Copepod invasion.

[Rex113]

My tank has been overrun by a tiny shrimp, I believe they are called tig pods. There are literally thousands of them in my Opae tank, at first I didn’t mind but now they are constantly bumping into the Opae and I believe they are becoming stressed because of it. I enclosed a picture of them. Has anyone ever successfully gotten rid of them before?

[Varanus]

Don't add any food to the tank, at least until the copepods are gone or nearly gone. Over time (and it may take a long time) the copepods will die off as the shrimp outcompete them and can survive off more limited resources. The shrimp will eat the dead ones too.

If you want to directly reduce the population, you can try sucking out the copepods with a turkey baster, letting them out into a fine meshed net so that the water can drain back into the tank and leave the copepods in the net.

[Rex113]

Don't add any food to the tank, at least until the copepods are gone or nearly gone. Over time (and it may take a long time) the copepods will die off as the shrimp outcompete them and can survive off more limited resources. The shrimp will eat the dead ones too.

If you want to directly reduce the population, you can try sucking out the copepods with a turkey baster, letting them out into a fine meshed net so that the water can drain back into the tank and leave the copepods in the net.

Thanks for the information. I haven’t added any food in quite a while. I guess once all the algae has been eaten they will start to decrease in numbers. I will try the turkey baster method but I have some newborn Opae floating around so I gotta be real careful.