Tigger Pods- where did they go?

[Trever]

My LFS sold me 6 oz of Reef Nutrition live tigger pods to add to my 33 gallon tank.

I let the bottle warm to room temp and turned off the lights and all the pumps per instructions and added to DT. I have a lot of pukani rock and a thin layer of live caribsea sand.

I saw the pods swimming around, saw a clown fish snarf down a few.

Next morning, nadda. This was two days ago. Haven't seen a pod anywhere.

Was that a $20 bottle that ain't coming back, or what?

LFS is an LFS, but for sure a good one (reputation, etc.). I'd be surprised if the owner sold me something that wasn't going to "take" in my tank. I asked her too, because I was under the impression that if you just add these things to the DT, they'll soon die off. (I have 3 fish and nothing else in the DT except the rock and sand, I don't have and don't want a refugium.)

This is really a basic biology question, and I'm over my quota for posts today, but... where did they go?

 

[Zotmurse]

They’re likely hidden in the pukani and swimming around in your sump. They were swimming around freely in the DT because they were looking for a place to go!

 

[Trever]

@Zotmurse I had in a felt filter sock which I did not remove. The visible ones wouldn't pass thru that, I wouldn't think. The rest would?

 

[Zotmurse]

@Zotmurse I had in a felt filter sock which I did not remove. The visible ones wouldn't pass thru that, I wouldn't think. The rest would?

Yeah. You may have lost a few in there. Next time I would put 50% in the DT and 50% in the sump.

 

[MaxxuM]

They are there. Hiding and breeding. I feed my nano's with tiggers over two or three months. Just a spoonful a day with meals. Many get away and breed. That way my two clowns don't just gobble them all up in 2-3 weeks. The best time to add them IME is during the middle to end of a cycle with no other life in the tank. They are ammonia tolerant, hardy, and will add biological diversity to a tank.

You didn't waste your money

 

[csb123]

It’s probably best to introduce them at night, when the fish are less likely to an them. Also, remove mechanical filtration for a couple of days. You want then to survive long enough to find safety, and start breeding. I just started to culture them in a bucket , and it took a month to see an observable population bloom.