Pod Cast!

Ever wondered what copepods are? I blogged about them sometime back about the sudden population explosion of copepods in the aquarium. So here you get a visual. There you have it, copepods grazing on the algae groing on the aquarium wall.



I believe that these are only medium sized copepods and the adult ones grow up to twice this size. These that you see here are like 2mm in length. Copepods live inside the porous rocks and in the sand bed. I imagine that the whole colony would have established an entire network of tunnels running inside the rocks. Each rock would be like a city with many 'roads' running all through it.

Copepods are small but yet they form an important part of the food web. Maybe not so much when it comes to land creatures, but the food chain can be pretty intriguing when it comes to the life in the sea. Krills are small but yet they are the ones that keep the giant blue whales alive. Without krill, blue whales will have nothing to eat. Likewise for copepods, they help form the foundation of the food chain in the reef environment. Even in an aquarium, a healthy population of copepods can be a very healthy supplement for the fishes' diet. Copepods are filled with fatty acids and other nutrition that is not easily substitutable and in some cases, fishes depend solely on them. Not essential, but it is defintely beneficial to have pods living in your aquarium.