Tigger & Tisbe Pods

40B Knasty · Apr 5, 2018

cpschult said:
Saw you mentioned trying powdered brown algae next time. Did you have a source? Just a quick google search showed some pretyyyyyy expensive products. I’m trying tisbe and tigger farming atm. May try apocalypse pods from algae barn too.

I was thinking about just heading back to the organic store in hopes they have a small amount. Seen the brown algae as well being way to expensive and if it is something to break the bank. I am going to stick with what I know has been working for $10 a year.

cpschult · Apr 6, 2018

40B Knasty said:
I was thinking about just heading back to the organic store in hopes they have a small amount. Seen the brown algae as well being way to expensive and if it is something to break the bank. I am going to stick with what I know has been working for $10 a year.

10-4

Yeah that seems like a good plan lol

40B Knasty · Apr 7, 2018

As most of you know that have been part of this thread. I try to give updates.
I cleaned out the Tisbe Pod tank a month ago and added Tigger pods from the right 5g tank. Here is my results. Look at all those egg bearers!
I do believe I have one problem. I split the chaeto from the Tisbe Pod tank after cleaning it out and stuck that in the right tank. Now I believe it has been over run by Tisbe pods and I might have to start over on the right tank. There is tons of life I it. Just to small to tell if they are Tisbe or Tiggers, but I am willing to bet they are Tisbes

But here is the left 5g. I did look for brown algae at the organic store. They never heard of it. They said they have had raw blue algae before. Interesting, but not worth looking into if the results are still there growing by the masses with spirulina.

NS Mike D · Apr 15, 2018

I started my tiggers from reef nutrition Friday along with their live phyto and started my culture in plastic pet carrier with 1/2 gallon of saltwater. the pods looked very active. I dosed my monthly tiggers from algae barn into the DT earlier this week and hoping that will be the last time I need to pay for shipping if this works.

fwiw, i also picked up R.O.E. for the madarin to dose into a feeding tunnel

chap34 · Apr 23, 2018

How do you keep the spirulina suspended in the water? I have a pretty decent layer of green on the bottom of the tank from it settling out, do i need to increase the flow from my air stones, or just keep adding Spirulina water and not worry about the settling?

40B Knasty · Apr 23, 2018

The settling is what is called mulm or basically detritus. It is on the ground for them to eat. They spend most of the time on the glass it seems. So the glass bottom is perfect for feeding. I have no flow in my tanks. One trickle bubble every second or 2.

domination2580 · Apr 29, 2018

I started mine using 1 gallon buckets from Menards.... about half full... spirulina used as well. A decent amount on the bottom.... but only started from a few. Haven't done a water change in about a month now. I go over and turn my flashlight on my phone and shine into the bucket and there's now thousands of them swimming around. I also started a brine shrimp one as well last night... unfortunately got some egg shells in with them... ordered a underwater light to attract them to and then scoop the eggs out

40B Knasty · Apr 29, 2018

domination2580 said:
I started mine using 1 gallon buckets from Menards.... about half full... spirulina used as well. A decent amount on the bottom.... but only started from a few. Haven't done a water change in about a month now. I go over and turn my flashlight on my phone and shine into the bucket and there's now thousands of them swimming around. I also started a brine shrimp one as well last night... unfortunately got some egg shells in with them... ordered a underwater light to attract them to and then scoop the eggs out

Good to hear about the pods! They are awesome. Mine has been not so great lately, because I have been busy. One tank is doing good. The other one that was great is now filled with Tisbe pods. I think they are eating the larvae of the Tigger pods and taking over. There is a ton of them, but not what I want. Thinking about doing a reset on both tank so I don't have keep running into that problem.
Haven't done the BBS in a few weeks. Battling cyanobacteria and those guys were just adding to nutrients in my battle.

domination2580 · Apr 30, 2018

40B Knasty said:
Good to hear about the pods! They are awesome. Mine has been not so great lately, because I have been busy. One tank is doing good. The other one that was great is now filled with Tisbe pods. I think they are eating the larvae of the Tigger pods and taking over. There is a ton of them, but not what I want. Thinking about doing a reset on both tank so I don't have keep running into that problem.
Haven't done the BBS in a few weeks. Battling cyanobacteria and those guys were just adding to nutrients in my battle.

