what are PODS?

23301 Views 16 Replies 9 Participants Last post by salt creepette, Sep 5, 2003

BLUEMANDJ

Discussion Starter · Sep 4, 2003

I have a scooter blennie and, as you probable know, it eats pods.

What are "pods"?

What do they do?

and Why is having my blennie eating them so bad?

1 - 17 of 17 Posts

ReefDave

· #2 · Sep 4, 2003

Blue,
i will try to answer your question. Pods are organisms that live in and on your rock/sand/gravel etc. If you press you nose up to your glass really close you can see little tiny specs cruising around the glass. These are a type of pod, one of which the scooter eats.

Having a scooter eat pods is not a bad thing.......the trouble arrises when the scooter runs out of pods to eat....the a single scooter or mandarin or similar fish, can completely wipe out a pod population in a medium sized tank. As a result the scooter will be introduced, and appear to be getting nice and fat....then as time goes on, it will start to loose weight, as it has decimated the population, and none are left to procreate. eventually the poor little guys start to dwindle away until the eventually starve.

Many people have had success with scooters and even mandarins in very large tanks, or in medium sized tanks, that have a good sized refugium attached. The refugium allows these little pods to keep breeding and keeps a steady suppy to the main tank, without a fear of the population being consumed.

Some have also reported getting a scooter to eat prepared foods that are very finely chopped.

I don't own either myself so all of the above information is based on my reading. Do search in the forums and you will find alot of this information in more detail from more knowledgable persons.

Dave

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ReefDave

· #3 · Sep 4, 2003

Hey Blue, I was just reading your stocking list there....this might be a silly question..but is that Niger Trigger in with those other fish, snails and crabs?

Mkelly

· #4 · Sep 4, 2003

I have to find the link but you can buy pods. I dont know how long they would hold up or if they would breed or even survive. I'll dig out the link.

BLUEMANDJ

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 4, 2003

yup, that is a Niger Trigger in with the snails and crabs and other fish. He is a little one, about the size of a hlf dollar now. When i got him he was 1/2 that size. gets along great with the others.

The one that realy gets me is my Hippo tang and my Yellow tang have the same cave. So far, knock on wood, they are all getting alog just fine.

BLUEMANDJ

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 4, 2003

reefdave.

What part of the cycle do they participate in?

What do you consider a lage tank, med. tank?

Toadfish

· #7 · Sep 4, 2003 (Edited)

The problem also arise when the tank hasn't had time to mature and the pod population isn't given the chance to proliferate. I think your tank is around 3 mos. old. Too soon IMO to go with a scooter, especially since your LR was undeveloped (dead) when you got it. Pods help with breaking down organics in your DSB. So over time not only will the fish die of starvation, but w/o allowing for tank maturation, and pod develpoment then you will begin to have bouts with cyano. My suggestion is to not put a scooter or mandarin in a tank that's established less than 1 year., and has less than 100 lbs of liverock. The LFS should have known this and not sold you the fish.

Toadfish

· #8 · Sep 4, 2003

Chris try this link...it has some useful info regarding pods and other life in your tank. http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/index.html

BLUEMANDJ

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 4, 2003

thanks toadfish!

Jimmer

· #10 · Sep 4, 2003

Mkelly....Did you find that link for purchasing pods to stock a tank?

Mkelly

· #11 · Sep 4, 2003

Jim It was POD purchase for food, live pods. I assume you should be able to keep them alive in a refugium and they should multiply on their own. I'm at work now but when I get home I'll provide the link. I marked it because it's semthing I;m interested in trying.

I wiped out my pods and I wanted to replace them but I'm limited in the ways I can do it. Replacing all the live rock seems like a major pain.

Be home in a few hours and I'l toss up the link.

Mike

Ray1214

· #12 · Sep 4, 2003 (Edited)

One thing about "Pods". I had a mandarin for over 2 years in a 40 gal mini reef. I fed him a mix of zooplankton(prepared), enriched brine shrimp, enriched rotifiers, guppy fry (yes they eat them), One time he gorged on a flatworm infected piece of live rock.

Sorry hit enter by mistake.

Anyways, you can train a mandarin or blenny to eat more than just pods, however they are grazing type of eaters. In other words, they don't come up to the top of the tank during feeding times like the other fish. Also they don't tend to like non living foods. However, I used guppy fry and live brine shrimp and used frozen brine, mysis, prepared zooplankton, etc to thinken it up. Then got the mandarin on frozen foods. But once or twice a week I kept adding live foods. Now keep in mind, I had a 5 gal refuguim that was chock full of critters and macroalgaes and sometimes I would catch Man-Fish just waiting on the overflow into my tank for pods to come to him.

Ray

Ray1214

· #13 · Sep 4, 2003

OH yeah one of the best places for pod replacement was Indo-Pacific sea farms and somewhere in indiana..can't remember the name.

Ray

imstriker

· #14 · Sep 4, 2003

The some place in Indiana may have been Inland Aquatics in Terre Haute. You may want to look into them.

dwall174

· #15 · Sep 4, 2003

Jimmer

HERE'S a link to one place that has the pods!

Mkelly

· #16 · Sep 4, 2003

The one I promised.

http://www.copepod.com/

salt creepette

· #17 · Sep 5, 2003

I had lots of pods, so i bought a scooter dragonet (dragonet is actually the correct term, as blenny is a misnomer), and he ate them all and started to get skinny. I asked my lfs to keep him for me (in their pod-filled tank) until I could get a refugium up and running. I now have him in a larger tank and he has started to eat frozen brine in addition to the pods, but you will definitely want to have a refugium set up so he wont starve. check out the area just behind his large pectoral fins and underside of his body...if thats sunken in, then he's hurting for food! good luck.

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