Pod question

[uneverno]

Hi guys - great forum.
Got a question:
I bought some Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods with the intention of culturing them. They're in a 5gal bucket with an airstone and a heater. Feeding them Phyto. My ambient temp in the house is 68-70. Do they really need to be heated?
I keep them at about 75, figuring that would speed up the breeding process. They've been in there about a week, and from what I understand it takes a couple weeks for them to pop.
Oh - and newbie mistake - they're in an orange bucket. Makes them REALLY hard to see

Getting a white one soon...

 

[cranberry]

I would not heat them.
The higher the temperatures, the more male offspring that are produced until you mainly have males... not good for a sustainable culture because it will eventually crash with no females to keep it going.
Do not feed the Nannochloropsis species of phyto. They are unable to digest it adequately.

 

[uneverno]

Perfect - heater has been removed. I feed RN's PhytoFeast, which has Nanno in it, but 4-5 other species as well. So far so good, just haven't seen much growth yet.
Thanks

 

[reeftanker84]

this is good to know i just baught 4 bottles of tigger pods and was planing on culturing them so this info is very good, now i have mine in a 15 gal with sand and some small rubble rock and one pump,will they multiply with this set up? i was planing on taking a rock out once a week and placking it in my main tank because i also have the very tiny white pods as well and i didnt really want to take my tank apart and kill them all as i plan to buy a mandrin after a while

 

[uneverno]

Holy cow! I thought $25 for one bottle was too much. That's why I figured I'd culture.

Once they pop, I'm just gonna net them and feed the tank that way. Don't have a fuge yet, so I'm sure they'll mostly get eaten.

 

[fcatch76]

tigger pods are a cold temp form of pods, it will be difficult to culture them. I know this because I tried in my fuge. You are better off buying SWF.com's pods for $10.

 

[uneverno]

Ah, good info as well. I'll go that route.
My tank is also starting to grow them, but I think the angel will take care of them before the population blooms, and I don't have a fuge yet.
Thanks,
Emil