Pods

[clowninround]

I have a bunch of those big brown flea like looking bugs, which I thought were just oversized pods, but I am now realizing, I have NO little white guys in there. My manderin is looking on the thin side lately. What do I do. I am tring really hard to catch my manderin and give him to my friend who has a surplus of em(copepods) in a 75 until I can get my population back up, she gave me a few small rocks to get me started. What can I do? I just can not catch him. Any ideas?

[Corty]

The first thing that comes to mind as causing the problem is your stars. I believe these may be finding your pods delicious, and taking them away from the Mandarin. I know mine wiped out a good percentage of the "live" in my live sand, and I only had one, and no other pod munchers.

Immediate solution-wise, many LFS have a small tank (30-40 gallons) of pods a-swimming around, in a closed system, and will sell them to you. This of course, depends on how reputable your LFS is. You can also purchase pods off of eBay and online.

As for how to catch him, I don't know - I've never had one. Hopefully someone else can offer some ideas.

Long term, you may want to try an approach similar to my FW one - I had a Dwarf Puffer that went through snails like it would die if a single one escaped. I set up a small tank and bred snails - I wasn't able to keep up with the little girl, but it did shorten my trips to the store quite a bit. Adding a small refugium shouldn't cost much (especially in comparison to your tank), and might help with your pod population. More LR would also help.. I know that density varies, but a pound a gallon seems on the small side. I've got 60 in my 55 and I feel like I need to add more...

[clowninround]

I just caught him yay! I agree with you whole heartly on the rock situation. I am going to order some of garf's man made stuff. They have some pretty cool looking rocks. I may go with some from Liverocks.com to add some more color also. But the thing is 150 lb's of rock and 300 lbs of ls should still have been enough. I have heard the same about stars, but then I have heard of 3 sand sifters in a 210 with plenty of pods. May have to remove one of the stars . About the pods at the LFS, I will have to look into that, but honestly I don't trust any water going into my tank but my own. Catching fish in that tank is a pain in the @#%! QTin' otherwise heathly fish is also right up there with catching them . However, I see your point. I trust my friends water. She has had the same fish for atleast two years now and no problems whatsoever. So, if I planted rocks in her tank, put them in mine after a week or so, wouldn't that be the same? I am aware this process could take forever considering the size of my tank. But if I waited about 6 months for the pods to do their thing, do you think that would work?

[Corty]

Congrats!

I figured you might be planning some LR additions as you seem to know your stuff, but figured it couldn't hurt to mention it.

210 is more than a third increase over 150, and the stars are likely small, unless you've been informed otherwise. Not sure how big your stars are. Mine seemed a little too fond of wreaking sandbed destruction.

I don't blame you on the water situation, but in a QT tank the damage is limited, and beats starving your fish. I do not know much about Mandarins, but I believe they are not particularly likely to catch things, and haven't heard of them freaking out over water quality. I do know the major cause of death seems to be starvation, so it seems like a risk I might take, based on my knowledge. Like I said, depends on the quality of your LFS, and if they even have a pod tank, what the tank is like, not to mention any additional knowledge you might have on them or your fish. I have not researched the fish in depth, so if you feel there is anything they might be sensitive to, don't hesitate to ditch this idea.

Regarding the rock transfer idea: Perhaps.. but I think you need a *right now* solution in addition. I've found it very easy to scrape some pods off the tank glass and dump them into a bag with a very good survival rate. I'm sure she could donate some with little trouble. I do highly suggest the refugium idea however - mine is a life saver.

I'm also pretty sure some LR sellers will be happy to send you some copepods with, free of charge.

[clowninround]

Oh yes, thats why i caught him to put him in my friends tank, which is exploding with them, just until I sovle my pod situation. LOL, yes I am sure the lr will come with some free stuff, all the more reason to purchase more. Manderins are sopposed to be fairly resilent (or however you spell that ) when it comes to fish diseases.

[Corty]

It's great you have a friend close by with an available tank. Seems like it'll work out just fine.

[clowninround]

You have no idea, we frag corals and share what we got and help eachother out. Works out great. She's actually my daughters godmother, good people.

[steve r]

i guess this is kind of on subject. we just got a awesome looking sandsifting star. it spends a lot of time on the glass. is it probably munching pods? i have a bunch on the glass

steve r