STOCKING PODs??

[peppie]

I have a 75gal AIO. 60gal DT. 15galfilter area.
Is it possible to stock it with pods to keep a Mandarin Goby?
If so what type of pod is best and how many bottles should I add at one time to do so. How will I know when there is an established population to keep the mandarin fat and happy?
The tank has been running for 2 months. It was set up with the break down of 2, 20gal tanks that had been up and running for 6 mo. prior to being transfered to the 75 AIO.

 

[Erik72]

I'm very interested in the answer to your question. I can see several pods swimming/crawling inside my tank and have wondered if there was enough in there for a mandarin. Upgrading and adding a fuge soon to help out with the population.
Hopefully this bump will catch the eye of someone with the knowledge to answer it.

 

[HanoverFist]

Macro algae's will help their population by giving them places to hide and eat. Chaeto is a great one for them and you should have some anyways.

Dosing some phytoplankton can help them too. Just be sure to start with very small doses if you don't currently dose it. And don't dose much. If you don't give the system time to adapt to the phyto doses, it's like dosing liquid nitrate.


Chaeto from a local reefer or two is probably your best source for pods.

 

[Korrine]

http://www.google.com/search?q=cope...x=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=f6d71ab45ffd091

 

[namxas]

One thing to consider is that Tigriopus californicus (tigger pods) is a swimming pod, which are harder for a mandy to catch. Tigriopus are also a cool water pod and at normal reef temps, they produce an inordinate amount of males so the culture burns itself out after a couple of generations.

The best live pod available for seeding the tank for mandies would be Tisbe sp., as they will reproduce readily and are benthic/demersal so the mandy can pick them off of the LR and other surfaces of the tank.

As mentioned, feed the tank live phyto to feed the pods and boost their population.

Phyto2 has several species of live phyto (try not to use Nannochloropsis as it has a hard cell membrane that critters don't like). Zoo2 (same company) sells the Tisbe sp. pods.

 

[djkms]

(try not to use Nannochloropsis as it has a hard cell membrane that critters don't like).

What phyto do you recommend and why for culturing copepods then?

 

[peppie]

This is good stuff. Please keep it coming. So far it is best to use reef pods? I cna get them at my LFS. I have a fuge chamber in the AIO that houses cheatos. Is it best to add the bottle to that chamber as well as to the DT? How many pods per bottle 10,100,1000,2000???
After say 1 bottle per week for how many weeks. Is it possible to over populate?

 

[fishez4alivin]

used this to seed a 30G and had the fattest mandarin I've ever seen.
https://livecopepods.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

 

[djkms]

I added a bag of reef pods to my fuge when I first started it. Didnt notice any kind of population boom from them. I since then bought 6 cultures of Reef Science Nutrition. This guy knows what he is doing! The bags where full of life. Didnt see anything in the reefpods bag.

http://joeknowsreefs.com/reef-science

 

[fishez4alivin]

that's funny, cuz I only added the two 24.00 starter bottles, and nothing else, and my mandarin picked the rocks non stop all day long, until lights out. Maybe I got lucky

 

[djkms]

What you purchased is different - here is what I first bought:
http://www.marinedepot.com/AlgaGen_Reefpods_Copepods_Food_8oz_Liquid_Fish_Coral_Food-AlgaGen_LLC-GV00005-FIFDLI-vi.html

 

[Erik72]

Is there a way to tell if you have enough pods to support a mandarin. Or is it just trial and error. If the mandarin starts looking skinny...add more pods.

 

[chimmike]

that's funny, cuz I only added the two 24.00 starter bottles, and nothing else, and my mandarin picked the rocks non stop all day long, until lights out. Maybe I got lucky

they do that anyways, whether there are pods on there or not, they pick at any specs that could be pods.

 

[namxas]

What phyto do you recommend and why for culturing copepods then?

Tetraselmus and Isochrysis are about the best. Tetraselmus has a longer shelf life, but "Iso" has a much better nutritional profile. There's a pretty pink phyto called Rhodomonas, that has an even shorter shelf life, but is REALLY super in terms of nutritional profile.

 

[jake levi]

On the ads you look at look for Harpactacoids, they are the Benthic ones, the bottom dwellers, Tiggers and most others are Calanoid, swimmers, and pretty much stay out of reach of the Mandarins and Gobys. As mentioned above keep a clump or two of Chaeto growing and the pods will orient on it, also once or twice a week feed with some phyto , most pods will also feed some on ground flake food, especially spirulina.

 

[Angel*Fish]

I just bought some live rock and a handful of chaeto. The main thing is to have plenty of places where they can reproduce without predation by the mandarin other fish or inverts. It's a hard call to know when you have enough, but 2 months isn't enough - more ike 6 mo to a year because you want the tiny invert population to reach equilibrium. If you can fill that 15g part with chaeto (if there's light) that would act as a pod factory.

 

[peppie]

Thank you Angle-Fish. That is the answer I was looking to get. I do have a chamber in the filter area for cheatos. Yes it does have a light. I run the light for 18hr on and 6 hours off. The flow thru that chamber is about 300ghp. The chamber holds about 1 1/2 gal of water. I will not be adding any more fish for at least 4 mo. The wife has me on a budget. LOL.
So I will start to stock a pod population 2 mo. before I add the mandarin. Thanks again

 

[jyxie]

do you have a fuge? if you do, you should be able to support the mandarin