hob fuge

I am setting up an hob fuge. It is running. How do I start to cultivate my pods in there? What do I feed them? What is cheato and where do I get it? Does it have special requirements? Sorry for all the ? Thanks

 

Your posts are very "pod-centric" as of late. Are you trying to buy a mandarin fish? Six-line wrasse? etc?

I think we can help you more if we understand your goals and/or concerns.

 

I am so sorry for not being clear. I just got a mandrin. I thought that after I let my tank mature(18mons) I would have enough pods to maintain a mandrin. Now I have found out that that is not the case. I have also been running a uv for about 6mons due to an ick break out. I have a 125g tankw/125lbs of lr but I am now afraid I have made a mistake with the mandrin and I am trying to keep him from starving to death because of my error. He has been in my main for about 3 days and seems to be fine for now. He is picking at the rocks and is very active. I have set up a hob filter that I am gonna try to grow pods in. It is basically a box that holds about 3-4 gallons of water w/powerhead and over flow. If you have any suggest please fill free to respond. I also considered turning my 10g qt into a stand alone fuge.

 

Well you do have enough live rock for the mandarin, and the fuge will help also, so you definatly can keep one. The problem is, was it too early. Has the tank been set-up for 18 months? If the UV and ick doesn't affect the pods, and a decrease in the population did not happen, then your Mandarin should be fine. If you barely have any in there, he will gobble them up too quickly and not allow the population to keep up to his eating habits. Buy some tigger pods and put it in your fuge, you should get a good population going in there eventually.

You can make the QT a fuge, but as long as you are getting another QT also.

 

Now that you have a HOB refugium, you aren't going to have any problems.

Here's some tips on culturing pods in your refugium. Ocean Pods: FAQ

You can buy a starter culture on that link or also at essential live feeds

Since your fish can't get in there, you'll always have a breeding population. Give them some LR rubble in there and add some chaetomorpha for nitrate reduction. Chaeto looks like a green brillo pad. You can buy this algae many places but if you know some local reefers, you can usually get it cheaper from fellow hobbiests.

 

You can buy copepods and amphipods online.
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