ahh shrimp took my aquarium over!!!

[Fuzzy]

i just now noticed today that shrimp, i guess brine, r starting to take over my aquarium . they r bigger than the usual frozen ones. the fish dont eat them cause they r so big(not really very big just bigger than what they normaly eat) and dont swim very high up. so far ive counted 12!!!! how can i stop the little buggers? and invert that i can get to stop them? thnx in advance for any help

TANK INFO
30 gal
current algae problem
clownfish
scooterblenny
firefish goby
1 blue leg hermit
3 scarlet hermit
3 nassurius snails

 

[impur]

Do you have a pic? What color are they? Do they look like this picture?

If so they are amphipods. They are a good sign that your tank is maturing and is healthy.

 

[ostrow]

Can you describe them clearly? Aren't brine freshwater? Anyway, if truly shrimp you may just have a temporary explosion that will stabilize. They will be great food for fish and corals (assuming).

BUT... describe what they look like. Could it be flatworms???

 

[impur]

Do you have a pic? What color are they? Do they look like this picture?

If so they are amphipods. They are a good sign that your tank is maturing and is healthy.

http/www.nano-reef.com/forums/attachment...=&postid=267358

 

[Fuzzy]

yes that is exactly what the look like. so they mean that my aquarium is healthy? thats good to no

 

[Fuzzy]

holy crap thos things can take extreme water levels for a while, my scooter blenny died rasing nitrites to almost 1.0 and those things still survived. wierd thing is when the levels were high they didnt move at all but when i got the levels back to normal the started moving again. What do they do, go into a sorta sleep thing when levels get to high?

 

[ostrow]

They may well have multiplied feeding on the carcass.

But reef tanks have periodic explosions of all sorts of critters. I had a mysis explosion that tapered, then a spaghetti worm explosion that tapered. Now I'm getting this green algae on my glass, builds up in almost 6 hrs. Even mature tanks go through cycles like this. My thinking is it relates to temp changes with the seasonal changes, but who knows?

Anyway, the more pods the merrier. Feed the tank less ... your fish right now have all the food they need, pods for protein, algae for their greens. You don't need to feed at all probably. Other than the fun of watching them frantically eat.

Lionfish you should add premiumaquatics.com to your marine list and if you haven't bought from them, you should check them out. Also wctropicalmarine.com.
Those two are best prices/best service around. Premium price matches.

 

[impur]

It makes sense that even mature tanks go through some cycles. I mean stuff is constantly dieing off at microscopic levels. I read that for up to 2 years or more this will go on. The decaying matter feeds other organisms and eventually levels out, but at that point the population of what was feeding off the decaying matter is too large to sustain because the decaying matter is gone. So those organisms die and another grows to feed off them etc.

Lionfish if you want to know more about these bugs, head over to nano-reef.com or reefcentral.com and search for pods or amphipods. You'll get TONS of reading

 

[Fuzzy]

thnx for all ur help