Dosing PODS?
 

So, wondering. Does anyone regularly add PODS to their tanks... or live planktons?

Wondering if they just become food or if they will actually become a breeding population.

I have a small refugium, and have considered adding a Bag of live pods here and there, but don't want it to be a single feeding for my fish.

I've added Copepods to my tank on a number of occasions. My Mandarin is by far the most expensive fish that I have ever owned. Although he is fat now and its been six months since the last time I added any.

Tiggerpods will amount to a single feeding. I personally wouldnt waste my money here. You need to find a good source for the right type of pods. You'll need to do some research to avoid wasting money.

- Brad

I think you can just buy a live rock from some one who has lots of pods and put it in your refugium. Feed them and they will grow fast.

no need to buy copepods. For a mandarin, fish roe (masago) and live white worms are doing wonders. Mine eats fish roe, Hikari frozen bloodworms and live white worms. They are fat as can be.

I do have PODs in my system... but I want to ensure always a healthy level. What/how do you feed PODs specifically?


I do not have a Mandarin. I may get one in the future. Just, as mentioned above, want to ensure I maintain a healthy population.

I have added live cultures to the tank before, really no noticeable effects. Personally I think you get a much better variety of pods & plankton from liverock and new coral purchases. It's a shame that a quick Iodine bath kills most of this life but it's usually for the best.

My trick has always been to make a rubble pile somewhere in my tank where detritus naturally builds up and where my fish can't get at my pods. My rubble pile is actually underneath all of my rock in the very back of the tank where it is almost impossible to see. I seeded the tank with some pod-heavy rocks and fed some food to the rubble pile for the first couple of weeks but now just let the detritus do the work for me. It is a POD FACTORY. My mandarin has learned to hang out at the pile at certain times of the day when there is an apparent changing of the guards to to speak... it's like the pods work shifts. Weird.

I also use a CPR bakpak skimmer with the biobale removed. The skimmer acts both like a skimmer and a refugium there is always a ton of pods running around inside of there.

When hanging out with the head of research at the Vancouver Aquarium a couple months ago I brought up the discussion of pods. He said that most pods that you buy won't actually form breeding populations as they eventually just die. Surprisingly a number of the pod species sold in stores aren't native to tropical saltwater conditions are are not raised in those conditions and so die fairly quick in our tanks. Not all, but most. His opinion also was that trigger pods are the devil as they are a predatory pod that can take down other smaller pods and fauna and even kill and eat fish fry (if you ever try to breed fish that is).

Scubasteve-- Did he mention which brands or species do survive?

Not Me... With the amount of live rock in my DT and Sump/Refuge, pods have never been an issue. My mandarin sure loves the ample supply.

I know for having try them that that large tiger pods don,t survive. I think they live in much colder water and only live a few hours to a few days in my tank. They also are mostly free swimming so they get grabbed by the corals and fish in no time.