PODS?!

[AFrederick]

I was staring at the new tank (RSM C-130, my first SW tank), and I'm getting frustrated with all these "microbubbles."

I read I was supposed to raise the water level to make the skimmer stop pumping out the tiny bubbles. Didn't help. So I turned off the skimmer to see if I could get rid of them. Didn't help.

I've noticed that little bubbles come out of my rocks at a pretty steady pace. Presumably nitrogen gas completing the nitrogen cycle? These bubbles are very small but they are significantly larger than the aforementioned "microbubbles." Could the rock also be putting out the microbubbles?

Then, I was looking at the microbubbles on the back glass of the tank. I noticed they were crawling around! These little guys are super tiny. No way I could get a picture with my phone. (I guess I need to buy a camera now...man this hobby gets expensive...)

So, is it possible that any of these "microbubbles" blowing around the tank are actually pods?

I was about to install some floss on top of the CPE and Purigen in the media rack to try and filter out the bubbles and other particulate matter. But if I don't want to filter out pods if that's what I've got.

Truth be told, I really really want a mandarin. I certainly don't want to starve one to death though. So, please give me advice.

What have I done to get the pods? More importantly though, how do I keep the pods and grow their population? Would it be totally irresponsible to get a little mandarin?

 

[PSU4ME]

How old is the tank? Pods usually "exploded" on a new tank but fade/slow once the tank starts to populate and you get the algae under control. Shrimp, wrasses and the such will eat them as well. To sustain a mandarin you'd need a fairly large tank that is mature and has a good "flow" of pods. With your c130 it could/is on the small side. Some mandarins eat pellets and other food but their main diet is the copepod.

If your tank is newish or small (under 90g) then it's best to pass. Nothing worse than watching a beautiful mandarin starve

 

[AFrederick]

Yea, tank has only been up a little over two months. I added CUC and two clowns a little over a month ago.

I don't have any algae to speak of. I'm actually worried about my snails and crabs having enough to eat. The crabs haven't started murdering snails yet though (knock on wood...). So maybe they're eating stuff I can't see.

I don't think I'll add anymore fish to this tank since it's so small. Probably just some kind of fancy shrimp and then focus on coral.

 

[Marty.h]

Crabs will always find something to snack on they very resourceful in my opinion.

 

[Pat24601]

My opinion is Mandarins are amazing, but hard.

I thought I had plenty of pods and my mandarin still died. I assume. It disappeared one day and I never saw it again.

The only fish I ever lost to date.

I'm not telling you not to get one if you love them. More saying if you do take it seriously because they really aren't easy.

 

[AFrederick]

Thanks Pat. I'm not going to get one.

I did some research earlier and concluded I didn't have a big enough tank to supply enough pods. I just got excited when I saw a bunch of the little critters. You guys brought me back to reality though.

After a quick trip to see family for Christmas I will get to work on corals!

 

[Marty.h]

When my system was new i was putting at least 15 bags of pods in a week and done this for weeks my system is around 800 litres and it got to the point in the system where I would have to clean the glass of pods it was just crazy the amount that was in there I then added a pair of mandarins and even though I still get a lot of pods on the glass I do add 15-20 bags periodically into my cheato in the sump to make sure I always have a good supply to them but they do also eat frozen and upto now they have been fine.

 

[NickF]

I couple of months after I set my tank up I though it was overrun with pods. Then I got a wrasse, they were gone in a few weeks and I had to top then up every week.

 

[Marty.h]

I have 2 mandarins a mystery wrass and a cleaner wrass so they must churn through them but it is a 6x2x2 DT with around 100 kilo of rock in there and a 4ft sump with a good algae bed so have a good size breeding ground and that's very important in my opinion.

 

[Pat24601]

I couple of months after I set my tank up I though it was overrun with pods. Then I got a wrasse, they were gone in a few weeks and I had to top then up every week.

This is basically what happened to me except I didn't realize I needed to start topping it off until it was too late.