Amphipods as clean up crew

[Paul B]

I have a theory. I collected to many amphipods in the Long Island Sound so I am giving a few thousand away to someone who is coming tomorrow to take them, but in the meantime I am keeping them in a bare tank as I can't put them in my reef as it is overwhelmed with them already.
I have to change the water twice a day as there is no bacteria or anything else in there and these things eat so much. I think they are a fantastic, free, self maintaining clean up crew. I have collected these things all my life and I just thought of them as food, for the fish, not me although I never tasted them. I was thinking last night about this. I was thinking mostly about Supermodels but amphipods also came through. There is no algae in my tank, but there should be. I have an algae trough but there is no algae growing in it, just amphipods, tubeworms and brittle stars. I feed the amphipods in the spare tank with flakes or pellets and they are all over it like a cheap suit. A pellet has a life span as long as Lindsey Lohan's fame.
I am thinking that these suckers that are all over my tank are eating any algae as soon as it grows. I could be wrong as I am wrong about most things including ways to grow hair. Amphipods are also legal as there is no commercial use for them that I know of. There is no "Save the Amphipod" movements. I am going to look for some algae and if I find some, I will put some in the little pod tank I have to see if they eat it. If they do, I will set up a small pool in my yard and raise some just for kicks because I can't harvest them in my reef. I can collect them every day but I have a life and any minute a Supermodel may come knocking at my door.
This may be bigger than the internet, bigger than Myley Cyrus, more important them Spam or Hamburger helper.

Video

 

[rwells]

Hello Paul, I take some.

 

[Paul B]

I already promised them to someone who will take them tomorrow, but I get them all the time

 

[Paul B]

Another amphipod video, it's very exciting so brace yourself

 

[homegrowncichlid]

If your theory was correct, my mixed algae filled observation tank should be filled with them. They do reproduce, but not explosively and sometimes I think they die out. (but that may be due to the fish I put in there every once in a while, or because I don't feed the tank for months if its empty.)


Perhaps if I provided some shelter for them where they could hide from predation, I might be able to maintain a higher number of them. Like a block of sponge with large pore size.


I just went to jones beach this past weekend and brought back a bag of them. The ones I caught were bright green, whereas the ones in my tank are grey. I don't remember them being green before. Green from their diet?

 

[Paul B]

If you collected them in Jones Beach right near the high tide mark they are sand fleas and don't do well if they are submerged all the time, they are slightly larger and can jump. The ones that are always in the water you find on the bay side of Jones Beach but there are more of them on the North Shore in muddy harbors. I have loads of them in my reef from last year but only in places such as a sponge filter or in my algae trough where fish can't eat them. I also have a reverse UG filter and there are loads under that. They eat a lot so I think they would die out if they had no food. I feed them flakes and pellets when I keep them in a bare tank.

 

[Paul B]

I can't even give them away. 3 people were supposed to pick them up and all 3 cancelled.
I had so many I had to change the water twice a day until I got tired and many of them died. The rest I threw in my tank. I am going there to the tide pool again today but I won't collect any as I don't need any more and I am not going to hold them any more.
Before the summer is over I will collect again for the winter or maybe I will set up a vat just for them, but it would have to cycle for about a month.
The last time I mailed them, the guy thanked me for the boiled shrimp so I don't mail them either.
You mid westerners just have to move here by the sea.