Pods

[1911_guy]

I used to have a ton of pods in my tank and sump. I added a fuge to my sump a few months ago consisting of chaeto, LS and LR. Now all the pods are gone. Does the chaeto take out the nutrients that the pods need to flourish? My butterflyfish is starting to look thin, which is a picky eater, and I'm wondering if the absense of pods has anything to do with it.

 

[teen]

the butterfly most likely eat them all. a lot of new tanks have an explosion of pods, and then they soon die off are consumed by fish, this is most likely waht happened to yours. you could try cultivating them in your refugium and then transporting them into your main tank for the butterfly to eat. until then, i would say try getting the butterfly to eat some frozen foods, like mysid shrimp, or fresh food like chopped up clams, mussels, or scallops. all this until your pod population goes back up.

 

[1911_guy]

Thanks.
My system is over a year old and had plenty of pods up until I added the chaeto, which was a few months before I got the butterfly. The pods were almost gone already by the time I got the butterfly. How can I cultivate them?
I have been feeding mysis shrimp, green algae, flakes, squid, and a few different frozen Ocean Nutrition foods. The butterfly is a VERY picky eater. I am worried he will starve to death if I can't find a food that he will eat consistently. I will try chopped whole shrimp and scallops this weekend. Is it better to buy "fish food brand" frozen squid and/or octopus and such or fresh and freeze it yourself?

 

[teen]

i usually go to the sefood market and get like littleneck clams or scallops or something like that. squid, octopus, mussels, anything works. just make sure you put little pieces in becasue if the fish miss it, then it gets caught in the rocks and it could cause an ammonia spike.

 

[teen]

you can also use it to spot feed corals and any inverts. pretty much everything in the tank will eat thsi stuff, just dont overfeed.

 

[reefkprz]

my pods flourish in my chaeto. check your calcium they need it to grow. and consider if there is enough food in your system to support a large population. like mentioned above lots of tanks get explosions where there are tons of pods then the numberts diminish as the system settles to a managable level. and as mentioned fish can put a huge dent in the population. also it could be you just dont see as many because they are hiding in the chaeto. just some Ideas have a good day.

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by 1911_Guy
Thanks.
My system is over a year old and had plenty of pods up until I added the chaeto, which was a few months before I got the butterfly. The pods were almost gone already by the time I got the butterfly. How can I cultivate them?
I have been feeding mysis shrimp, green algae, flakes, squid, and a few different frozen Ocean Nutrition foods. The butterfly is a VERY picky eater. I am worried he will starve to death if I can't find a food that he will eat consistently. I will try chopped whole shrimp and scallops this weekend. Is it better to buy "fish food brand" frozen squid and/or octopus and such or fresh and freeze it yourself?

IMO its always better to buy something rated for human consumption the quality control on animal food is not nearly as strict as food for human consumption, for all we know it could have been a half rotted piece of meat before being proccessed...