Zooplankton question

[meganias123]

Hi,
I have a tank that is about 6 months old (everything new from start-up). 36gal bowfront with a 20 gal sump and a proximate 55 lbs dry liverock (that I cycled for a month and a half before adding and setting up my main tank). I bought a [separate] piece of liverock a few months afterwards that had a few hitchhikers (baby snails [turbos?], coralline algae, aptasia (yay... not really), Asterina stars, a little shrimp, and some other things... but what this post is about is the other hitchhiker, zooplankton. I added a syringe full of them into my display tank (which was not connected to the tank that held this hitchhiker-full rock) and since then they have reproduced to a much larger population. A week or so ago I noticed a few spots on my sandbed of dinos... and it has spread onto my rocks but isn't getting out of hand. I noticed that since the Dino outbreak my zooplankton population has increased drastically. I see them more often on my rocks and I was wondering if they eat the dinos? I have been decreasing my light output to reduce the Dino issue but I can't do much because I have a sebae rooted onto my baserock.
Any comments or replies would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Did you buy zooplankton or pods? Can you give us a picture? Once the cycle is complete ammonia-nitrite-nitrate and ammonia and nitrite are 0 you can purchase your clean up crew to eat all the different algae you will start growing in your tank.

 

[meganias123]

Thanks for the response! I didn't buy them though, they hitchhiked on a rock. When I was first researching what they might be I thought they were pods but then I saw someone call them zooplankton. They are tiny... white specks close to the size of salt. I'm away from home so I can't manage a picture for you, sorry.

 

[meganias123]

Here is a picture I found of a few of them on my nassarius snail shell (little white specks).

And this is what their tiny bodies/body shapes seem to look like when I focus my eyes to see them.

** picture resource: https://fcmdsc.wordpress.com/tag/micropolitan-museum-of-microscopic-art-forms/

 

[Dkuhlmann]

If they are white little grains of sand they are more than likely pod in one form or another. They are great food for many different species of fish and if they are in your sump they most certainly are connected to your main display tank. They will be pumped through the return pump quite easily. If you wish to keep them in your system don't use a sock for filtering as they will eradicate them in a hurry..

You can identify them here : http://www.melevsreef.com/critter-id

 

[Dkuhlmann]

They are little cleaners and cleaning your nassarius snail. I call them pods, to me zooplankton is a different creature. But I guess in a way they all are zooplankton of one sort or another. Just depends on how they are classified.

 

[meganias123]

Yeah, I haven't read anything bad about them (on the contrary). I only have a pair of Ocellaris clowns... nothing that feeds off of them (as far as I know). Do you think they eat the dinoflagellates? Since their number seemed to increase drastically after the dinos showed up...

 

[scootshoot]

On the topic of zooplankton, are these living organisms? If so, how do the bottle versions work from seachem like this one, http://www.amazon.com/Seachem-Reef-Zooplankton-500-ML/dp/B00IQM20KC

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Both are good questions and I'm not sure on either but do suspect both will feed them. I feed Kent Microvert to my corals and when I do the pods explode out of the rock and sand to feed. From reading several articles on how to raise them there are many types of food that work but mostly phytoplankton. I would guess that many different plankton cultures would work but some of the How To's are pretty specific in what to feed and how to raise them along with rotifers is very similar. Rotifers are preferred food for baby clown fry.

Here is one site for reference

http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c90/c199/rotifers-101-c200.html

I think I may try doing this, then I can safely keep a mandarin goby in my smaller tank

 

[heathlindner25]

I just put a cap full of" brightwell aquatics ": zooplanktos-L
Tank loves it..