Tiger Pods
- Thread starter TomNeely
- Start date
artful-dodger
New member
Well, "culture" doesn't quite fit but I did dump them into the refugium about a month ago and they do reproduce. Every time I trim the chaeto back, I have to rinse in a bucket of saltwater and get a bunch that would have gone down the 'terlet'. (I recycle them back to the other tank...)
Boxer_Crab
In Memoriam
If you are looking for pods find a rocky area around the bay right off of a sea wall, and catch it when the tide is just going out. Bring a bucket and start dipping pod covered rocks into it.
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
I culture them in a couple of tupperware tubs. They aren't very hard. When I started the culture, I started with a fairly small amount of water in the tupperware in order to keep a lot of food available to the copepods without having to really overfeed. Then once per week I would add a gallon or two of fresh salt water without removing any. At some point in the process, I added a bunch of bioballs to give the copepods more substrate. I timed it so filling the tubs took about three months without any harvests. After that, I started harvesting with water changes of ~gallon of water/4-5 days. It seems to work fine. The copepods tolerate fairly lousy water conditions (high salinity, fairly high nitrates), but reproduce best if I don't skip the water changes.
As for food, I alternate between Reed's concentrated T-Iso or a sprinkling of Otohime A (very small fish food) 1x per day.
Pretty easy, but it seems like that initial period of leaving them alone and letting the population grow helps.
As for food, I alternate between Reed's concentrated T-Iso or a sprinkling of Otohime A (very small fish food) 1x per day.
Pretty easy, but it seems like that initial period of leaving them alone and letting the population grow helps.
artful-dodger
New member
Cranberry Township is a bit far from the ocean, too. (Just North of Pittsburgh!)
:rolleye1:
:rolleye1:
TomNeely
New member
Thank you for the info. I am going to try using a 1 gallon plastic tank. I have Kent Marine Micro vert. Would they eat that? or Should I get the phyto feast? I did not want to buy it unless I really need to.
BTW- I WISH I LIVED CLOSER TO THE OCEAN!!!!!!!!!
Correct Dodger 25 minutes north of Pittsburgh...
BTW- I WISH I LIVED CLOSER TO THE OCEAN!!!!!!!!!
Correct Dodger 25 minutes north of Pittsburgh...
billyWhite
New member
I thought the Reef Nutrition Tiger Pods were a colder temperature species which means they don't last too long in a standard reef tank. Reef Nutrition sort of hides this fact in the small print, so I felt pretty burned after they all died within a few days from putting them in my fuge to reproduce. With that in mind, it's probably better to grow them out of the tank, then add them straight to the display, but even then, that seems like too much work. I'd rather just set up a standard fuge and let the regular hitchhiker bugs do their thing and find their way to the display.
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
I'd say that if they all died within a few days of placing them in a 'fuge (I don't know how you'd know, given their small size), then it was much more likely that they died from acclimation rather than temperature. I've had these in a continuous culture for over a year now, at temps ranging from probably 65F-90F (they get afternoon sun for part of the year) with no large die-offs. Now, Reef Nutrition also sells a dead, concentrated 'pod product, like buying concentrated mysis. Are you sure you didn't buy that?
billyWhite
New member
Seriously?
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
Seriously, that they sell such a product? Or, seriously that I ask the question?
No offense meant, I've seen crazier things....
No offense meant, I've seen crazier things....
DMyers1983
New member
I would never put "tiger pods" in my aquarium. They are a colder water carnivorous pod. They feed on larval animals fish, inverts, other pods. They are found in the gulf, and caribbean and have no business in most reef aquariums.
If they are thriving in your system you can bet that your other pods aren't.
Reefpods by Algagen is a much better source of pod life than Tiger pods.
If they are thriving in your system you can bet that your other pods aren't.
Reefpods by Algagen is a much better source of pod life than Tiger pods.
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
If you do your water changes across sieves of various sizes (200 or so microns to catch detritus and then I use a 54 micron sieve to catch the copepods), you can catch the 'pods and re-introduce them to your tupperware. It really does work better to slowly add water instead of doing water changes for a while so that it doesn't really matter if you suck some out with the water change, though.
Once that colony gets going well, I would advise splitting the culture into two so that you have a backup in case one culture crashes for some reason.
Once that colony gets going well, I would advise splitting the culture into two so that you have a backup in case one culture crashes for some reason.
pacificgirl
New member
Has anyone ordered the pods from ocean pro I think it's called? They seem to have the same species as the Reef Nutrition ones, but they sell them in larger bottles/quantities.
OCEAN SIZE
BACK REEFIN'
Interesting comment. I'd like to know more. Is everyone in agreement with the Algagen pods?
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
I've heard good things about Algagen and I've never heard anything bad about Tisbe sp. copepods.
Truthfully, this is the first I've heard anything bad said about T. californicus. T. californicus is adapted to eat detritus on the bottom, so it sounds likely that it's an omnivore. In fact, I feed them crushed fish food, so they certainly eat dead meat products. They also eat phytoplankton and I've maintained them exclusively on phyto for months at a time, so it's just false that they are carnivores, at least obligate carnivores.
They are routinely used as an offering to larval fish by professionals in aquaculture, so I doubt fish larvae have anything to fear from them. In fact, if they're found eating fish larvae, the larvae was likely dead and floated to the bottom before the copepods started snacking.
I haven't noticed T. californicus out-competing any of the other copepods in my systems, nor amphipods (which, granted, are brooders and shouldn't have anything to fear from egg eaters), nor cerith snails that do reproduce from eggs left on the tank glass. The other small inverts also seem to do fine. In fact, the amphipods are the ones I see eating snail eggs. (Grr, evil amphipods....
)I've had them in continuous culture for over a year, so being in a fairly tropical environment hasn't seemed to harm them much in my cultures. But, given that I'm just using them for food, I don't know what them being from a temperate climate really has to do with anything. In fact, being from a temperate climate would make them less likely to displace tropical copepods in a tropical system, right?
Then again, I'm not a copepod expert so all might be true. If you really want to know, I'd advise asking Adelaide at http://www.essentiallivefeeds.com/. She _is_ a copepod expert and very nice, too.
Good luck!
OCEAN SIZE
BACK REEFIN'
Excellent information - much thanks. I'm leaning toward numerous small chambers plumbed from a filtered line in the shed housing my next sump. If I do that, fed from a manifold with individual overflow bulkheads, I could keep populations mostly separate I hope.
To keep the cultures sterile, I could also potentially trickle topoff RO/DI or water changes through them if I keep their salinity up. I realize pods will find nooks, crannies, and foods throughout the system. I'd like to maximize the diversity before any group out-competes the other and have a continuous feed to the tank.
Pods explode in the overflow, sump, 'fuge, etc I have currently but I'm strongly leaning towards culturing too. Great thread and thanks for the info all.
To keep the cultures sterile, I could also potentially trickle topoff RO/DI or water changes through them if I keep their salinity up. I realize pods will find nooks, crannies, and foods throughout the system. I'd like to maximize the diversity before any group out-competes the other and have a continuous feed to the tank.
Pods explode in the overflow, sump, 'fuge, etc I have currently but I'm strongly leaning towards culturing too. Great thread and thanks for the info all.
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