Pod introduction plan. Do you need to replenish?

b4tn · Oct 16, 2015

I am wanting to introduce pods into my reef. I already have a small population that I am guessing came as hitchhikers but I am sure not enough to feed any fish. My Ocellaris and Chromis dont seem to be to interested in any food unless its being blown around by the power heads but I do want to get a Goby and some Wrasses.

My plan is to build two pod condos and keep one in a location behind the rock work in the DT and the other in my sump with the Cheato. Then each week when doing tank maintenance switch the condos out. I was thinking of initially putting 1000 in the DT and 1000 in the sump and let them settle in for a little while before adding fish that may feed on them. Is this a sound plan? I feed reef roids to my few corals, should I feed a tiny bit of roids to the sump for the pods? Will I need too replenish the population or will they reproduce? If so how often should I replenish?

BfishLpond78 · Oct 20, 2015

Depending on the type of pods you introduce will determine which pods will be the dominate in your tank. Usually what happens is one of the pod populations becomes the most abundant, so it usually is a good idea to introduce different varieties throughout the life of your tank. If your goal is to have pod eating fish, I would wait a few months, possibly 6 to allow your pod population to grow. They will definitely reproduce on your own, buying pods gets pretty expensive. The use of the pod condo's is nice, but would be unsightly in the DT. My advice would be to have both down in the sump this way no natural predators can get at the main colony. Then every so often take the condo and shake it off in the DT to continuously adding pods to the DT.

shornik · Oct 20, 2015

What is a pod condo?

b4tn · Oct 20, 2015

The condos I like are small live rock rubble bundled in netting. It's a place for pods to hide from predators. When they fill up you shake them up and pods fall out for fish to feed on.