I don't know that anyone ever goes to the effort of trying to catch them. Just grow them in your fuge and they will get pumped into your tank. You wont see them in your tank because of the predators, but they are there. When you stock pods, make sure you stock REEF pods. If you buy the little bottles that for example say "Tiger Pods", they will die. They are cold water pods and they cannot live/reproduce in tropical temps. They are designed to be used as food but not to stock your fuge. If you can't find REEF pods, then don't waste your money on the others, just buy some good LR and they'll hitch hike in. If your LFS is cool, they'll probably get your some rubble and some Chaeto from their fuge that should have plenty of pods in it. Pods reproduction cycle takes 30-45 days so it is likely to take 2 months before you really start seeing them all over.
pods
- Thread starter bruin01
- Start date
Hornet
Reefing newb
- Location
- Yorktown, VA USA
I agree, I added a bottle of reef pods to my tank a little over a month ago and I was recently thinking either these things are too small to see or I got screwed. Last week my eye spy spy 9 year old, who does not miss a thing in the tank, started asking me what all the little bugs are crawling around on the sand. Sure enough if I flick the lights on after lights out I can see them scattering all over the sand.
dcantucson
Reef pro
You can catch them with a turkey baster and then transfer them to your tank. But they'll make it up them anyway by way of your pump.
dcantucson
Reef pro
Hey Rc. Liked those plane shots. Very cool. You should post more of them!
Rcpilot
Reef pro
- Location
- Melbourne, FL
That was Platte Valley, CO airport, full scale fly-in. Some neat planes and lots of cool people.
I will upload some more videos this weekend. But I won't post them here. You'll have to go to photobucket and view my account to see them. It's rcpilet -- NOT rcpilot like here.
Rcpilot
Reef pro
- Location
- Melbourne, FL
Had to use a mini-flashlight to get enough light when the tank lights were turned off. Sorry the quality wasn't that great. Just wanted to be sure people knew the difference between a teeny tiny copepod and the much larger amphipod.
Now the feeding requirements of the mandarins seam MUCH more important..... don't they? Not many people realize the mandarin preferred food source of copepods is sooooooo tiny. Thats why you need a rather large tank with a LOT of rock and very healthy copepod population. Takes a lot of those little copepods to keep a fish well fed. Probably thousands per day. I don't know of any reports of mandarins eating the larger amphipods. I've read a lot of stuff on wetwebmedia indicating the amphipods are too large for the mandarins to eat.
I always cringe when I find a newbie asking questions about mandarin fishes. :yikesu: Most have NO idea how critical the RIGHT kind of pods are. Most have no idea what a real copepod even looks like, as amphipods are commonly mistaken for copepods.
tankedchemist
Reef enthusiast
- Location
- Redmond, WA
That's what she said? :mrgreen:
Just wanted to say thanks RC. I have yet to see either kind of pod in my DT, but my littler tank has bunches of copepods, apparently. Sweet. :)
wontonflip
I failed Kobayashi Maru
- Location
- VA USA
I've got mad pods growing in my fuge. Every now and then, I'll pull a chunk of chaeto and shake it into the tank....hundreds of pods scattered all over the tank. It was neat...hehehe.
From what I gather, they do make their way up via the return pump, but a lot don't survive...but enough do make it alive. Hence why a lot of people will have their fuge above the tank so the pods will hopefully all enter the tank alive via gravity.
From what I gather, they do make their way up via the return pump, but a lot don't survive...but enough do make it alive. Hence why a lot of people will have their fuge above the tank so the pods will hopefully all enter the tank alive via gravity.
I am pretty sure that between the worms, snails, shrimp, stars, crabs, oh and don't forget the fish, not to mention all of the other little inverts, if a pod comes through the pipe dead from his journey and doesn't make it into the grips of a hungry coral, they still don't last long enough to even reach the substrate.
Rcpilot
Reef pro
- Location
- Melbourne, FL
I mostly see copepods at night. Gotta go Blair Witch and get out the flashlight. :D
bruin01
Reefing newb
- Location
- Tiverton Rhode Island
Cool thanks for all the replys
mennazeher04
Reefing newb
- Location
- La Plata, Maryland
I knew how the pods got up to the DT but i always thought they would die before they even got there due to the return pump.......is that true or they so small they just pass right by?
daugherty
part time reefer
- Location
- Billings, MT USA
