Keeping Pods

[Wade]

I've built me some pod condos and added then to my refugium. From what I'm reading they need to kept in a dimly lit tank, but I'm not sure how that works when you need a decent grow light to keep the macro alive that they eat. I think I can rearrange the refugium to keep the macro in one corner and shade the rest. I'll stack the pod condos in the shaded area. Is this the typical arragement or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[Dean]

Pod condos? I am intrigued. I am beefing up my pod population in my display as nothing in there currently eats them but would like to add something like this to my refugium. got any pics?

[FarmerTy]

What is your intent with the pod condos?

If you just want more pods, you really don't have to make pod condos if your sump is safe from animals that may eat the pods.

I've typically seen pod condos used as a sanctuary for pods to live/breed from fish that may eat them or as a transfer tool to harvest and transfer pods.

But if there are no predators in your sump, I don't see why you would need them.

[Wade]

Here's the link with the instructions: http://www.livingreefs.com/threads/diy-pod-condos.43447/ . I'll post some pictures of mine tonight.

My intent is to be able to add one of these behind the rockwork in my DT after it's thoroughly infested to give them someplace to hide in the DT. My fuge has a few hermits, smails, and a couple of bristle worms it in, but nothing else. I'm guessing none of them eat pods so they should be safe. I currently have a six line wrasse and plan to add a mandarin (maybe a pair) and a scooter blenny at some time in the future so that's a lot of pod eaters. I also read that the pod eggs are good food for filter feeders so I guess I can't have too many. I've made three pods so I should be able to swap them out with one from the fuge every coupl eof weeks to the population up in the DT. Probably overkill, but there may be no such thing as overkill when it comes to pods since they're good detrivores as well.

[FarmerTy]

With a 72g, I would say 1 is max for mandarins/scooter blennies even with the pod condos, but that's just my opinion.

The six line wrasse would eat pods too and will pick a lot of them clean, leaving even more competition in the tank for pods. I had a 65g with tons of live rock and pods and my mandarin bit the bullet after 8-10 months. There were enough in there to keep it alive for that long but eventually, they will decimate your pod population and will starve to death unless you train them how to eat frozen brine/mysis/pellets first before putting them in the main display.

I've heard Target/spotted mandarins are supposedly more readily accepting of prepared foods than the green mandarin. Or you can pony up the money and get ORA mandarins that eat prepared foods. Or just wait for Mr. Cobbs first batch of tank bred mandarins.

[Wade]

are the ORA available somewhere? I'm having a hard time finding them.

[subsea]

Wade,

Pods eat microalgae. In my mud macro refugium, they eat biofilm on macro surfaces. They are opportunistic. I have seen them eating dead fish. Unless you have a need to feed macros to herbivores in main tank or you have heavy bioload to increase nutrient export with prunning macro. Lights are not necessary in the growth of pods in the refugium.

Patrick

[Wade]

I was under the impression that running the fuge light at night opposite the daytime light was necessary to avoid pH swings at night. I really don't have any macro to speak of in the fuge right now, but my pH only fluctuates about .15 - .2 per day. I only have one herbivore (blue eye tang) and I've got algae clips that i can load upfor it. I'll turn the fuge light off for the next week and monitor the pH swings. I'll move the very small amount of calaurpa to my QT. I'm cool without using the fuge light if it will mean a higher reproduction of pods.

[Euphoric Eulogy]

I want to try something like this in the near future.

[subsea]

Opposite photosynthic cycles to modulate pH are ingrained as advice for reef keeping since the Stone Age. I have never seen any supporting evidence to nail the proof down. I operate many systems without refugiums or opposite photo cycles. The slight pH drop at night time is good for my reef methods as it aids in alkalinity buffering and trace mineral addittion by dissolving arogonite substrate.

Patrick

[subsea]

I can not say that it will grow more pods without the light. The light is not necessary for pod growth.

