copepods vs. tigerpods

[zenwolf]

Ok, I have a 125gal with about 200lbs. of live rock and about 100lbs of live sand. the live rock has been in the tank for 8 yrs. (wife started tank and I have now taken over lol). the sand was just replaced about 6 months ago due to a move. there was an existing pod colony. we just recently added a 7oz. bottle to the tank due to buying a green mandrine. the only other thing I belive that will eat the pods is a banded shrimp. Will the pod colony be established enough to suport these 2? also what are the pros and cos of tigerpods and regular pods?

[Salty O'Shen]

I have a 55g with a Green mandarin...been keeping him for 8-9 months now....he's very fat and very happy.

i have used both copepods and tiggerpods and my mandarin is happy with each. the thing i've found about the tiggerpods is that they don't reproduce in my system, the copepods do. this might have something to do with the fact that a bottle of tigger pods gets eaten by all of the carnivore and omnivore species in my tank. the bottle gets much more gobbled up when i add it during the "daytime" because they are much larger and their swimming pattern is very appetizing to the fish. i think it's good for the whole tank of fish to get some live food once in awhile so i let them have it once a month.

when i was trying to get a pods population established i was adding the tiggerpods during the night cycle after the moon lights were out to let them get into the system and out of the free swimming gauntlet with less consumption, but i never saw a population get established.

i only bought copepods twice in the first 3 months and after about 6 months of the tank being up, the population of copepods is well enough established i don't add copepods now.

do you have a refugium? the reason I ask is because it is a great place for pod colonies to keep themselves established (plus a great place for injured creatures to recover). i have a 10g refuge inside my 20g sump and i keep 5-6 lbs of live rock in here along with a ball of chaeto. this helps keep a great environment for raising pods. i then move one of the pieces of rock up to the display every week or so. this help transport a lot of the pods into the display. i don't count on them making it through the return pump.

HTH

[zenwolf]

So there is really no differance between tigerpods and pods other then thier size it seems. No, I do not have a refugium but this is something that me and my wife have considered starting. I'm not even to sure how to go about it yet or even how big of a fuge I would need. We have a proclear aquatics sump that is some where between 15 and 20 gal. and I'm not sure how to work that into the equation.

[Salty O'Shen]

i divided my sump up and included the refuge in the middle of it, between the skimmer section and the return section.



i have also seen setups where the return line from the sump has a branch of of it and siphons a small amount of the return water off via a junction and a gate valve limit the flow through the refugium. the refugium then drains through a bulkhead via gravity back into the return section of the sump

[zenwolf]

This is what I meen when I say sump. Maybe I should of said filter? what you have looks to be a 20gal. long partitioned with an external skimmer correct?

[Salty O'Shen]

Precisely!