Thought I'd share a simple DIY project that I decided to tackle months ago. This is one of the many steps I took on my 25 cube to prepare it for a captive bred mandarin to allow it to thrive in my small tank (which she is doing and she's nice and fat!!!) I had stumbled across someone who had a post about corrugated plastic (stuff they make yard signs out of) and how they used it in their copepod culture to increase surface area to allow the pods to multiply faster. It got me thinking about using it in my pod cultures. The idea is it creates a lot of extra surface area for the pods to live on and grow better above and beyond just the walls of the tank or jar. One of the main reasons people do the you need a large tank to have a mandarin is because of the amount of rockwork to allow for a healthy and sustainable pod population so the mandarin can have an endless supply of pods in the tank and not starve.
I have also looked at a way to increase the copepod population in my tank to help sustain a mandarin in a smaller tank I found the Pod Hotels that go for at least $30 plus shipping and I thought there had to be a better way so low and behold I combined the two ideas into my cheap and easy DIY pod hotels!!! I went out to a local big box hardware store and picked up some corrugate plastic which was 24"x18" for a little under $7. I already had super glue, scissors and frag plugs on hand. I currently have 2 of the pod hotels in my tank and they've been in the tank since around April 2020 and they are totally encrusted in coralline algae and they blend in quite nicely. I don't think I used of the 24"x18" corrugated plastic sheet so for about $3 or $4 I had 2 pod hotels.
I have also looked at a way to increase the copepod population in my tank to help sustain a mandarin in a smaller tank I found the Pod Hotels that go for at least $30 plus shipping and I thought there had to be a better way so low and behold I combined the two ideas into my cheap and easy DIY pod hotels!!! I went out to a local big box hardware store and picked up some corrugate plastic which was 24"x18" for a little under $7. I already had super glue, scissors and frag plugs on hand. I currently have 2 of the pod hotels in my tank and they've been in the tank since around April 2020 and they are totally encrusted in coralline algae and they blend in quite nicely. I don't think I used of the 24"x18" corrugated plastic sheet so for about $3 or $4 I had 2 pod hotels.
