To pod or not to pod

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

That is the question. Lol
Hey all,
For those of you who are looking at increasing pod #s. I suggest getting a pod house or pod breeder square.
Just a cube with lots of space and holes in it. Like a mini pod apartment. You can dose all the coral foods. Fish foods. Phytoplankton you want but I truly do believe this is the best way to get pod numbers up by providing a safe haven for em. I haven't added one to my set up but looking to hear from others who have exp success using 1
Ty all
Reef on!
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Pod Hotel Copepod Haven

Do you ever see your copepods homeless, roaming the glass or rocks looking for a home? The Pod Hotel is the solution to their problems with six levels of vacant rooms ready for them to set up a temporary home in. If your aquarium does not utilize a refugium the Pod Hotel makes a great home for...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I see a bunch around my IM frag rack in the tight spaces my fish can't get to. I think they prefer to live on or around algae ....chaeto or gha. Refugium

I wondered if those boxes really work myself. I would imagine they would. But is it any different then the refugium?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I keep a no light refugium or cryptic refugium area in my sump and this is where I can flick a light on and see em mostly.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

What difference pods are their? Amphipods
Copedods. Isopods.

I've seen them advertised as tiger pods or trigger pods when they sell them and ppl buy them.
Let's gather some info as well as discuss the pod hotels.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Different*

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Different*

 

[Uncle99]

Certainly the box can work. Pods are, like you point out, an important member of the processing team and food item.
Rock, Bricks, sand all provide “homes” as well.
While I did add some initial pods years ago, I have added nothing since.
My mandarin is now 4 years old, so must be enough pods in the DT.
More diversity, sure, that’s always a plus.
Not sold on regular dosing of pods, I’m sure they replicate well in good waters and some phyto (which I do dose regularly).

 

[DHill6]

I have Tonga branch in the sump, pods come and go, mandarin. But they seem to repopulate, before I add to the Tisbe population every once in awhile.

 

[homer1475]

I just keep a small pile of rubble rock in my sump that I dose phyto too(and to the DT). Keep 2 mandys well fed in an 80G cube.

I can see many pods crawling about in my sump. I rarely clean my sump, I find they like to live in the mulm that collects in the corners.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

Those are good for amphipods not so much for copepods. Copepods love rock rubble as it's the most natural environment surface area wise for them .Natural Sea sponges work well to but they do decay over time

 

[boatguy]

If you have fish that need pods (dragonettes/mandarins) they may survive in a mature tank with the pods that are available. If you want hose fish to thrive they probably need more.

 

[GarrettT]

I truly do believe this is the best way to get pod numbers up by providing a safe haven for em.

I agree : )

Build Thread - GarrettT's 192 gallon SPS

Like always, I tend to start a build thread after majority of the labor is complete. Originally, I had no intentions of building a thread, however after seeing some of the progress, I can't help but document the build. It's turning out much nicer than I had intended it to be. I always enjoy...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[GarrettT]

I do believe food availability is the biggest limitation when it comes to copepods. I’ve been culturing nanno, tetra, and iso as of late, and will admit, my pod population exploded within a week of dosing. It’s pretty crazy just how quick it happened. They’re scattered all over the glass, day or night, in front of a power head, doesn’t matter. Even without a refuge, I do believe it would take a pretty substantial appetite to interrupt the population, assuming the tank is sized appropriately and food is available.

 

[DaJMasta]

Some sort of habitat can help, but using live rock rubble would be my preference - gives more variety in crevice size as well as more surface area for bacteria.

I think the limiting factor for pods and microfauna is usually food availability as well, and I think phytoplankton is the component missing in most aquaria that's plentiful in nature. There are a number of copepods that can't be cultured using just fish foods or waste products, but which thrive when raised on phytoplankton, and there are very few copepod species that can't eat phytoplankton. Copepod habitat space will also do basically nothing for pelagic copepods, and while I won't claim that an aquarium is going to be an ideal environment for them, increasing food availability in the water column would definitely be my approach to trying to promote them.

 

[Jekyl]

You could also run a RUGF system *grin*

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Great talking here ty all
D

 

[Lavey29]

Some sort of habitat can help, but using live rock rubble would be my preference - gives more variety in crevice size as well as more surface area for bacteria.

I think the limiting factor for pods and microfauna is usually food availability as well, and I think phytoplankton is the component missing in most aquaria that's plentiful in nature. There are a number of copepods that can't be cultured using just fish foods or waste products, but which thrive when raised on phytoplankton, and there are very few copepod species that can't eat phytoplankton. Copepod habitat space will also do basically nothing for pelagic copepods, and while I won't claim that an aquarium is going to be an ideal environment for them, increasing food availability in the water column would definitely be my approach to trying to promote them.

Strange, the OP told me reef tanks make their own phytoplankton so it should abundantly available to sustain a pod population right? Once you seed pods they should have all the food they need right because the tank generates its own phytoplankton like the ocean does according to the OP in another thread.

 

[DaJMasta]

I guess it depends on what you consider phytoplankton and what you consider "abundantly". The diatoms, dinoflagellates, and even cyanobacteria our tanks often generate could all be considered phytoplankton, though they're usually problematic in their benthic state rather than the types being cultured which tend to live in the water column. Yes, there will be some amount of phytoplankton present in a given system, but no, it's not going to feed much. If it was "abundant", then when your nutrient levels rose you would see the water turning opaque with green or brown as the plankton multiplied. In reality, between the many consumers of the phytoplankton and the multitude of filtration options that can remove or kill them (skimmer, ozone, UV, etc.), the population sustained in a typical tank is minimal. I really ought to get a centrifuge and actually try to get everything out of a sample of water and look at it under a microscope to take a look at what all can actually survive there, but I am pretty sure I won't be finding tons of phytoplankton. I dose my tank ~300mL of cultured phytoplankton daily and it takes all of an hour for the water to go clear with only a skimmer, so it gets consumed fast by filter feeders and things.

In nature, the reef isn't the thing making the phytoplankton, it's the nutrient availability in cold water currents coming from long distances away, growing in transit, and arriving over reef locations. Sure, phyto can survive in a reef, but there are so many predators it really can't get to the point of thriving. This is why people see substantial benefits to filter feeders and pod/larger microcrustacean populations so consistently when dosing phytoplankton, and why a number of corals (mostly NPS) actually require some kind of planktonic dosing to survive in captivity - the concentration of these tiny foods they get in nature is far higher than what a typical reef tank maintains.

 

[KQuillan]

Strange, the OP told me reef tanks make their own phytoplankton so it should abundantly available to sustain a pod population right? Once you seed pods they should have all the food they need right because the tank generates its own phytoplankton like the ocean does according to the OP in another thread.

I was just going to ask about this.