best way to transport pods. .

[Teremei]

From my fuge to my tank? I have one of those CPR hang on fuges. I have 2 wads of chaeto, I just pulled both out of the fuge and stuck them into some rocks. Any other good methods? How many days should I keep the chaeto in the tank, put it back into the fuge, and back into the main tank again?

I'm pretty sure my mandarin is making short work of my main tanks population and I want to do my best to restock it using a method to get them from my fuge into my tank.

[WaterKeeper]

Normally, the some of the pods should be swept out of the fuge into the main tank. You can hang a filter pad in the fuge and leave it dark. Then after a few hours pull the pad and place it into a bowl of SW. Give it a good shake to remove the pods. Then pour thim into the tank. Try to keep things on the dim side as the pods retreat under bright lighting.

[ONEMANBAND]

sponge works well

[Jamesurq]

above method works well for amphipods, but copepods are the primary diet of the mandarin.

I'd say that scraping your fuge's glass with a very fine net (1 micron filtersock should do the trick) and then transferring that to the tank would be a good method.

You might want to ask "Guy" he's a member here and a TeamRC person. He's shipped me a starter culture of copepods before and i've always been curious how he's able to get them in the bag...

[Teremei]

The dark part I understand. Yesterday night before I went to bed I did notice some mysis shrimp and a few amphipods in my main tank (my main tank was litterelly baren of them before this). . So it seemed to work ok so far.

I also put a sponge in their last night and tonite I'm going to put it back into the main tank.

[Jamesurq]

like I said - they're not the diet of the mandarin. copepods are.

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

is the product SeaPods still available?
What are thoughts recently on this product($20 for a bottle)?

[Jamesurq]

If you're looking to feed your fish for $500 a month - go for it :)

They're good for a starter culture - but a mandarin can eat hundreds of them a day..> The idea is to get them to reproduce in large quantities.

[Teremei]

Originally posted by Jamesurq
If you're looking to feed your fish for $500 a month - go for it :)

They're good for a starter culture - but a mandarin can eat hundreds of them a day..> The idea is to get them to reproduce in large quantities.

Which is why I have balls of chaeto in my main tank, and a fuge where I can transport from every once in awhile. My mandarin takes to frozen food so I'm not concerned with feeding my mandarin. My primary concern for this thread was transporting amhipods, bristleworms, and mysis shrimp into my main tank.

About a month ago I gave my friend alot of my little rocks from the left side of my tank. Then all the excess fish poop showed up. And I know why, I was lacking the amphipod and mysis population I previously had. So far my method has worked I have noticed some more pods in my main tank. I will be adding some larger sized rocks where the small ones used to be, so I will soon be building that area back up with more attractive rocks. Thanks for all your thoughts, but I think it's improving now.

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

i have a sump/fuge w/chaeto as well....but was hoping to get some more reproduction going on.
I am worried about puuting any macro in display(including chaeto)

[sebwin]

There was a post a while ago, where someone was buying plastic mesh sheets from local diy store, and making small rectangles out of them with cable ties. (I'd search for it, but the search function never works for me, I think it's permanatly disabled).

His plan was to fill them with small bits of live rock, shells etc and leave them in the back of his tank for copopods etc to have a safe area to breed.

I have the same problem as you, by fuge in my sump is absolutely full of stuff (tons of mysis, but never seen one in main tank), but very little returns alive to the tank I imagine through the large maxi-jet return pump.

I made 2 of his rectangle things this weekend. My plan is to have one in the back of the tank, and one in my fuge. Every week or so, I'll change them around, hopefully transporting benefitial organisms across. I'll let you know how it goes.

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

sebwin....any pics of what your speaking of?

[sebwin]

I'll try to take a picture tomorrow.

They have been posted on this site before (where I got the idea from), but I've never been able to get the search button to work, so can't find it.

To give more of an idea, I bought a sheet of plastic mesh (i.e. strips of criss-cross plastic, similar to the ones at the bottom of this site: site link (http://www.body-kit.co.uk/acatalog/grille_mesh.html) (similar as in design, I have obviously not made them out of car alloy!)

I then cut them into six squares about 5cmx5cm (although I actually made a rectangle not a cube). These could then be held together with plastic cable ties to form cubes. Before I put the last cable ties in place, I filled the cubes with little bits of live rock and crushed shells. I then finished off the cube.

The result is a cube full of live rock crevices etc, but protected from fish/current by the small holes in the plastic mesh.

I attached a bit of fishing line to each and put one in my refugiarium/sump and one in the tank.

The idea, is the one in the sump will likely soon be full of the pods/mysis etc that are in there. I can then quickly transport it to the main tank to replenish the tank stock as they are likely to come ou of the cube when the lights go off. It should also provide a safe breeding stock in the tank during the day.

As I say, I'll try to get photos, or you can try searching for pictures if you work out how to! My plan is to switch them round weekly.

[DizziDezi2]

at the fish store tehy scrape the side of the tank with an old credit card or id card and hold a bag under it- i get tons of pods that way- then just toss them into my tank- my fish dont let half of them reach the bottom.

[sebwin]

Ah ok, I've thought of a better description! Like the plastic mesh you get in a fly swatter, similar to this site link (http://www.hardwarestore.com/pop-print/larger-image.asp?product1No=1459)

[WaterKeeper]

I don't know what to say but I never knew that Dragonets were that picky in their dinning preferences. Anyone, I have had must have been less that a Gourmet as it ate amphipods just as well as copepods. Heck, they might even chow down on bite sized isopods as well. ;)

[Teremei]

Well I think my Mandarin is not picky either because my main tank was barren of ANY type of pod. So. But anyway this method has worked. My 2 chaeto balls that were in the fuge are now in my main tank, and my hydor rotating flow sponge I put in my fuge for a day and then back on my pump. And not only do I see lots of mysis but there was a pack of either tiny pods or baby mysis. They looked like a gang of fleas because there were dozens of them.