What is considered a healthy population of pods?
 

As the title states what is considered a healthy population of pods? I have a few dozen in my tank but have heard and read that your reef could have up to several hundred pods in a healthy tank. Can they be bred or are they like rabbits and breed like there is no tomorrow.

Not sure how/if there's an 'accurate' way to count pods. Most live in nooks & crannies of the rock or in your ball of chaeto etc. Probably one of the more reliable ways is if you have a Mandarin or Spotted Dragonet. If they're fat & happy without supplemental feeding, you've likely got a good pod pop. You can often get a good idea of population density after lights out. If you can see a good number of them crawling about, you've got a healthy population, good luck trying to put an accurate number to the count though.

At night after the lights are out you should see hundreds of them on the rock and glasses. If they have no predators they will breed like rabbits.

There are two type of pods, those that eats phytoplankton are the good ones you want. If you don't feed them they will not thrive and they thrive on phyto.

The other type are nasty sometimes and are the large amphipods. They look like little shrimps and they are detrivore. If they don't have enough food they will attack zoanthids, acan and even clams as last resort. Those don't care about phytoplankton and will eat anything. They can become a pest and grow out of control. They usually only come out at night with all wrasses and most fish are asleep, so they don't really have any ennemy.

I herd that a yellowtail damsel will control them better than any wrasse as they remain active quite in low light.

I ULN aquarium with nothing in the water to feed the good pods will not have much of them if any. When I feed phyto I can see an explosion of the little pods all over my glass, so it really does make a huge difference to feed them.

not all wrasses hide out in the night both my mystery and my flame wrasses are out all night , the flames dont hunt much though but the mystery does.


if you want amphipods out then a butterfly is a good choice :)

yeah, I used to have one but sold it because after 2 years it started to pick on my corals and clams.

It just defeat the purpose.