Yellow Tail Blue Damsel and My Spotted Mandarin

your mandarin looks a bit skinny. do you have pods in there?

 

I have only had my tank for 7 weeks... but i put 2 bottles of tigger pods in there on week 4 maybe i should put more cause I dont really see any. Or is there something else I should do?

 

Yote is right. I answered in your other thread too. Tigger pods won't breed in your tank, in fact they'll die pretty quickly because of the warm water. In a new tank, your mandarin doesn't have anything to eat.

 

I’m afraid that the rumor about Tigger-Pods being cold water organisms is just an internet myth.

While it is true Tigriopus californicus come from the west coast of North America, they have a vast reported range from the tip of Baja (Mexico) to Alaska. That is just the reported range on paper; it doesn’t mean they are not found outside of that range. Having spoken with various researchers, they've seen them much further down the west coast, IE. Honduras.

They do not live in the ocean; they live in the upper splash zone tide pools. They are not equipped to survive in such a harsh environment as the open Pacific coast ocean typically provides. Anyone whom has spent anytime tide pooling in the upper splash zone of the west coast of California can tell you the upper "cesspools" can spend extended periods (days/weeks) in the mid to high 90’s (f) during summer. The myth that all T.C. do not do well in tropical conditions stems for a paper that states they produce more males at above 75f. While this may be true for Canada where they were collected for that trial, Tigger-Pods were originally collected in California which is over a 1,000 miles south. They have been cultured at near reef temps (mid 70's to 80's during the summer) for numerous years now. If it were true they did in fact produce more males at higher temps its not an event Reed Mariculture (producer of Tigger-Pods) has ever seen. The shear amount Reed has produced over the years is testimony to the fact that not all research is entirely 100% accurate 100% of the time especially when conducted on an animal collected from a much colder zone a thousand miles further north. The wonderful thing about science is it is not stagnant, it’s ever evolving. What may hold true yesterday may be proven to be different today.

Tigger-pods will not thrive in your main tank for three reasons: 1) there is no place for them to hide so they get eaten quickly and disappear; 2) there is not enough food (microalgae) for them, and 3) it takes 20-30 days from the point the eggs are laid until the pods are adults and ready to start laying eggs, and a reef tank is not a conducive and environment during that period.

The best way to culture Tigger-Pods is to put them in your sump or refugium where they are safe, or culture them in a separate tank. Either way, give them lots of microalgae to feed on.

 

Either way the Mandarin looks to be in trouble!

 

Can we add mandarins so soon? I was trying to wait until after a year to even consider adding one. Is this safe?

 

NO! Wait! It will probably die.

 

yes wait mandarins need to be in a well established aquarium 1-2 years old. Preferably with a refugium.

 

what about the damsel? you gonna remove it?

 

Ok, so I've got a totally separate tank for pod culturing... been running it like a month (maybe more), very low flow, absolutely no predators, and tons of hiding space. The articles I read suggested a temp of 79-80 to increase breeding. I put in two freakin bottles of trigger pods, and within 3-4 weeks, they were gone. I've got tons of copepods (itty bitty ones) off the LR, but the red, large-ish triggers are gone. So I don't think their results are particularly accurate, IME. My money's going towards the reef safe pods mentioned somewhere else in the forums.

 

Yep, reef pods. Everyone I've talked to that has dumped bottles of Arcti-Pods or Tigger-Pods in their tanks (myself included) has not seen them breed.

 

How about these! From our favorite vendor!

Copepods - ReefPods

 

You say rumor, yet everyone who I have talked to that stocks with tigers says that they don't do well. Reef pods on the other hand thrive in our tanks with the same conditions. Perhaps it's not simply the issue of temperature, but either way, I think it's a mistake to stock with tigers... stick with what works.

 

yeah, I agree... especially at $25-30 a bottle, for something you ought to be able to grow on your own sooner or later.