POD farm

i forgot to make a list of materials. plastic white tank, salt water, no heater or bubbler but im doing weekly water changes so it doesnt turn foul, 4,000 copepods to start out, 3 shower poofs, 1 small piece of lr. i plan to rotate dosing the shower poofs every other week and i will never remove the lr from the POD farm

 

i read on a thread that tigger pods dont do well in tropical reefs and that they are a cold water species. thats the type of pods im using in my POD farm. is this true or should i be fine. thanks in advance

 

my tank primarily consists of Tigriopus californicus, aka tigger pods. They fare well in the tank, I have substantial numbers and my fuge is always full. I keep my water at around 77, sometimes 78.
Pods are realllllly adaptable organisms so a temperature variance of only a few degrees from their normal is not going to kill them... worst it will do is just change the speed of their metabolism and any enzymes in their bodies (not a big deal)

 

ok cool thanks

 

in your unheated pod farm, these should work fine.


if you were to dump them in your DT, they'd last only a few days (IME) and then die out (temp I guess).

but in a farm, without predation or much heat, they should be fine. since you're constantly dosing them (weekly/biweekly or something) it's not an issue.


You can't really sustain a colony of them in your reef DT, but a bucket should be easier.

 

ok so wehre do i buy one that wont die in my DT??

 

copepods? most are fine, I'm specifically referring to the tiger pods. the red ones.

the smaller "regular" copepods are fine and will survive in the tank long term (predation withstanding).

A few of my LFS carry them but i have to call first bc they're not always in stock.


I just added a bottle of tiger pods actually to my DT to see if my mandarin would go for them (it's not eating regular copepods apparently). Not sure if it has yet though. poor little booger.

I added them Monday night. I plan on checking tonight to see if I can still see them. Remind me and I'll let you know tomorrow what i find.

 

ok cool thanks does reefcleaners sell regular copepods

 

It's an Internet Myth that Tigger-Pods are a cold water species.

https://reefnutritionfaq.pbworks.com/Tigger-Pods FAQ

The trick to culturing them is to make sure they get enough food (they usually starve if you don't supplement with microalgae) and don't get eaten before they have a chance to reproduce. Because they are so large they eat a lot more than most other copepods, and get eaten faster by predators.

 

ok thanks for the site k+ ill try adding some normal ones in my farm but i dont think feeding is a problem i use crushed up flake and also phytoplex everyother day