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Collecting amphipods

Paul B

NJRC Member
Yesterday I went to my favorite tide pool with my boat and did some collecting. (as I always do) It is the beginning of amphipod season and I collected thousands or maybe millions of them. Right now they are in an open net in my tank so they can swim, (or crawl) out at their leisure.
I add them like that because they are mixed in with all sorts of seaweeds, sticks and rotting vegetation that would float around in my tank but I do want the bacteria that covers this stuff. For a few minutes my tank was literally covered in swimming amphipods. I would assume there was also millions of copepods also but I can't see those to well. I am going back again today for more collecting.


This video of amphipods is from last year but they look the same so just make believe I took this yesterday






 

horseplay

NJRC Member
The copperband must be having a blast with this. I want to try this in the summer. Are you concerned about pollution or any disease might be introduced?
 

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
The picture of all those snails reminded me of an incident with a local reefer who collect snails here in NJ. He would break out with dermatitis, and for the longest time blamed it on zoa/paly toxins. A couple times he ended up in the hospital. Eventually....and I'm talking more than a year or more.....they finally identified the problem as swimmers itch....a dermatitis from a parasite that has part of it's lifecycle in snails. So collect local snails with caution.
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
Are you concerned about pollution or any disease might be introduced?

N,I started my tank with water from here and add mud, snails, seaweed and amphipods all summer long. I run a very natural tank that depends on the "wild" bacteria which is another reason I don't quarantine as that is IMO un-natural and I couldn't do it using my approach and system. This is also why "IMO" I don't have many of the problems many people in this hobby have.
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
No equipment, just my hand. Here are some video's but they were taken with my SCUBA camera so put the sound all the way up or you can't hear it.






 
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