Madarin & Pods Project

H

HiepNotik

AC Members
Jan 12, 2008
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I recently went to a new LFS, to my amazement they have so many different fishes and corals to choose from. Then I saw 2 madarins a spotted and green. I've always wanted to keep one but heard they only eat live food like pods. So I explains to the worker there how much I want one but no way will I be able to keep it, he ask me why? I told him that it only eats live food. Even though I have more then enough pods in my tank, I'm just afraid it won't be enough on the long run. He told me all his fishes are trained and will eat all types of food. I said really, let's see? So he feeds the madrins some frozen mysis and to my amazement they ate it.

So I went home think about it and decide I will go buy one this Saturday. Now I just have to decide which one spotted or green? The green one is a bit bigger.

Pod Farm: knowing the madarins already eating store bought food, I also want to feed it pods as well, I wanted to populate the pod colony outside of the tank. I have an idea of what Im gonna do, but does anyone have there own idea? What exactly do Copepoda need to breed and multiply?

I told my self and promise that I will update this project with pictures, so I can keep everyone here on AC updated, and I know how much you guys like picture.

Hiep
 
For pod cultivation you can look at a refugium.
 
I was thinking of a refugium but I only have a small 10g I also wanted to breed pods separate from my display tank.
 
My mandarin ate brine. I'm sure he ate pods too though...probably the best thing for them to eat.
 
My pico is infested with pods. They smaller ones run even at day around the rocks and the glass is full of them.

That is because there is only a hermit crab and an itsy-bitsy hitchhiker gorilla crab in the tank. I guess that most pods came with a Chaetomorpha ball from my "main" nano tank.

Only, I don't know how do you want to catch them. The larger ones of those pods swim with an incredible speed around the rocks at night.
 
i have hundreds! i bought off ebay added to tank for a month about three bottles a week now its more a pod tank than fish tank!
 
tried a few sellers but the good ones were.....5582 jonathan and swbono
 
I think this is what I will try to do, in order to keep my pods alive and multiplying

Information thanks to

http://www.reefnutrition.com

  1. Culture vessel. This can be anything such as a 5 or 10 gallon aquarium, Tupperware container, etc. that holds water. Deep containers or carboys are not suggested.
  2. Culture water. You will need some freshly mixed clean seawater, or you can use a natural seawater product such as Catalina water. Do not use water from an existing aquarium or culture as this will contaminate your attempt to start a new culture of copepods. A specific gravity of 1.020 to 1.025 for this strain of copepod is suggested.
  3. Small air pump, air stone, and airline tubing.
  4. Cover to keep dust and contaminants out and evaporation down.
  5. A food source, such as Phyto-Feast phytoplankton. Fill your container half to two-thirds full with the clean seawater. Attach the airline and air stone to the air pump. Put the air stone in the culture vessel, and plug in the air pump. Make sure you use a drip loop and check valve to keep water from getting into your pump and electrical outlet. Add a small amount of Phyto-Feast to lightly color the culture water. Do not add too much, or the water will foul. Add your new copepod culture, put the lid on, and you are done!

    Over the next few weeks, your copepods will reproduce. It may seem at first that they aren't reproducing as fast as you would like, but once they get to a certain population level you will see an "explosion" of copepods in your culture vessel. Feed with Phyto-Feast as necessary to keep the water lightly tinted, and monitor water quality. Crashes from overfeeding that leads to high ammonia and nitrite are possible, water changes can help if the water quality declines too much.

    To harvest your copepods, a plankton collector/strainer of some sort is very helpful. You can siphon your copepods through the collector, insuring that when you feed them to your aquarium you are only adding copepods, not culture water. Make sure you do not dip your strainer in the copepod culture, and then in your aquarium, and then back in your culture vessel without cleaning it first. Likewise, keep siphon tubing and other equipment you use on your culture separate from equipment you use in your aquariums or larval tanks to avoid contamination. While you can always buy another batch of Tigger-Pods should your culture crash, you can avoid that frustration by not sharing equipment between different systems!
 
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