Tigger & Tisbe Pods

40B Knasty · Jan 29, 2018

leahfiish said:
No its just an air powered sponge filter. Basically a sponge with a bubbler. And feeding 1 species of phyto is not ideal because it's not a complete diet but I am feeding multiple species with the phyto feast. Maybe something in my Nanochloropsis contaminated something but I'm not sure. I might switch to spirulina but I want to at least try to finish the bottle of phyto feast first, I haven't used much of it and I don't see any reason why the phyto feast would be an issue.
Stability is just bottled beneficial bacteria so I can't see that being the problem. I need to check the ammonia to make sure that isnt high.
Thanks for the suggestions.

You might be adding to much air to the tank. I have a trickle of one bubble per second straight from the airline. That is what I told is good enough for the tank and has worked for me.

leahfiish · Jan 29, 2018

I will turn it down. Thanks.

leahfiish · Jan 29, 2018

@40B Knasty how are your pods doing?

40B Knasty · Jan 30, 2018

leahfiish said:
@40B Knasty how are your pods doing?

Great still. Pulling 2K+ Tigger pods every week from my right tank.
Weird part about my left tank. The Tisbe pods have bounced back. I think they are stopping the Tigger pods from taking over. I don't know if they have a bigger hunger for other types of pods and they happen to be feeding off the larvae of the Tigger pods, but I have been just playing it out to see what happens with a coexistence of the two pod types to give a heads up about contamination of another species that were pretty equal in numbers at one point.
Here is a video I just did for you @leahfiish

Reef Nutrition · Jan 30, 2018

leahfiish said:
No its just an air powered sponge filter. Basically a sponge with a bubbler. And feeding 1 species of phyto is not ideal because it's not a complete diet but I am feeding multiple species with the phyto feast. Maybe something in my Nanochloropsis contaminated something but I'm not sure. I might switch to spirulina but I want to at least try to finish the bottle of phyto feast first, I haven't used much of it and I don't see any reason why the phyto feast would be an issue.
Stability is just bottled beneficial bacteria so I can't see that being the problem. I need to check the ammonia to make sure that isnt high.
Thanks for the suggestions.

The sponge filter is not necessary. I don't use them on my systems. I don't do any water changes either. My cultures go 60 to 90 days with nothing but feedings and freshwater top-off. Keep in mind that sponge filters will strip the algae right from the tank resulting in starvation. You might want to eliminate it for now while the copepods recover. I've also never used stability, so not sure how that affects a culture.

There is nothing wrong with the diet. All of the microalgal species in Phyto-Feast are acceptable for this species of copepod and many others.

Chad

leahfiish · Jan 30, 2018

I turned the sponge filter down and took a close look last night, it looks like I have very few adults left but I do have a lot more babies than I thought. I think it definitely could have been the flow from the sponge filter banging them around.
I never thought that the sponge filter might take out food

I'll remove it tonight. Maybe I'll just ring it out in my display to at least get some of the pods into my tank.
Thanks!

tammieh · Jan 31, 2018

I don't see many adults left, but I see babies. I also started another small container in my garage using some algae starter culture. <fingers crossed>

40B Knasty · Jan 31, 2018

tammieh said:
I don't see many adults left, but I see babies. I also started another small container in my garage using some algae starter culture. <fingers crossed>

Have you pulled any out to feed your tank?

tammieh · Jan 31, 2018

40B Knasty said:
Have you pulled any out to feed your tank?

No I haven't.

jnvd3b · Jan 31, 2018

I just love this setup I find the pods really hardy.
I’ve had the tank at 72 degrees 74 degrees 76 degrees they dont care. Trying to keep them 76-78 now just so there is no temp shock when I put them in DT.

They do seem to cycle in that one day there will be a ton swimming around and a few days later most are on the glass (pregnant females, i think) and a few days later lots of small babies.

I don’t bother with water changes and I feed both phytofeast and spirulina, I just kind of wing it. The ammonia alert badge has never gone above yellow, so i guess the MarinePure is working?

Once/twice a week I scoop a bunch out with a net and that’s about all the work I do to the tank besides feed it every couple days.

40B Knasty · Feb 1, 2018

jnvd3b said:
I just love this setup I find the pods really hardy.
I’ve had the tank at 72 degrees 74 degrees 76 degrees they dont care. Trying to keep them 76-78 now just so there is no temp shock when I put them in DT.

They do seem to cycle in that one day there will be a ton swimming around and a few days later most are on the glass (pregnant females, i think) and a few days later lots of small babies.

I don’t bother with water changes and I feed both phytofeast and spirulina, I just kind of wing it. The ammonia alert badge has never gone above yellow, so i guess the MarinePure is working?

