Reef Pests and Their Ramifications (Part 3)

This third part in a series of nuisance pests that can invade our marine aquariums while altering its symbiotic chemistry as well. Copopods are found everywhere that water is found and their are roughly about 12,000 known species of copopods hailing mainly from the sea. These crustaceans represent the largest source of protein in the food chain of life in the sea. Amphipods, or the small white swimming or crawling bugs in your aquarium also offer beneficial salutations to your tank and its inhabitants. These are not I will be focusing on in this article as these are beneficial food stuff for one. Nor will I be centralizing this article on decapods, which are the ten footed crustaceans with the first three pairs of appendages known as the maxillipeds, used as mouth parts, and five pairs of thoracic appendages located in the rear of the animal used for mobility purposes. Shrimp, lobsters and crabs make up this group.

What I will be dealing with, are the dreaded ISOPODS. Isopods are a diverse order of crustaceans that are cousins of the crab, shrimp and cray fish. Though hailing mainly from deeper waters of our oceans, their are both terrestrial and tropical shallow water species of isopods. Isopods have been a part of both terrestrial and water environments from the abyss to shallow regions for over 300 million years.

Isopods get their name from the Greek meaning ISO( similar or equal) and POD(foot) since they have the same number of legs and feet on both sides of their body carapace. They have fourteen pairs of legs and feet along their segmented body. These organisms differ from similar species of pods in that their appendages all perform the same function, unlike their relatives that can perform different functions with their various appendages such as walking, swimming and feeling. Their are three specific body parts that make up isopods; head, thorax and abdomen. They have a pair of antennae that assists these crustaceans with taste and smell.