Pod Information

[Travis]

Hi all,
I just wanted to give a bit of an update and possibly get some information or sympathy...hahaha...
It all started with a slight bout with Ich (Hippo Tang). In my hopes to avoid treating the fish with copper I tried lowering my salinity and raising the temp. That did not work. What it did do was decimate my pod population, which, in hindsight I did not even consider although I know that crustaceans do not fair in low salinity.
At any rate I treated the Hippo in my QT with Coppersafe, which worked great, I would use it again if I needed to. Within one week the ich had dropped off and within 4 weeks the fish was back home and has been extremely healthy for the last 2 months. Could take longer for a more serious case I suppose, but I was very happy with coppersafe.
So now everything is back in harmony in my 75 gal. I was hoping that the pod population would return to normal however I am finding that it is not.
My question is this: Is there anything I can do to try to boost my current pod population which I swear is about 3...hahaha...that's just not funny. OR should I buck up and load up on live sand and more rock. Thanks
Travis

 

[HoopsGuru]

You could by pod kits from www.ipsf.com or www.florida-aqua-farms.com to reseed the display tank.

 

[Ladykrup]

What are these "pods"? How do you know if they are there? Can you see them? I have live rock and live sand and I have no idea if there are any of these things.

 

[steve-s]

Try this...
<<Those Little White Bugs in Your>>

Cheers
Steve

 

[Ladykrup]

Thanks for the article, very interesting. I have never seen anything like this in my tank. We have had it running for 6 months and I do have a goby! (they said gobies eat these things). He is doing fine. I guess I won't worry about it or buy any as long as everything is going OK.

 

[Travis]

Ok I went and picked up a couple pounds of live sand. I guess I will just hope for the best. I can't imagine that live cultures would ship very well to New England at this time of year. Guess I will have to wait for the spring to order those live cultures.

 

[BillyZ]

re: what are these pods

Take a look at this pic from my gallery. On the left green sponge, just near the edge, you can see a little "bug" crawling on it. That is a pod and is about the size of the head of a pin. There is another one just above that crawling on the worm tube. That one is practically see through and is a little smaller than of a grain of rice. There a many different kinds and shapes, but basically most look like some sort of bug. There are also a number of worm type animals that you want to live in your substrate as well.

Ladykrup: Be verry careful. Gobies do in deed eat pods, but if your substrate doesn't re-populate on its own quick enough, the goby will quickly eat everything and leave the substrate barren and will begin to starve. Consider adding a refugium to your system if you don't already have one. You can find lots of info on refugiums on this site. If a refugium isn't practical, you may want to consider revitalizing your pod population from time to time with the seed kits mentioned above.

 

[BillyZ]

PS, Travis, you can try any LFS and see if they will sell you a few scoops of sand from their tanks. If not, check our regional forums to see if there is a fellow reefer in your area that might be willing to sell you a few scoops from their tank.

 

[mansiz]

Hi all, I find out that my cardinal is eating something that could be pod, at 1st I thought that he is eating air, keep on claping his mouth but nothing seems to be there. But when I switch on the lights, I find something white in colour, very very tiny, like bread crust, some are flowing all around the water, some are moving on the glass, so are they pods? Does cardinal really consume them? How long will the pod need to become mature?