Copepods? What Are They?

Hey! I have a six line wrasse in my tank with a couple things of live rock, and a few corals. I’ve heard that copepods are a large portion of a Six Lines diet. My question is will copepods stay numerous enough to keep my wrasse well fed? Or will I have to feed my wrasse on my own sometimes?

 

You'll most definitely have to feed your wrasse. Most tanks can't support a population of pods large enough to feed a wrasse for long.

They can be kinda hard to feed, though. I'd try frozen mysis, and if he refuses that, try mixing some fresh garlic in with it and soaking it with that.

 

Copepods are tiny marine crustaceans that look kind of like white/clear little bugs. They are part of the microfauna that make a tank 'mature'.

You will absolutely have to feed the wrasse. A healthy fish can decimate a pod population in no time, and then they'd have nothing to eat. You do want pods in your tank, and you do want the wrasse to eat them, but think of this more as little snacks that hold him off between meals.

Mysis is a great option for a staple food source, and I've used it for a long time. Recently, I tried a new food that is a mix of all kinds of meaty offerings like scallops and roe, as well as some other stuff that's good for a complete diet. There are several food brands that offer this kind of mix, but probably the best known are LRS and Rod's Foods. Anyhow, fish that would eat a few mysis and then be uninterested would now seriously pig out on the mixed food if I let them. I wouldn't say they were finicky eaters before, but they definitely like LRS Reef Frenzy Nano better than mysis. So, I feel it's safe to say that the mix is more enticing and would be an excellent option for a picky eater.

 

Don't worry about pods, unlike Mandarins Wrasses don't need them to survive (Goodness knows my Melanurus Wrasse sure doesn't and it's diet is virtually identical to the 6 line). As mentioned by Stella frozen LRS Reef Frenzy would be an awesome "all in one" diet for a 6 line and since it isn't loaded with fillers it's a much cleaner food source for your tank (and certain corals will respond well to a couple of small feedings per day of the stuff). I have a Pajama Cardinal, a Yellow Tang, a Coral Beauty Dwarf Angel and a juvie Melanurus Wrasse and I do a couple of small feedings of reef frenzy per day and supplement seaweed for the veggie inclined fish. Although strangely enough my Melanurus developed a taste for seaweed:

Don't get me wrong, copepods are nice, but definitely don't expect your wrasse to subsist on them. More like a supplemental snack.

 

Don't worry about pods, unlike Mandarins Wrasses don't need them to survive (Goodness knows my Melanurus Wrasse sure doesn't and it's diet is virtually identical to the 6 line). As mentioned by Stella frozen LRS Reef Frenzy would be an awesome "all in one" diet for a 6 line and since it isn't loaded with fillers it's a much cleaner food source for your tank (and certain corals will respond well to a couple of small feedings per day of the stuff). I have a Pajama Cardinal, a Yellow Tang, a Coral Beauty Dwarf Angel and a juvie Melanurus Wrasse and I do a couple of small feedings of reef frenzy per day and supplement seaweed for the veggie inclined fish. Although strangely enough my Melanurus developed a taste for seaweed:

Don't get me wrong, copepods are nice, but definitely don't expect your wrasse to subsist on them. More like a supplemental snack.

You'll most definitely have to feed your wrasse. Most tanks can't support a population of pods large enough to feed a wrasse for long.

They can be kinda hard to feed, though. I'd try frozen mysis, and if he refuses that, try mixing some fresh garlic in with it and soaking it with that.

Thanks guys! My wrasse has already been eating Brine shrimp like crazy, I was just wondering about Copepods because I have no idea what they are haha! I’m ordering some pellets for him also because the brine shrimp come in cubes that are just way too much for one fish.

 

Brine shrimp do not contain a whole lot of nutrients... not to say they're bad, but mysis shrimp are much better for your fish. Also, the cubes can be cut in half or quarters, thawed in tank water, and stored tightly covered in the fridge for 2-3 days worth of feedings. Don't keep them thawed for too long, but doing it this way cuts down on waste. For the future, most frozen protein options are also available in flat packs and it's much easier to chip a smaller amount off of those.

 

Keeping fish on Brine Shrimp is akin to raising a kid on nothing but Candy Bars. Sure there are some nutrients in them and the fish love it, but not anywhere near in the same league as say PE Mysis. I would highly recommend switching to LRS Reef Frenzy as your fish, corals, inverts get the following in their diet:

In addition it doesn't use cheap fillers like many other foods so you don't get quite as much of that icky brown film building up in your water. I did test comparisons between PE Mysis Pellets, Frozen Mysis Shrimp and Frozen LRS Reef Frenzy (running a skimmer and running without one) and there was no contest, Reef Frenzy produced noticeably less brown film than the others.

 

You talked me into it before knowing of the experiment Jesterrace ... But now I'm a little sad that the nano version doesn't have broccolI or rotifers. It's still pretty chunky though and I wouldn't want larger pieces.

Still, the fish love the new food and I feel great about offering carnivores a variety other than mysis and occasional brine.