Regular Saltwater Smarts readers often see references to them in Paul B’s posts. They arrive in our aquaria unbidden aboard chunks of live rock, in live sand, or on coral specimens attached to rocks. At a glance, they look like little insects scurrying over the rocks or swarming on the glass. I’m talking about “pods”—not the Invasion of the Body Snatchers kind (though we haven’t ruled that out completely with Paul B.), but the tiny crustaceans known as amphipods and copepods. Amphipods The first pods we’ll discuss—amphipods—are much larger than copepods and can be seen easily with the naked eye as they scramble among the rockwork, typically after lights out (they tend to make themselves scarce during daylight hours to avoid predation). These shrimp-like microcrustaceans, which are usually somewhere in the range of 1/8 to 1/4 inch in length with the occasional “whopper” making an appearance, look rather like commas with multiple segments and lots of legs. More: Harmless or Helpful Live Rock Hitchhikers: “Pods”… More:
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