Pods prefer to live...

[MMM33732]

Do pods prefer to live on a sandbed, in rock rubble, or in a rotating ball of cheato? Reason I ask is I plan to not put any sand or rocks in my fuge, but only a ball of cheato. There will be a remote deep sand bed (10g with 6-8" or sand) that will dump into the cheato ball fuge. After the fuge, water will travel through a bunch of rock rubble and then to the return pump. I assumed the pods would primarily live in the rock rubble area and if they came from any of the other 2 areas, they would collect int eh rubble area to propagate. Sound good or is the rock rubble area a waste and would that be better off in the remote deep sand bed? My goal is to keep the cheato in a bare bottom tank pretty much so it will have a better chance of rotating instead of snagging. This will also help stop sand from being blowing around in the fuge and getting sucked up in the return. I also figure the rubble would help keep micro bubbles out of the return as well as any stray cheato would get snagged up and eaten by the pods as it breaks down. The rubble would also help the keep that area shaded from the cheato light so the pods would hopefully stay more active there and get sucked up.

 

[MMM33732]

Heres a brief illustration

 

[SDguy]

The best amphipod population I ever had was in a tank with large crushed coral as a "sand" bed. The whole thing was crawling with them...if you squinted your eyes, it looked like the whole thing was alive. Kinda creepy...but the fish loved it

 

[LeslieH]

Some species have very particular requirements & will only live on an algae, or a sponge, or corals, or whatever. It's pretty safe to say that whatever the pods arrive on is what they prefer. If the species are generalists they will spread to all 3 areas.