Adding aqua avengers to your reef tank: Pods are pods, right?

[Peace River]

Adding aqua avengers to your reef tank: Pods are pods, right?

So often we hear people in the reef community talking about pods whether it is their pros and cons, adding more, or other factors. However, there are many types of pods and there are even good and bad pods (albeit rare). Even with the good pods, there are some that may be better for your application than others. Most of the pods in the marine aquarium fall into copepods and amphipods. Copepods can be further separated and some of the more common species are Tisbe, Tigriopus (aka tigger pods), Apocyclops, and Parvocalanus. Pods can be purchase by the individual species or they can be bought as a blend that includes multiple species. Okay, so you may know that there are different types of pods, but when you talk about pods, do you differentiate or is it more – pods are pods, right?

Photo by @BlueBuddha


This QOTD is sponsored by: www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com

“Dinkins Aquatic Gardens specializes in producing top-quality copepods, phytoplankton, amphipods, and berghia nudibranchs. We are a small husband-and-wife company that intensely focuses on customer service. We'd love to have you experience the Dinkins Difference!"

 

[Sleeping Giant]

ya pods are pods to me, I know there's a difference but I have zero idea what that is lol

 

[Surf City Corals]

Tisbe pods are my favorite and the best for sand bottom tanks. They're sand dwelling. Also certain pods will morph to all male colonies over time but tisbe pods arent known to do that. Just bought two bags of tisbe pods today to add to supplement my colony for my dragonets (1 mandarin and 2 ruby reds) and phytoplankton to feed the pod colony. Tisbe FTW every time

 

[Dburr1014]

Tisbe pods are my favorite and the best for sand bottom tanks. They're sand dwelling. Also certain pods will morph to all male colonies over time but tisbe pods arent known to do that. Just bought two bags of tisbe pods today to add to supplement my colony for my dragonets (1 mandarin and 2 ruby reds) and phytoplankton to feed the pod colony. Tisbe FTW every time

Well, I just learned something today!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

ya pods are pods to me, I know there's a difference but I have zero idea what that is lol

I'm the same way, honestly I don't know what the big difference between all of them are haha

 

[steveschuerger]

I try to add pods about once a month to supplement the frozen I give. My wrasses in particular love them . The one pod I haven’t added in a long long time is amphipods. I plan on getting a bunch soon though.

 

[lapin]

Unless you have something that needs a certain size of pods they are pretty much all interchangeable to me.

 

[EricR]

Unless you have something that needs a certain size of pods they are pretty much all interchangeable to me.

Agreed -- I can tell the difference between an amphipod vs isopod vs copepod but generally don't care beyond that.

I'd only go deeper if I cared about ability to culture or if potentially parasitic.

 

[Gobi1canobi]

Adding aqua avengers to your reef tank: Pods are pods, right?

So often we hear people in the reef community talking about pods whether it is their pros and cons, adding more, or other factors. However, there are many types of pods and there are even good and bad pods (albeit rare). Even with the good pods, there are some that may be better for your application than others. Most of the pods in the marine aquarium fall into copepods and amphipods. Copepods can be further separated and some of the more common species are Tisbe, Tigriopus (aka tigger pods), Apocyclops, and Parvocalanus. Pods can be purchase by the individual species or they can be bought as a blend that includes multiple species. Okay, so you may know that there are different types of pods, but when you talk about pods, do you differentiate or is it more – pods are pods, right?

Photo by @BlueBuddha


This QOTD is sponsored by: www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com

“Dinkins Aquatic Gardens specializes in producing top-quality copepods, phytoplankton, amphipods, and berghia nudibranchs. We are a small husband-and-wife company that intensely focuses on customer service. We'd love to have you experience the Dinkins Difference!"

That’s how a pods purchase should look

 

[DatsoonDave]

I have recently been using the nyos pods. No idea what the differences are except size (?).

 

[Surf City Corals]

Well, I just learned something today!

