Preventing Amphi-Pod-icide

Ok, On my second tank it's a FOWLR with a HOB filter. I went to change the internal filter and there were very literally several hundred large pods living inside it. The filter was moving all over.

I really don't want to toss this filter and destroy this many useful pods.

is there a good way to extract them?

is there a good way to prevent a re-infestation of the new pad?

 

bump for you late risers

 

I've always just picked off as many as I could, or swished the pad around in a bucket or pitcher of tank water then netted them back into the tank. Not really any way to keep them out.

 

Completely unrelated to your question, but this gives me a great idea. I'm redoing a tank due to a unkillable flatworm problem, but that's another story. I'm going to get a AC hob filter sponge, place it on the sand in my 40B and farm some pods for the new setup! I'm sure this is nothing new, but thanks for the idea anyway. ;D

 

That's pretty much what I ended up doing. So many of them were so small I had no chance of getting them out. I took to tearing the fibers off the filter and picking them off because they dug further into the filter. I know I knocked hundreds off into my tank, but I fear I had to throw away just as many.

or just find a cheap hob filter and run it that way because I'll tell you I've never seen that many pods in one place as I had on that filter and the hob itself is a safe place for them to reproduce. I've heard of people using a clean natural kitchen sponge for the same effect.

 

I would've just put the sponge in the bottom of the tank and let the wonder off on their own!

 

You're likely to transfer the flatworms too.

 

The flatworms are in the 29g, and my 40B is pristine. The pod-sicle is in the 40B, most definitely not the 29g. Everything in the 29g is getting boiled/bleached/acid bathed/burned at the stake!!! Just setting up the 10g for temp housing of a small clownfish. I'll probably set the 29g back up after busy season (May).....gotta love the first four months of the year as an accountant!!!