bitts Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 I throw some in my system back around july. every once in A while I see something that I think is one. & thats after having moved the tank even. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 Haven't seen anything that resembles a tigger pod at all today... And I did lots of searching. Plenty of white ones though. Here's today's update- GHA took over my display- way more than I expected it to. So I got a sea hare. (See 90 link for pics and everything). GARF Grunge that I ordered is officially lost in the mail. Bummer. Now I should be getting a replacement on Wednesday, same day as the CUC from Reef Cleaners. Completed my flow control in the fuge... Low profile heavy duty velcro now holds in the door to the cabinet. Taadaaah!! This is what it looks like without the flash... View from kitchen... Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 You check your inbox lately, bitts? Link to comment
seafarm Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Tigger-Pods (Tigriopus californicus) will NOT grow well in your main display tank. They don't hide from fish, are very large easy to find, and they often starve in reef systems because there is not enough microalgae for them to feed on. Tigger-Pods range from Canada to Honduras, from very cold water to very warm water. They are definitely not just a "cold water species". Our broodstock population was collected in California where tidepool temperatures can approach 100 F. We've been culturing them at 75-90 F for over 6 years. ....................... Tigriopus californicus don't live in the ocean - they live in the warm splash zone pools up above the ocean. These pools are shallow and get quite warm during the day, some much warmer than reef systems. The following published scientific study shows that they live in temperatures ranging from 42 to 92 F: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displ...025315498000095 In the tide pools where Tigger-Pods live there are no predators so they don't have the instincts to hide in the rocks when fish come by. Since they don't hide they get eaten pretty quickly in display tanks. We recommend they be cultured in a sump or refugium where there are no predators. They can also be easily cultured in a separate system like a 9x13 cake pan. The population of copepods in a reef system is often food limited by the amount of natural microalgae that the reef system produces each day. When additional pods are added the food requirments immediately goes up, especially when feeding very large copepods like Tigger-Pods. Unfortunately many people don't realize they need to supplement with microalgae so both the Tigger-Pods and the existing copepod population end up with a food shortage and quickly starve. The analogy I use when I'm giving presentations is "If you have an acre of land that produces enough grass to support one cow but want to have lots of cows - what do you do? You add bales of hay and suddenly that 1 acre will support LOTS of cows". Microalgae is like hay to your zooplankton. The more you add, the more zooplankton you will have. If you don't have enough, they starve and disappear. __________________ Randy Reed, Reed Mariculture / Reef Nutrition 1 Link to comment
bitts Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 You check your inbox lately, bitts? Yeah I think I some how screwed up the reply to the first one though. Sorry about that. Like I was trying to say seems good. Seafarms thank you for this info. Is there anything else that you could tell us about them. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Wow. Joined in '04... and only has 5 posts. If they're all like this, I'm interested in seeing seafarm around here a lot more often... I have questions about almost every one of your products. I've been adding phyto feast, so I think it's unlikely that they starved. The 100 gallon (water volume) system only has four false percs in it right now, so if there wasn't some sort of die off, they must be just spread extremely thin (which should be expected for the size of the bottle). I'll be sure to post back here to say if there's ever a tigger pod "explosion". Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 No tigger-pods spotted yesterday. Keep in mind, I am not skimming or using a filter sock. The only possible predators would be 4 small false percs. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Got my CUC crew and macros within 24 hours of it being packed in FLA. Was expecting it tomorrow... So it was a nice surprise, and I was VERY tempted to leave work early to put everything in my tank. I meant to keep track of what CUC members were going into the sump... But only remembered on my last bag of snails... So let's just say "a handful" are in the fuge. Manatee grass and pencil cap were out of stock and refunded... Didn't get the red G for some reason, and was shorted 10 of the 20 mangroves. Not sure if this was done because John threw in a bunch of Florida ceriths or what. I'm kind of disappointed though... Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Just let him know, he'll make it good. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Yeah, I did. Just waiting on a response. Kind of feel like a jerk asking where my mangroves are when he 10x my florida ceriths though... Link to comment
seafarm Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Hi KGoldy - I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about our products. If your Tigger's are in the main tank or in a tank with fish you are not going to see significant populations. Tigger's don't hide so they get eaten very quickly. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 Hi KGoldy - I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about our products. If your Tigger's are in the main tank or in a tank with fish you are not going to see significant populations. Tigger's don't hide so they get eaten very quickly. I suppose I'll ask my questions in the open forum instead of a PM so it can be searched out by other members on this site... 1. What is the shelf life of your Arcti-Pods in a typical refrigerator? I bought a large bottle, perhaps a mistake for my nano-reef... And after a three weeks there was a noticeable gas buildup inside the container- so much so, that it even overflowed when I opened it once. In fear of poisoning my system, I have since stopped using the bottle- wasting quite a bit of money. 2. What is the shelf life of "Phyto-Feast Live" and "Phyto-Feast"? I bought the live version, and noticed a color change (it got significantly darker green) after being in the fridge for a few weeks. 3. What is the shelf life of "Oyster-Feast? 4. For the greatest survival rates, would you recommend acclimating Tigger-pods the way that I did? Or are they hardy enough to go from the refrigerator directly to the refugium, as I suspect most people do? There are no predatory fish or inverts of any kind, and very, very slow currents flowing through my refugium. I'm very surprised that I still haven't spotted anything that resembles tigger pods, after reading your post about them and seeing the journal that you listed. The "outbreak" of other pods which came as hitch-hikers into my system is extremely obvious. Link to comment
