Reef nutrition

culturing pods

swatchguy

swatchguy

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I'm looking for a club member who is willing to part with some "pods" so that I can begin culturing my own supply. Once I get these things propagating, I'd be happy to share others in the club.
I've already invested $50 in bottled pods and for one reason or another I haven't been able to get them to take. I've been using a 5g bucket with microalgae (commercial), cheato (sp) and lr. I'm going to take another shot at it in a couple wks after I've set up a partioned 10g. I figure I can monitor the perameters more consistently. Sorry to bug y'all
but I'm frustrated!!
Thanks for your help. STEVE
 
I can put a filter sock on my returns and that usually traps about 5 or so in a few days. these are the bigger ones- about 1/4" long. if you want me to do that and you can pick them up LMK. I'm in mountain view.
 
Thanks for your quick response. Cookiejar, I'll take you up on your offer, once I've stabilized my culture tank. My plan is to propagate enough pods to eventually keep a Mandarin Dragonette fat and happy. Naturally, I won't put the Mandarin into the tank until I can sustain it's healthy appetite.
Gomer, I have a Biocube 29 with 2 clowns, a damsel, a goby/pistol combo, a Pajama Cardinal, a cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp and a single emerald crab. Also, assorted hermit crabs (red and blue legged), various species of snails and
an array of LPS and SPS.
My thought is that, if I can supply (cultivate) enuf pods to keep the Mandarin's
belly full, the surplus might make it some of the other livestock.
The entire process is a little frustrating, but the challenges are what makes
this hobby so exciting.
What do you folks think? Is it doable?
Thanks again, Steve (Swatchguy)
 
IMO, it's not a good idea to put more fish in your tank unless you remove some fish. See if you can get one that eat pellet or frozen food. I think it would be hard to raise enough pods for a mandarin.
 
Elite, I think you may be right about the Mandarin putting the bioload over the line. I'll have to think about that. Don't you think that the pods would provide a good food source for some of the other livestock?
To address your thoughts on "training Mandarins" to feed on pellets: I've read about several techniques, but I'd think that some of the shrimp might compete for the pellets.
I don't want to get into the "just-one-more-fish syndrome" and that may be where I'm headed with this idea of mine. I wouldn't introduce a Mandarin unless I thought he'd have an excellent chance of surviving. ie enuf food and other resources.
Thanks for your input. S
 
Check out this link..
http://www.melevsreef.com/mandarin_diner.html


Before you buy the fish ask the store to feed fish. If it doesn't eat flake or frozen, don't get it.
 
swatch- i'll be happy to give you a filtersock full of 'pods, since I think the idea of a 'pod tank is cool, but the pods I catch aren't what mandarin dragonets eat. I have a dragonet (scotter blenny actually) and he eats smaller pods than the 1/4" long ones that you see with your eyes and catch in filter sock. I've seen him pass over the 1/4" pod, to my surprise, so I figure it must be too big for him. The pods you want are the smaller ones, which are too small for me to see and get from my filter sock.
 
Thanks CookieJar, I kinda figured they might be too big. I'll keep lookin' for a source for the little ones. I think that I need to straighten out the parameters in my culture tank before making the next move. Thanks for your offer, though.
S
 
Steve, RN sells live tigger pods. Maybe you can raise those. They are small enough for the Mandarin..
http://www.reefnutrition.com/tiggerpods/index.htm
 
Most copepods will do as what your really looking for is for them to be breeding at the time and producing copepidites.

If you want to email me direct I can help you culture Tigger-Pods. The ones in our tank are a lot more work to get a decent culture going of as they typically are pelagic copepods. Tiggers have a benthic stage when they are born.
 
I find an aweful lot of pods in my hair algae! I See my mandarin pecking at the hair algae a lot, so even though I'm on a quest to destroy the hair algae, I can see how it's not ALL bad. Well, OK, it IS all bad, if you don't have a pod eater.

My QT tank gets overrun with pods, just even eating the algae that builds up on the walls of the (uncleaned, snail-less) tank. I figure a few get into the tank via frag rocks and they just thrive!

What is in your pod raising tank? Maybe a simple "dirty" tank will be enough to have a nice big pod-pulation?

V
 
Hey Vince...I don't know what I'm missing here but I can't seem to get pods to grow and
propagate. I'll start my "bucket" over this weekend to stabalize the parameters. Til now I've had cheato, a live rock and some live sand with a air tube (slow bubble just to keep the water moving some. I feel like such a KLUTZ.
My alternative plan is to divide a 10g tank with a partition and start the process in there, only because it's easier to watch the progress in the 10g rather than the 5g bucket.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks, STEVE
 
What kind of pods are you talking about? Amphipods are very easy to culture, as are copepods, but the methodology is different.
 
Thanks. I've read that copepods are what I'll need to feed a Mandarin Dragonette. Eventually, I'd like to add one to my tank, but first I have to have this propagation process down pat. Thanks for your help. Steve
 
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