First time for me on bbs this way. I'm feeding the same....I added air tube for oxygen and more water movement. No filter or heater

40B Knasty · Apr 30, 2018

domination2580 said:
First time for me on bbs this way. I'm feeding the same....I added air tube for oxygen and more water movement. No filter or heater

I tried getting them to mature and it was way to long for me. I did have full grown brine swimming around in the Tisbe Pod tank back in August 2017.
Here is how I made BBS hatcheries. Then I set 4 hatcheries up in a 20g. Filled water up to the cut line of the base of the Smartwater bottle. Heat the water so the black gravel rock acts like a sauna and the water line is high enough to heat the bottle, because there is a heater in the tank set at 82F. It is easy to hatch them at them at that temp consistently every 16hrs and have a good clean hatch. Then just take the turkey baster and suck the BBS out. Put it right down the feeding station. Suck up some tank water and trickle it down the feeding station. Brine go down the ridged tubing and go up to the net.
I did change the base of the feeding station cause the sippy cup looked like a toilet bowl in the tank.

domination2580 · May 8, 2018

So I checked both cultures...bbs and copepods, and both ate still thriving. The bbs I'd say are a lot more grown. U can clearly see them swimming and a decent amount of them.... the copepods are there swimming but seems like they have stalled....there is detritus of spiralina on the bottom still...might do a water change and put new in

40B Knasty · May 8, 2018

domination2580 said:
So I checked both cultures...bbs and copepods, and both ate still thriving. The bbs I'd say are a lot more grown. U can clearly see them swimming and a decent amount of them.... the copepods are there swimming but seems like they have stalled....there is detritus of spiralina on the bottom still...might do a water change and put new in

Are you getting the BBS to full grown size?

domination2580 · May 8, 2018

40B Knasty said:
Are you getting the BBS to full grown size?

Yes.... when they first hatch, they look like tiny specs jumping around.... but these are to the point where you can watch them swim, you can see the legs and all...

domination2580 · May 9, 2018

As i hope you guys can see, a lot of brine shrimp and a lot of different sizes....it leads me to believe they are reproducing. The copepods on the other hand seem to be struggling....not many as I had hoped for a months period of time....doing a water change and adding fresh spiralina....not sure why they haven't been reproducing....Any suggestions?

Kyl · May 22, 2018

Great thread, thanks for all the information from everyone including the industry guys! Thinking about starting my own cultures and will definitely be using a lot of the information in here to help avoid the oopses our hobby can have.

40B Knasty · May 23, 2018

Kyl said:
Great thread, thanks for all the information from everyone including the industry guys! Thinking about starting my own cultures and will definitely be using a lot of the information in here to help avoid the oopses our hobby can have.

I am about to start up a 20g tank. Cleaned out the two 5 gallon tanks. Got sick and tired of the Tisbe pods popping up out of nowhere. I want straight Tigger pods. Painted the 20g white on the back glass and bottom to have better viewing hopefully in videos and pictures when they are on the glass. I also boiled the 2 pieces of live rock and ran some saltwater with a powerhead on them for a few days to clean them out. Then did a freshwater cleaning. The rocks have been air drying the for the past week. Chaeto is still alive in a plastic zip lock bag with no light. Starving out any life that was on it. I will have some videos and pics coming in the next month. Wanted to go a little bigger and better hopefully this time around. The 5g way worked. Just I had that 20g kicking around and said why not use this

Kyl · May 31, 2018

Picked up a 2.5g to give this a shot. The plan is to take some of my acrlic tubing and bend it to snap into the little tabs this tank trim has for the bubbling, and then just throw some egg crate on top to keep the cat out of it. I had also given thought to using a glass mason jar with a spout built into it since I already have a couple of them, but that may be version two if this works out.

Just waiting on the LFS to get a new batch of tigger pods in, and the experiment will start

40B Knasty · May 31, 2018

Kyl said:
Picked up a 2.5g to give this a shot. The plan is to take some of my acrlic tubing and bend it to snap into the little tabs this tank trim has for the bubbling, and then just throw some egg crate on top to keep the cat out of it. I had also given thought to using a glass mason jar with a spout built into it since I already have a couple of them, but that may be version two if this works out.

Just waiting on the LFS to get a new batch of tigger pods in, and the experiment will start

Just fired up a 20g the other day. The 2 bottles were very expired, but having done this already. I know it will be loaded up soon with what came with the 2 bottles.