Today I tried to rinse the sponge I have on the intake of my reverse UG filter and when I removed it from the pump, amphipods were jumping all over the place.
I didn't want to lose them so I just put the sponge back. Now I will buy aother sponge to put on the pump and I will just lay this one in the tank until the amphipods find a new home. These are the offspring of the ones I collect by the thousands in the summer.
Whenever I raise the anchor on my boat, they jump all over the front of the boat.
They are fantastic things to have in your reef but you really need to collect them initially.
I don't think anyone sells them.

Having these things along with copepods, tubeworms, spaghetti worms and snails means the conditions in the tank are ideal for spawning. If you never find anything appearing
(In an established tank) than something is wrong. Maybe the tank is not natural enough or maybe it's too sterile. Sterile is good for an operating room but corals don't live well in an operating room.
Just my opinion


This is what a bucket of them looks like

It's a good thing your able to harvest them right from the sea, but what about us that don't have that access? How do we get them in our tank? With an established tank that hasn't added anything like new live rock or coral, how do we get them? I have plenty of cope pods and I'm almost willing to bet that's not all living in the macro algae,what can we do? I agree with a tank being too sterile, I remember when I changed tanks I throw out all the sand and added all new sand because I had a few worms in it and I haven't seen any since. As I learned more I realized what a mistake that was. IMO the bad thing about having a closed system is if you don't already have something like these, unless you keep adding to your system you won't have it. Thanks Paul.

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Thats a good question. I didn't say you needed them, I said they are a good thing to have. They are not sold as far as I know so if you don't know someone who lives near a muddy, rocky beach I guess you can't get any. Luckily, your tank can be fine without them. I just wanted to point out that if you find them in your tank, and they are multiplying, it is a good sign.
Being that these things are so common and plentiful I am surprised no one ships them like brine shrimp

Good point Paul not a must but I know there are many hobbyist out there like me that want to have as many benefits as possible and the more natural the better.

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See if you can get some chaetomorpha algae and they usually hitchhike in with it.

I guess I'm just playing devils advocate here, but we can buy so many different snake oils and quick fix potions that don't half work but here is a natural solution that feeds on the stuff that leads to high Nitrates and other things that keep us from having the healthiest system possible. There are more of these little animals other then amphipods or copepods that are hard to get in a closed system without finding away to add them over time.

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