[james0816]

Would like to revisit the subject of how to get rid of these guys.

Now I know they are harmless and such so that's not my reason. Other things mentioned are cutting back on feeding a substrate vac'ing.

Well here's my deal. I have two plant only tanks, no live stock so nothing to feed except the plants which is EI ferts and CO2. I've noticed that these two tanks seem to be running amuck with Copepods. Not sure how these guys are thriving they way they are but wow! It is so bad that you can literally see white spots on the substrate from them.

With one tank, I can vac it "farily" easy as it is Flourite (yes I'm trying it again). The other tank is aquasoil and vac'ing that will just not work at all due to the break down of the substrate.

They are future shrimp tanks and I'd hate to have to add stock to them to take care of this issue. As a last resort, maybe some pygmy cories?

Any other safe ways to erradicating these things?

 

[johnny313]

I had so many in my 90g shrimp tank. I've seen tons on the substrate. I bought 20 pygmy cory's and now I barely see any.

 

[diwu13]

I had so many in my 90g shrimp tank. I've seen tons on the substrate. I bought 20 pygmy cory's and now I barely see any.

Do you still keep the pygmy cory's even with your shrimp in there? I have read that they are "shrimp safe" but will they nip at baby shrimplets and make them die of stress?

 

[johnny313]

Do you still keep the pygmy cory's even with your shrimp in there? I have read that they are "shrimp safe" but will they nip at baby shrimplets and make them die of stress?

yes I do. my baby shrimp walk right past the cory's.... that doesn't mean my cory's don't eat any... just never seen any do it
I also have panda cory's in there too. never seen them eat any shrimp. I also have a lot of drift wood, mosses and floating plants for the shrimp to hide in.

 

[diwu13]

yes I do. my baby shrimp walk right past the cory's.... that doesn't mean my cory's don't eat any... just never seen any do it
I also have panda cory's in there too. never seen them eat any shrimp. I also have a lot of drift wood, mosses and floating plants for the shrimp to hide in.

I got mixed reviews from people here. I might consider getting a few then considering I do have cyclops darting around the tank. Will the pygmy cory's eat those as well?

 

[johnny313]

I got mixed reviews from people here. I might consider getting a few then considering I do have cyclops darting around the tank. Will the pygmy cory's eat those as well?

i cant say for sure, but I do know my copepod population decreased drastically. my pandas went crazy for them. I only purchased pygmy's bc im starting to breed them.

the rule is if a fish can fit it in its mouth its food!

how big is your tank?

 

[diwu13]

i cant say for sure, but I do know my copepod population decreased drastically. my pandas went crazy for them. I only purchased pygmy's bc im starting to breed them.

the rule is if a fish can fit it in its mouth its food!

how big is your tank?

That's why I was worried about the shrimplets being harassed to death. I have three 10 gallons all of which could use some cyclops cleaning.

 

[mordalphus]

You could trap them

 

[diwu13]

You could trap them

You know, I just saw the glass traps you had today. Those do look very nice! Wouldn't tiny shrimplets also get stuck in there?

 

[mordalphus]

It's place with the opening facing the substrate, I have trapped any shrimplets yet, however I did trap nematodes, seed shrimp and planaria overnight

 

[youjettisonme]

You could trap them

Drop a slice of zucchini in the tank at night. Weight it with a plant weight. Pull it out in the morning with tweezers. Copepods will be all over the underside of the vegetable, and if you pull it out fast enough, none will jump, but the shrimp will if you have any. You can easily yank 15 at once.

 

[mordalphus]

But for copepods you could probably use a bottle trap, especially if there's no other living things in there.


Or just flood the tanks with co2

 

[diwu13]

I have shrimps in all the tanks so besides the traps, I'm guessing pygmy cory's are a safe bet?

 

[james0816]

have a link to the bottle trap?

 

[james0816]

Or just flood the tanks with co2

This might be worth while. I can put 2 bottles on a tank at a time and see what we get. I'm sure the plants wouldn't mind.

 

[rbus]

I don't understand why you'd want to get rid of copepods? The best tanks I ever had contained thriving colonies of microorganism. I unintentionally bred rummy nose tetras, aspidoras, dwarf cichlids, a wide variety of shrimp, and more in my most established tanks.

Perhaps I just think this thread is ironic because I have been trying to figure out what microrganisms will do well in a brackish water tank. So not to derail the thread, but does anybody know how to best create a culture of micros for brackish water?

 

[johnny313]

its not bad at all having them in a controlled qty. but they can get over populated if there is nothing to eat them.

 

[sayurasem]

What are copepods?

 

[youjettisonme]

its not bad at all having them in a controlled qty. but they can get over populated if there is nothing to eat them.

Exactly this. They breed like mad. One day see you one, weeks later you have 100s.

 

[johnny313]

What are copepods?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copepod