copepods and other critters...

C

Cheech

Global Moderator
Jan 13, 2000
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Montreal, Canada
Question that's been bugging me...

My fuge is filled with baby serpant stars, bristleworms, copepods, etc ... Are these little guys making it to the main tank? if so, how?


If I decide to cover my pump return with the sponge that it comes with, do these critters still make it up there?
 
A few will still make it with the sponge, especially the copepods because the sponge is course. I don't run the cover on my return pump for that reason though, I want as many copepods making it to my tank as possible. Stars and worms tend to get blended or at least chopped up, but that is also how they multiply, so it isn't really a bad thing... well, maybe the bristleworms at some point. They usually tend to stay in the refugium area though and don't venture towards the pump too often.

If your fuge has all those things thriving, I would bet your tank does as well, just harder to spot them.
 
I would imagine they are making it to the display through the pump. Many will say that the impeller would chop them to bits but if you ever tried to throw a small ball throu the blades of a ceiling fan, most the time it would hit the ceiling and fall back throu without touching a blade, and figure the critter would be in flow of the water, moving the same speed, and not trying to crawl throu.
Figure anything you use to strain them out would get blocked with larger matter to quickly.
Perhaps someone with some free time, extra pump and buckets could perform an experiment. A bucket of bug indused water being sent to an empty and see what makes it throu in what condition.
 
Cheech: they make it through the return pump to the display. I have amphipods, copepods and mysid shrimp that all make it from the fuge (in the sump) up to the DT. In fact I have quite a few in the overflow at the bottom that have started to breed. I know it's happening, but have not seen it......."It's a mystery".
 
xsdbs said:
I have always wondered the same thing about critters in the fuge but thought that they would just get wasted by the pump, like strawberries in a blender, how does this not happen?
Click to expand...
Same way a fly doesn't get killed by a wind turbine. The animal is very tiny compared to the gap between the blades and the flow going past the blades.

Now a stawberry compared to the blades in a blender is quite different. Try to blend a grain of sugar in a blender, that is closer to the correct analogy.
 
Yeah, they will definitely go up. If you want to help them out a bit, once every few weeks, leave the sponge from your return in the tank for a few hours. Or just put it up there, squeeze it, and swish around. you should see a good number come out.
 
Ace25 said:
Same way a fly doesn't get killed by a wind turbine. The animal is very tiny compared to the gap between the blades and the flow going past the blades.

Now a stawberry compared to the blades in a blender is quite different. Try to blend a grain of sugar in a blender, that is closer to the correct analogy.
Click to expand...

well this does make sense but I did have to laugh a little at the comparisons.
 
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