How do I get pods to grow in my tank??

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ivanfj

Guest
I wanna keep a mandarin for a long time but I knew they have to eat pods. I've never seen anything pods like thingy walking around my tank so I guess my pods population is 0. My question is how to get pods to grow?? What kind of rocks to buy?? Or is it not related to the LR i have??
 
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thomas712

Guest
I'm sorry but there is no way that I would recommend a manderin for a 20 gal tank. Mandarins can really decimate the pod population even in a larger tank. Mine all but eliminated a strong population in my 55 gal. Many have stated estimations on how much live rock you would need to keep a mandarin alive, which frankly would not fit in your 20 gal.
My opinion is at least a 55 gal tank with either a seperate tank to grow pods or a refugium added to the main tank for pods.
JMO
Thomas
 
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ivanfj

Guest
Of course I do know I can't have one in a 20 but my question is how to grow pods, not can I put a mandarin in a 20. I found that people tends to focus more on what fish should be kept in what size of a tank, but sorry that's not my question.:)
 
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thomas712

Guest
Yeah sorry did loose sight of that.
Well there are pod breeding kits that you can get on line and you could do this in say a 10 gallon tank, heater, filtration, and pod piles or regular liverock rubble, sand substrate and some culerpa which they love to play around in. It would be like having a nano tank with no fish or corals, not that a mushroom or two wouldn't look nice. You will need only some flake food to feed the tank with which will go a long way and last a long time. You would not need special lighting.
You could even ask your LFS to see if they could provide you with some pods that may be stuck in their filters or other local reefers. They would be best caught before lights on in the morning.
To me it would be as simple as that, and you could use a turkey baster to collect some pods in the morning to feed to your main tank.
Sound ok?
Thomas
 
cmpowell

cmpowell

Member
Hey Thomas.I have a Skilter 400 and inside it i can see lots of pods in it.Do you think they can make it to the main tank?:cool:
 
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thomas712

Guest
Ah a mini hang on fuge, sortof. Yeah sure they can, I have two whispers on my 55 and they used to love it in there until they were wiped out. I would take the filter out and knock them off back into the main system when I had a mandarin. They get in there and love to live off of the collected detruis in the filter.
Thomas
 
jonthefb

jonthefb

Active Member
the best way to culture a pod po is to arrange several "pod Piles in the corners of your tank...get some live rock rubble and in each corner pile it up kinda tightly so that your fish cant get to the center...its best if tese are in lower light areas, but the copeopods will congregate around the piles, and will propagate, grow and will venture out on their own where they will either continue to reproduce or will be eaten by fish!
good luck
jon
 
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