimpcare/p/cbshrimp.htm

Is aggressive towards other shrimp and crustaceans. It also preys on worms, snails and small hermit crabs. Being a nocturnal animal, the Coral Banded Shrimp greatly prefers the protection of a cave or overhang during the day.

with this info i would think the coal banded would eat the copepods
i knew they could be aggressive but i didnt know what in particular they would be aggressive to

 

[edsbeaker]

I think that the CBS is probably eating up the population. It must be eating something, right? I'll get him out of there, and then see if the pod population begins to increase, if not, I'll seed it to get it started.

Thanks

 

[HappySkittles]

no problem
glad i could help
hopefully you get your pods going soon