raising pods

karisfish

Reefing newb
I am going to start raising my own pods. I was wondering what the easiest and cheapest way of doing it was? what are the best foods to feed the pods? Thanks :)
 
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You need a fuge with lots of cheato and some live rubble. Do NOT super filter the water, the pods need some level of organic particles in the water. Beyond that there is no special magc to getting pods to grow.

Fish like damsels and wrasses will decimate your pods.
 
I put a big HOB on with rubble and chaeto and rubble like sen said, and then added a colony from one of those bottles, and now there are millions.
 
Basically, get someone elses cheato from an established tank and pods will come with it :) fug are the best
 
+1 little fish.

If you really want lots and lots of pots, culture them like culturing rotifer. Have a separate tank and put some pots in there. And feed them phytoplankton and keep the water green. Within a week, you'll have tons of them swimming in the water and lot of them that have eggs will stay on the glass.

If you want to keep the water green longer and don't have to feed as much phyto, have an CF light bulb shinning on it just an inch above the water. The phyto will multipler pretty well as well.

This is a 10 days old tank with only a few copepods to seed the culture.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDVEYFrGteo]‪Harpacticoid Copepods on Rearing Tank Wall‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]
 
I do not have a fuge. I only have a 28 gal nano cube and a 14 gallon nano. So can I make a tank with a light and sponge filter on it and would that work to raise pods in? Does anyone know if the back of a nano cube (where the chambers are) can be turned into a fuge?
 
I do not have a fuge. I only have a 28 gal nano cube and a 14 gallon nano. So can I make a tank with a light and sponge filter on it and would that work to raise pods in? Does anyone know if the back of a nano cube (where the chambers are) can be turned into a fuge?

yes, you can make a separate tank to raise pods. However, since it's disconnected, you'll need to feed them something from time to time.

Would this come with some LR as well or do I need to buy them specifically?

Some do, and some don't. It's hard to say. If you buy chaeto from something's fuge, quite likely that they would have some pods in there.
 
If you get some live rock or get a scoop of live sand from an established tank you will get a few pods that hitchhike in. Then you just have to wait for them to proliferate. This can take several months before there are enough that you see them.

Unless you are raising pods outside of your tank, a much better idea than the sponge is to make a little rubble pile, and put some mesh around it so the fish cant get in. This will create a safe area for them to reproduce.
 
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