Once/twice a week I scoop a bunch out with a net and that’s about all the work I do to the tank besides feed it every couple days.

do you have the airline bubbling through the MP triangle or is it in a filtration?
Flow is usually needed to help process ammonia. It is like if you were to have a power outage. Flow needs to be applied to a mechanical media to keep the good bacteria alive.
I am happy you are having success with simplicity. You have definitely thought a little bit of this through. I still like the ammonia badge idea. The temp shock. I have a 20g tank with like 3 gallons of water for my brine shrimp hatcheries and pond snails to sit in. I take my mason jar full of pods and let it sit in that heated water for 30+ minutes. Then they are ready for the tank. I wonder if your tanks being heated makes them more active with eating and mating.

jnvd3b · Feb 1, 2018

40B Knasty said:
do you have the airline bubbling through the MP triangle or is it in a filtration?
Flow is usually needed to help process ammonia. It is like if you were to have a power outage. Flow needs to be applied to a mechanical media to keep the good bacteria alive.
I am happy you are having success with simplicity. You have definitely thought a little bit of this through. I still like the ammonia badge idea. The temp shock. I have a 20g tank with like 3 gallons of water for my brine shrimp hatcheries and pond snails to sit in. I take my mason jar full of pods and let it sit in that heated water for 30+ minutes. Then they are ready for the tank. I wonder if your tanks being heated makes them more active with eating and mating.

I run a small air stone, more than 1 bubble per second but I have it turned down as much as I could.

leahfiish · Feb 1, 2018

You can tie a knot in airline to slow it down further.

tammieh · Feb 2, 2018

I now can see tons of babies! <3 I have two algae bottles brewing up to get some live food for them on a regular basis. More tubing and flow regulators should arrive later today or tomorrow so I can split the cultures. My ammonia alert badge arrived and is in the tank. Things are starting to look good.

What's the best food to feed them before I harvest them ... timing of the feeding as related to harvesting and what's the best food supply to get them to be the most nutritious for my mandarin? I'm not sure when I'll start harvesting them, but just thinking ahead.

40B Knasty · Feb 2, 2018

tammieh said:
I now can see tons of babies! <3 I have two algae bottles brewing up to get some live food for them on a regular basis. More tubing and flow regulators should arrive later today or tomorrow so I can split the cultures. My ammonia alert badge arrived and is in the tank. Things are starting to look good.

What's the best food to feed them before I harvest them ... timing of the feeding as related to harvesting and what's the best food supply to get them to be the most nutritious for my mandarin? I'm not sure when I'll start harvesting them, but just thinking ahead.

I just feed them as normal. The nutrition is the pod itself. Great for Omega 3. Chad had mentioned, because the egg sack of my tigger pods. were green in tint. Means they are eating the spirulina. Which is great in nutrition as it is. Will that tiny speck of green make a difference compared to the overall nutrition of the pod itself. Probably not much of a plus added to the pod. Just my opinion.
I am very happy to hear you are having success though

40B Knasty · Feb 4, 2018

I am at my wit's end with the Tisbe pods. They blow up for a few days. Any little swing and they die off. While the Tigger pods in the same tank are fine. I went to go look today and there literally was not 1 Tisbe pod on the glass, but in my last video they were 10 to 1 over the Tigger pods. That being said. From my experience as of now with them in the past 5-6 months. They need to be monitored a lot more and more maintenance to the tank for you to be happy with keeping them or be put in a display tank where it is stable. For me, Tigger pods hands down I will say again gets my vote as the best pod on the market as my monthly experience grows working with these two types of pods.
Pros and cons;
Tigger pods pros:
They are more resilient to salinity swings and ammonia spikes.
They are a food source for Omega 3. Which interns helps with the slime coat for a fish.
A lot more fish will eat them.
Each female pod can have up to 300 pods within their life span.
A female when inseminated can store the sperm from a male. So if the female is inseminated, pulled from your Tigger pod tank, placed in your display tank, and survives in the display tank. It will not need a male to procreate the whole time being alive.
A good size pod for those picky eaters to see.
2000ish in a bottle
Can handle salinity swing up to 1.030.
Con's: None!
Tisbe pods pro:
Smaller pod that most fish will not see to eat. Leaving more for your picky eaters.
Can handle salinity swing up to 1.030
Con's:
More money for a bottle and only 400-600 Pods.
Low information about them on the internet.
Can not handle ammonia spike.
Need a tiny micron net to harvest.

tammieh · Feb 4, 2018

Seeing more activity in the tank! <3 I'm growing out some algae... or at least trying to. It seems like it's working. I'm feeding some live algae and spirulina.