Any advice on growing pods?

[chony]

I have two pipe fish and a mandarin. Would like to have a steady supply of pods if possible.

 

[dakota9]

You need a refugium.......... STAT!

Read up on how to start/plumb a refugium. If you have to go with an "in-tank" refugium, get a huge ball of Cheato and a hair net....... ( don't laugh, this works best I have found, even if your tank looks like your old school's lunch lady for a few days, the new growth of the Cheato will cover the net in short order.)

Optimum Aquarium and Imagine Ocean has Cheato (last I checked)......

Edit: Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, pods seem to love to grow in the cheato and gives them a place to grow a population.

Does the Manderin eat prepared foods by chance.

 

[wbrown]

lots of live rock rubble hidden under/behind your large rocks! Critters need a place to hide out. Cheato comment is a good one if you can do a refugium. Rubble would be a second choice or supplement.

 

[dawgface]

Not to be harsh but I would consider getting rid of all three until you have the necessary requirements to keep them I.e. mature system, large tank, healthy abundant growing pod population. Owning one of these creatures absent any of these requirements, let alone three, is negligent at best. Rarely does one have a system capable to house these three together.

 

[tangaray]

My Mandarin will actually eat Mysis but he is a fat pig and i'm not sure how common that is to happen.

 

[rtirado]

DawgFace;713716 wrote: Not to be harsh but I would consider getting rid of all three until you have the necessary requirements to keep them I.e. mature system, large tank, healthy abundant growing pod population. Owning one of these creatures absent any of these requirements, let alone three, is negligent at best. Rarely does one have a system capable to house these three together.

Yea I'd have to agree with that, I'm new to marine tanks as well and while I would love a Mandarin I did the research and found that I would need a mature and large tank to sustain one. I hope some LFS didnt sell these together to you without asking some questions. :unsure:

 

[dawgface]

Mandarins are fairly commonly found to eventually eat frozen so your lucky there. Pipefish on the other hand not so much. They just like mandarins are specialized eaters and require what I said above.

 

[chony]

My tank is 2 years old and the mandarin does eat mysis shrimp. I just want to grow pods in a separate container. A guy told me how he does it and I was just curious if anyone had any luck doing that. He takes some pods out for his tank then feeds the pods macro algae and replaces the water with some water from his tank...

 

[dawgface]

Honest opinion no. Even if you were able to culture and reproduce pods (no easy task), a can or even your biocube will never have the capability to self sustain even one Pipefish. They require literally 100+ pods daily, leading into the requirements of large tanks with ample rock work to create the necessary reproduction of pods above and beyound thier daily needs. Sorry to say, if you keep them a regular weekly supplement of purchased pods are in your future.

 

[dawgface]

I suppose you could setup a rather extravagant pod hatchery, but keep in mind the attention, dedication and capacity needed would be as big or bigger than you biocube. It would also take some time to get started. In the mean time, get used to supplementing Tiger pods no less than once a week preferably twice.

 

[chony]

Would have been nice to know.

 

[dawgface]

That's what were here for brother! Ask before you buy, trust the LFS only once they have earned it. Some are worthy of that honor, others not do much. Even then sometimes its best to live by Ronald Regan, "trust but verify"