Amphipods and copepods

[james-lee]

Since I am cycling my tank can I add these critters sooner rather than the end of the cycle? Once cycled I planned on moving my livestock over and I wanted to give these creatures a headstart and grow in numbers before they get preyed on by my fish and what not. I know cycling involves ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes but I was wondering if they would tolerate it or not. Thanks!

 

[gumbii]

if there is algae in the rocks and system, yes... but i would wait until you have a healthy amount of growth in your rocks and other stuff... if you have a refugium, they will thrive, but once they get in your tank, they will starve...

 

[james-lee]

So do they only eat algae? If not can I supplement them with pellets? If so can I add them after the ammonia spike or just wait till the whole cycle is done? I actually have a nice refugium on the tank that I will transfer over, so I may just move half of that to the new refugium.

 

[danagui]

I threw a 2000 count of copepods the day after I started my tank. As long as you have live rock and live sand they'll be fine. Mine bloomed and my glass and rocks are covered with the littles guys