Pod question

I'm in the very very early stages of preparing for a mandarin. I ordered a supply of pods from reefcleaners and it should be in early next week. I was going to start up a little pod farm and work on the population in my tank, which is virtually nonexistent at the moment. So, my question is, when they come in, does the bag need to be drip acclimated before I put them in or will temp acclimation suffice. Also, I know that clowns will sometimes grab the occasional pod if they see it out but what about gobies and coral banded shrimp? How voraciously will they go after them?

 

In terms of acclimating pods, you don't need to drip them. Float the bag to equalize the temperature, and then just use a cup to add tank water slowly to the bag over a few minutes. Pods are known for their ability to withstand swings in salinity, and are very hardy.

In terms of your second question, just about any fish will eat pods. Look at how all fish seem to attack cyclop-eeze, which is a pod-derived product. That's why most people use a fish-free refugium or pod farm to culture pods, rather than adding them directly to their DTs.

 

Ok, thanks. I was going to split the bag up and put half in my DT and the other half in a pod farm. Or do you think I should just put all of them in the farm?

 

I would see the point of putting half in the DT if you had a mandarin already and wanted to make sure he had something to eat right away. You would do so knowing that these pods would get eaten almost right away. But in your case, I would put all of them in the fuge and let them multiply for you. Because you don't have the mandarin yet, you can afford to do this - it will result in more pods for you in the end.

 

Alright thanks!

 

+1 here..

I grow pods in an empty 10 gallon, and I cannot tell you how many I have in there.. It began at what looked like a few hundred to now well in the thousands.. Every once in a while ill take my sponge out of the pod farm and shake off in some tank water to add back to the tank.. I have them everywhere.. Oh, and get those women's shower loofa poof things for your pod farm, they look strange but they work wonders..

 

I was planning on using something like a 5 gal bucket or so. I heard the shower loofa trick from someone else on here and was already planning on it. I was just going to use a heater, a small HOB filter or something, and maybe an air stone. Sound good? Did you have any kind of substrate or lr in your pod farm?

 

I have a pod farm too. I don't recommend any substrate because it will just make siphoning up detritus more difficult. I'd go bare bottom, with possibly a piece of live rock in there to act as a bio filter and a place for the pods to live. And +1 on the shower loufah - it also provides a means of transporting the pods to the DT. But once you put it in the DT you have to clean in very well (I use bleach) before putting it back in your pod culture.

 

Why do you have to clean the loufa before you put it back in your pod farm?

 

I've been told that it is best not to introduce other organisms into your pod farm other than the pods themselves. If you dip the loufa into your DT you will take a chance of having hitchhikers coming back into your pod farm. This is unlikely if all you are doing is shaking it off into the DT. But what I find is that the mandarins like to graze on the loufa, since the pods are often buried deep in it and don't come off just from being shaken. So I leave the loufa with the pods in the DT for a few days for the mandarin to graze upon. In that time, you can have hitchhikers come on to the loufa, which could potentially predate on the pods in your farm. That's why I clean the loufa before re-introducing it to the farm.