Tisbe pods are more likely to be a self sustaining colony for those reasons. That's why I only need to supplement my colony when I don't see enough of those pretty little snowflakes for a week or so.

 

[Borat]

I have a pod pet in my sump, his name is Boris..

 

[Surf City Corals]

I have a pod pet in my sump, his name is Boris..

Ah he should meet my pet pod Cinnamon. They'd be cute together.

 

[Borat]

Ah he should meet my pet pod Cinnamon. They'd be cute together.

I shall talk to Boris tonight - if I find him...

 

[vlangel]

Back when this tank was a seahorse tank, a seahorse keeper who moderated a seahorse forum sent me 5 different pods. They were all miniscule and I could not tell them apart. I have added tisbe pods myself. That was almost 8 years ago but I assume most of those are still in the tank in some sort of numbers. I see pods everywhere but have no idea of the species.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I want all the kinds!

Although pods such as Oithona and Apocyclops live in the water column and with the filters we have on our tanks we may be removing them each time we change those. Apocyclops do reproduce quickly.

I have a Mandarin so I do like any of the other three variations - Tigriopus, Tibse, Euterpina -
a bit better as they provide a steady diet.

Do not ask me to identify them lol!

I do like Amphipods too! Little critters you can see hard at work cleaning! Lol

 

[Dinkins Aquatic Gardens]

That’s how a pods purchase should look

Thank you so much! We try to stack them as full as we can possibly get them!

 

[doubleshot00]

I try to buy pods that have a mix and not specific kind. Now i will buy every once in a while tigger pods as my LFS stock them regularly and i have a mandarin. But i usually order a pack from Jays Reef Bugs as hes the best bang for the buck.

 

[dwarfseahorse]

Adding aqua avengers to your reef tank: Pods are pods, right?

So often we hear people in the reef community talking about pods whether it is their pros and cons, adding more, or other factors. However, there are many types of pods and there are even good and bad pods (albeit rare). Even with the good pods, there are some that may be better for your application than others. Most of the pods in the marine aquarium fall into copepods and amphipods. Copepods can be further separated and some of the more common species are Tisbe, Tigriopus (aka tigger pods), Apocyclops, and Parvocalanus. Pods can be purchase by the individual species or they can be bought as a blend that includes multiple species. Okay, so you may know that there are different types of pods, but when you talk about pods, do you differentiate or is it more – pods are pods, right?

Photo by @BlueBuddha


This QOTD is sponsored by: www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com

“Dinkins Aquatic Gardens specializes in producing top-quality copepods, phytoplankton, amphipods, and berghia nudibranchs. We are a small husband-and-wife company that intensely focuses on customer service. We'd love to have you experience the Dinkins Difference!"

I wish it could be explained in a very simple way. I have read that some pods eat other pods and some people say get that pod but not the other pod. Some pods you can get that are larger and you can see and others you can't. Different places say they have different numbers of pods in the containers they sell. All I want to know is which pods eat which pods so that I am not buying something that is going to simply get eaten by another pod. I want them to last as long as possible in my tanks and hopefully breed so they are always around. Does anyone really know how many pods are in each container they get? I know I have spent a lot of money on lots of pods and sometimes out of nowhere they show up on the glass but I have no idea if they are ones I purchased that grew or new ones that were born. It should not have to be so complicated.

 

[Borat]

I wish it could be explained in a very simple way. I have read that some pods eat other pods and some people say get that pod but not the other pod. Some pods you can get that are larger and you can see and others you can't. Different places say they have different numbers of pods in the containers they sell. All I want to know is which pods eat which pods so that I am not buying something that is going to simply get eaten by another pod. I want them to last as long as possible in my tanks and hopefully breed so they are always around. Does anyone really know how many pods are in each container they get? I know I have spent a lot of money on lots of pods and sometimes out of nowhere they show up on the glass but I have no idea if they are ones I purchased that grew or new ones that were born. It should not have to be so complicated.

If a pod eats another pod and then another pods eats the pod that ate a pod, does that make it look like a Russian doll?