Buying Pods

[U4BOYZ]

Has anyone had any experience buying live copepods or phytoplankton? I have a mandarin...and I'm wondering if he's getting enough food. He does eat mysis shrimp, so he's holding his own...but I thought pods would add another element to his diet. I have a fairly new tank, so I'm thinking it's not well enough established yet. I do not have a refugium. I thought this would also help to feed my corals and anemones. I'm wondering if the refrigerated pods are all they're cracked up to be.

 

[PufferGuy]

i bought pods off ebay and was very pleased... also for a mandarin

 

[yote]

I've never bought any of the live pods.Figured I had enough of em in my live rock.
I have bought and used frozen cyclops and rotifers,which are just zooplankton and EVERY thing in the tank loves those.
I've also used the DTs Phyto before.But when I really got to thinking about it,I figured I had enough natural phyto growing in the tank since I get that green dust algae at times.

 

[Navarchus]

First, nice new green VIP banner! I agree with Yote that your LR may have enough already, but to be safe (with a mandarin) you could try livecopepods.com.

 

[U4BOYZ]

Thanks Navarchus. :) Green is one of my favorite colors. :) Thanks for the tips everyone...I think I will give them a try. I'll start with livecopepods.com.

 

[Bifferwine]

I used a bottle of pods to jump start their population in the fuge of my old 240. You should create a "pod pile" in your tank somewhere -- this is a little pile of rock rubble that has holes and crevices in it that are too small for the mandarin to reach into. This will create a safe area for the pods to reproduce, and they'll eventually spill out into the rest of the tank.

 

[reeffreak]

How's its belly looking?That's a good sign if it's getting enough to eat.It sure wouldn't hurt to jump start the population.

 

[reeffreak]

I used a bottle of pods to jump start their population in the fuge of my old 240.

Old 240,say it ain't so.

 

[Bifferwine]

Old 240,say it ain't so.

Alas, 'tis so! I bought a house, and down-sized to a 90 gallon, and I have a little 10 gallon as well. The 240 was too much work. I grew to hate it! Plus, every rock was covered in majano and kenya weed by the time I tore it down. I ended up literally boiling over 500 lbs of live rock on the stove :shock:

 

[Alexander]

look for "tiggerpods" I have been looking into making some cultures in mason jars for my 10 gallon. they are live copepods that are in a small bottle. if your culturing them you want fresh salt water not water pulled from your tank or it will fowl the culture. I have been doing some reading on it lately.

 

[reeffreak]

That's to bad Biff.At least I have something over you even though it looks like crap.

 

[Picasso]

Tiggerpods are so cool. I dumped a bottle into my tank and there was a tiny droplet left in the bottom. The next day, I saw that there were a few pods in that droplet so I filled the bottle up with fresh saltwater and put a tiny bit of chaeto in it. In a week the bottle was full of pods again! Every few days I put a couple drops of phytoplankton in there. Very cool!

IPSF has a pod breeding kit you can buy: : : : : Indo-Pacific Sea Farms : : : : or you can them on ebay too.

Catherine

 

[SeattleDarko]

I have used Live Copepods I was going to be ordering a booster for my fuge, I am getting another pod eater and want to make sure everyone is fed.

 

[U4BOYZ]

I've also used the DTs Phyto before.But when I really got to thinking about it,I figured I had enough natural phyto growing in the tank since I get that green dust algae at times.

I do have a green dusty looking algae on top of my sand sometimes. Could that mean I already have plenty of natural phyto growing? My tank is only about six months old...

 

[U4BOYZ]

How's its belly looking?That's a good sign if it's getting enough to eat.It sure wouldn't hurt to jump start the population.

My mandarin (Marvin) looks plump. He eats frozen mysis shrimp every night for dinner. I was just thinking of jump-starting my pod population to give him a variety of food---and to help out corals and anemones and such.

 

[U4BOYZ]

look for "tiggerpods" I have been looking into making some cultures in mason jars for my 10 gallon. they are live copepods that are in a small bottle. if your culturing them you want fresh salt water not water pulled from your tank or it will fowl the culture. I have been doing some reading on it lately.

I was looking into triggerpods as well. Interesting tip on the saltwater. I hadn't read that. Thanks.