Patrick

[Wade]

My concern was that the light would be a detriment to pod growth and that I would have to shade an area of the fuge. The light is just for the macro which I very little of. I was trying to grone a mangrove down there, but once it rooted and sprouted some leaves it died. I may not have enough nutrients in the water collumn to supoprt it which is a good thing I think.

[Wade]

I added about 1000 pods (quantity according to Reefs2Go) to the fuge on Wednesday. The mandarin will be in QT for another few weeks so that gives the pods time to breed. Here's the pictures of the condos I made. I wonder how soon they'll start to reproduce?

[+Grog]

In my experience, they reproduce quickly. I got 2000 from the same vendor 2 months ago and pods are everywhere in my tank. If I pull algae from the teeth on my overflow: pods. When I cut back the caulerpa: pods. When I change the carbon bag: pods. Sometimes you have to go and look for them but they really do start to pop up everywhere.

When I got my order of pods in, they went straight to the fuge/sump. Over time enough have been slowly blown through the return and are in the DT now. Was making a video last night and one was buzzing around the plate coral I was trying to film. I think that was a case of an animal being annoying Usually, they like to hide. They are food and know it!

I'm in agreement with Subsea. While I use an inverse photoperiod, my sump/fuge gets a 12 hour light cycle. Pods and caulerpa a plenty so I would say light is not detrimental to them.

Now the question is: Do they reproduce quickly enough to keep up with the mandarin's appetite? I've wanted a mandarin for quite some time, and I've put off the purchase in the hopes of building up my pod population. (That and I had other things higher on my priority list.) I've wondered if I'll have to periodically buy pods to beef up my local population, or if they will reproduce enough to keep up with it. So, I'm watching your progress with the mandarin. Interesting to me.

My guess is that I do have enough and they will repopulate and keep up, but I've been wrong about many things in this hobby in the past. Lots of surprises

[FarmerTy]

Just a heads up, a sampler Reefs2go pod pack came in with our last group buy and there were no copepods in the bag, just a ton of amphipods. Your mandarin will not eat the amphipods as they are too big. Perhaps some baby ones will get gobbled up but I wouldn't count on that pod pack to be a major source of food for the mandarin. If they sell a copepod specific pack, then ignore this.

Just wanted to mention just in case.

[Wade]

I'm also curious of to how well the little gut will take to be trained to eat other foods. He's in the QT and I added about 500 pods to the rock work there. I hear they'll eat Nutramar Ova row pretty well, but I really don't know how I'm going to target feed a shy fish in a 72g tank. I'm hoping the pod population will keep up I guess. I mean how many can he eat a day? I'm thinking of ordering another 2000 and adding them to the DT this time (at night). I have a six line wrasse and I'm not sure how many of these he'll decimate either. I'm going to order the Nutramar and start feeding it that in the QT to see if it takes to it there and then maybe use a turkey baster to try and spot feed it in the DT when it moves there in a few weeks. By the way, how long should I keep it in the QT? 6 weeks?

[Wade]

Hmmm. Interesting news there. I guess I really don't know the difference between the pod types and I did notice that all the pods I added to the fuge were large. I hope the little guy isn't starving in QT already. I'll have to get that Nutramar quick.

[FarmerTy]

The six line will compete for food. He will eat amphipods and copepods. Amphipods are the larger shrimp like animals and copepods are tiny white specks on your glass usually.

Mandarins have been observed to eat one pod every 10 seconds.

For QT, I play it by ear, but somewhere in the range of 2-4 weeks, depending in how quickly they get used to my feedings and if any diseases are observed.

[Wade]

I guess that feeding rate makes sense if the pods are that small. I'll have to check the fuge for white specs tonight and see what I see.

[mFrame]

Check out Tigger Pods at your local fish store to see what you want for the mandarin. They sell them in bottles in refrigerators near the checkout counters. Tiggers can be used to seed your tank.

[Wade]

Is that the same as the Tisbe Pods by AlgaGen? My LFD has some of those. I hear mixed reports about those as well in that what you get iis mostly eggs that will soon hatch, but not many adults. Not sure how much truth there is in that though.