reintroducing pods to the main tank...

[reefguy]

well, a few months ago i had a large amphipod population in my main tank. everything was doing well, and one day when i was cleaning my filters, i collected a few amphipods in a glass of saltwater and tossed them in my 20 gallon FO tank. as the weeks went by, for reasons unknown to me, the pod population in the main tank crashed while the pod population in the 20 gallon flourished. today, while cleaning out the filters in the 20 gallon, the opportunity presented itself and i tried to reintroduce pods to the main tank (before today, i was actually thinking about ordering some pods from inlandaquatics). any ideas if this will work? i figured since it worked once, why not try it again. what types of animals are reputed to eat amphipods? at the time when the population in the main tank disappeared, i only had a yellow tang, coral beauty, clarkii, and a damsel. are any of these fish known to eat amphipods?

setting up that 20 gallon tank has come in handy more than once!

[Brooke]

Hey reefguy-

The damsel and clowns will definately eat the pods. You probably still have a population in the main tank, but they are probably hiding deep in the rocks. The best way to keep a supply in the main tank is to attach a gravity fed refugium above tank level. (not sure how many actually make it down to the tank this way, though.) Also, shaking off the filter pad from the 20 near the rocks at night would also work to put some more pods in there. So everytime you clean the filter, just grab some pods and throw them in.

HTH-
Brooke

[reefguy]

thanks for the help...i'm surprised someone actually responded as i don't usually get many responses on tough questions like that. i got the flashlight out last night and i actually saw either some of the pods i threw in the tank or i saw some of the resident population! that was the first time in months i have seen any in the tank. my plan was two-fold, though, because i know pods can live in the filter floss i also threw a few dozen back there as well. i figured that if they can get INTO the filter, maybe they can get OUT! LOL...thanks again, brooke

[Allyson]

I too have been concerned that the pod population in the main tank had diminshed. I took a piece of LR out of my refug and put it in the main tank for a couple of days in hopes to help repopulate...I guess it worked. I still don't see any in the main tank (except for one that came through the oveflow return with a few damaged legs, but was still quick enough to flee a hermit) but alway see tons in the refug when the light comes on. I guess it's just that they feel safe enough to come out in the refug. I guess I'll have to hunt down the flashlight to investigate further.