We all know a lot more about Copepods. Now tell please tell me about Amphipods. Are they beneficial as well? Are they a food source? If so what eats them and do you want to culture them. Will a Mandarin eat them?

amphipods are like huge copepods. they help clean up detritus and most reef fish love them. culturing them is another story i wont get into, maybe someone else will. ive never seen my mandarin eat them. i think they do if they aren't to large

yes, they are great clean up critters, and as mention a food source to some large marine fish.
Mandarins dont eat them as they are far too large.

as far as culturing them this is primarily done in a refugium, i dont know of any people specifically culturing them separately as a food source, as they reproduce quite well in your fuge/tank

I was under the impression that amphipods were only a little larger than copepods. I thought that they are the size of small brine shrimp. If that is the case, and they are too large for mandarins to eat, how can mandarins eat any prepared food as some claim their mandarins do.

nope, most amhpiods are much larger than baby brine.

see this page from OceanPods
http://www.oceanpods.com/faq.html#amphipods

A couple of tidbits on Amphipods:

1. They are one of the most successful crustaceans currently cruising around the planet Earth. Estimates vary from 4000-7000 species.

2. I forget the source I read this in, but are considered either the #1 or #2 scavenger in the oceans. I'll try to find it if possible.

3. The reason they reproduce so well in aquariums is that they brood their young. Holding them internally until they are miniature adults capable of immediately grazing on algae. Breeding amphipods is very easy: provide them food and shelter and lack of predators/competitors and they do really well.

Brian

Since we are on the subject, I have a bunch of Amphipods in my fuge. I am real weird and like to sit and watch them. Should I consider export of these guys to my main display? Or are they better left to the fuge area?

you can export them manually, but most of the small pods will get moved VIA your return pump.

BTW, FWIW, we are all weird like that .. ;)

We all need to think about "generalizations" we make in regards to our hobby. There are always "if and or but's" to concider. If there weren't, we wouldn't have "pioneers" in the industry who push limits and help us better understand and care for our charges....

I was told (by a so called "expert") that my seahorse juvi's (H. Reidi at about 4-6 months old) wouldn't eat amphipods...."too big" he said. Uh huh...some of the pod-zillas in my fuge are big..but they do reproduce. I siphon the small ones and feed them to the ponies ALL the time. they love them... go crazy hunting for them on the bare bottom grow out tank. Even funnier to watch them try to attack the mirror images of the bugs on the glass :)

For what it's worth, my mandarin, Hendrix also eats amphipods, OF ALL SIZES. I've seen him push empty shells around and snick them right up. He's even eaten flatworms (I have a picture if you'd like to see it). Finally, EVERY DAY, he eats frozen brine shrimp (adult), cyclopeeze, and HUGE frozen PEI MYSID shrimp. We all know that PEI packs LARGE mysid. He snicks em down like pasta!!

My buddy's spotted green mandarin also eats PEI Mysid and it is half the size of Hendrix.

Dave

flatworms (I have a picture if you'd like to see it).

Dave

Dave,

I would like to see this picture, sounds interesting :)

Brian

Here's a good shot of Hendrix lining up a worm.

For what it's worth, I let a friend borrow the fish for his worm cleaning ability. However, it failed. He does NOT eat the brownish, red ones. Only likes these clear ones that I get from time to time.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d176/JustDavidP/mandarinworm.jpg

Dave

Hendrix once lived in my 75G reef but was starving to death. The other fish were just stripping the water column clean and he was too slow and methodic to get a meal. He's since been moved into the 26 gallon bowfront (as of a year +) and is fat and happy.

He eats so much like a seahorse, that he really does compliment the tank. He loves frozen mysid, frozen adult brine and from time to time, gets a special snack of tiger pods or pods siphoned from the many refugiums I have kicking around.

D

Nice picture David!

Glad your fish is so happy and eating so well in a smaller tank. Of course we shouldn't encourage that for other aquarists :) A large tank with lots of live rock and training the fish to eat frozen prepared foods in QT before introduction to the big tank is the best way to go with these fish.

Brian

Brian,

Yes, what you say is all true. I always suggest "asking around" for fish that have been brought back to shops, or otherwise trained to eat frozen. Again, mine is one of at least 6 that I know of within my "circuit" that eats frozen foods.

Dave

Dave, he is a really beautiful fish.

In response to a question on page one, here is an abstract about another Centropyge. It seems that size matters, and the researchers actually screened zooplankton from the wild to get the right size range. If anyone is interested, I might be able to get you a reprint. Let me know, Adelaide:

Aquaculture
Volume 253, Issues 1-4 , 31 March 2006, Pages 270-278

Spawning, early development, and first feeding in the lemonpeel angelfish Centropyge flavissimus

Ike Olivottoa, Scott A. Holtb, Oliana Carnevalia and G. Joan Holtb, ,

aDipartimento di Scienze del Mare, Università Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, Ancona 60131, Italy
bUniversity of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, TX 78373, USA

Abstract
The present study investigates, for the first time, critical processes in early life history in captive rearing of the lemonpeel angelfish Centropyge flavissimus. Video recordings of courtship behaviors in the 300 L spawning tank showed several courtship behaviors to be similar to those described for wild fish, but courtship activities associated with harem maintenance were not observed in the captive fish. Typical courtship activity was seen on every day of observation, but gamete release occurred on only 7 of 10 observation days. The reason for the lack of gamete release was not obvious. Tank spawning began when temperature and photoperiod conditions were changed to spring and reached a maximum peak (in terms of egg number) during the summer, when the temperature was 28 °C. Egg production and fertilization rate remained relatively constant day to day and spawning continued for months at a time as long as temperature and photoperiod were maintained at optimum levels. Once the embryo hatched (15 h post fertilization) and the yolk sac stage was reabsorbed (48 h post hatching), larvae were ready to feed. Cultured Parvocalanus sp. nauplii or size-sieved wild zooplankton were suitable first food. Proper environmental conditions included rearing the larvae at 28 °C. This study provides the first data on the influence of temperature and first food offered on larval survival in the lemonpeel angelfish.

Parvocalanus sp. are a copepod, in case that did not come across from the abstract. This is the same genus, as far as my limited knowledge goes, that was used to crack the life cycle of the flame angel. However, I know no commercial sources of this tiny calanoid copepod.

Ooooh melikes LadyGator!!

Thanks for your input and welcome to TR! Please do feel free, at any time, to chime in and pass along whatever it is you know.

D