RESONANCE Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 There are no predatory fish or inverts of any kind, and very, very slow currents flowing through my refugium. I'm very surprised that I still haven't spotted anything that resembles tigger pods, after reading your post about them and seeing the journal that you listed. The "outbreak" of other pods which came as hitch-hikers into my system is extremely obvious. Just fyi, pods prey upon each other too...i.e.: amphipods will actively hunt and eat copepods. Link to comment
bitts Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 there also needs to be sufficient levels of food. A new tank may not be able to provide this. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 29, 2011 Author Share Posted March 29, 2011 Decided that the two lamps over my display fuge completely sucked... And since I don't have a skimmer in there yet, I can make this 6 bulb setup work with some CFLs. Total cost including bulbs and 3 prong cord is like 50 bucks. Total wattage (power used) = 78. Each bulb is a 50 watt equivalent, so it's like saying I have 300 watts blaring down over the 20 gallons of fuge. I got two each of "daylight" (looks very blue compared to other bulbs) "warm white" and "bright white". Refugium fauna kit ordered from Inland Aquatics... Will be delivered tomorrow. Still don't know WTF is up with Garf Grunge. Supposedly they sent it out twice, but I haven't received anything in the mail from them... I've been getting other packages and regular mail just fine, so I'm thinking they never actually sent anything. They seem to have a great reputation, so I don't know what the issue is. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Looks like christmas again with all the light bulbs Link to comment
kgoldy Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 Added Red G. See 90 build for the story. Don't wanna double post like crazy. 1 Link to comment
seafarm Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 The "best if used by" is printed on each of our bottles. On most of the bottles its next to the UPC code. On some bottles it's printed near the gap where the two sides of the label come together. Oyster Feast, Phyto-Feast, Mysis Feast, and Roti-Feast are 5 months from when they leave our facility. Phyto-Feast Live is 3 months. There definitely should not be any gas build up. That's caused when the product gets warm. Either your refrigerator is set at over 42 F or the product got warm somewhere for an extended period (perhaps the store was storing them too warm). As long as the product does not develop a "rotten egg" odor they should be safe to use. Tiggers can do direct from cold to warm. That happens to them every day in the California tide pools. One minute they are basking at 90F +, the next its high tide and a wave at 50 F fills the tide pool. How much microalgae are you supplementing with? Tiggers won't grow without a lot of algae. And didn't I read somewhere in the thread that you have 4 fish in your tank? Fish gobble down Tiggers like candy Tiggers don’t try to hide from fish - they never see fish in tide pools. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 The "best if used by" is printed on each of our bottles. On most of the bottles its next to the UPC code. On some bottles it's printed near the gap where the two sides of the label come together. Oyster Feast, Phyto-Feast, Mysis Feast, and Roti-Feast are 5 months from when they leave our facility. Phyto-Feast Live is 3 months. There definitely should not be any gas build up. That's caused when the product gets warm. Either your refrigerator is set at over 42 F or the product got warm somewhere for an extended period (perhaps the store was storing them too warm). As long as the product does not develop a "rotten egg" odor they should be safe to use. Tiggers can do direct from cold to warm. That happens to them every day in the California tide pools. One minute they are basking at 90F +, the next its high tide and a wave at 50 F fills the tide pool. How much microalgae are you supplementing with? Tiggers won't grow without a lot of algae. And didn't I read somewhere in the thread that you have 4 fish in your tank? Fish gobble down Tiggers like candy Tiggers don’t try to hide from fish - they never see fish in tide pools. So once the bottles are opened, the shelf life isn't shortened at all? My fridge is set to 34*... I didn't think to test the smell before I tossed the stuff out. I think next time I have a go with the tigger pods, I'll try to breed them in a seperate tank so the numbers are much greater. I have been dosing the system with phyto feast live, twice daily, I'd say about a tablespoon at a time. Still see no tigger pod, but I'm sure it'll be good for other microfauna. As for the saying there were no predators, I meant that they were in the display, seperate from the refugium. With the refugium water turning over at least ten times per hour, I'm not sure that I can really expect the tiggers to survive at all- since they stay in the water column and would likely all be swept away no matter what I do. I am experimenting with another of your products, Macro Feast. I have isolated 75% of what was in the jar in an in-tank-refugium in the display, and the rest is in the fuge. It says on the bottle that it'll grow... and in keeping it in the same conditions as my other macros, I'm hoping to find that to be true. I was told by another reefer on the forum that when red macroalge look flourescent under actinic lighting, that they're dying or dead... which is what mine looked like right out of the bottle. Any tips to getting it to grow? Edit- Now that I just looked, it seems the Macro Feast in the refugium is turning to mush. Here's the thread where I'm starting a product review on Nano-Reef about my experience Macro Feast. You input is very much welcomed! Macro Fest - Anyone growing it? -- Gracilaria Pacifica from Reef Nutrition Link to comment
kgoldy Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 Macro Feast died off almost completely in isolation in the display tank. 100% mortality in the refugium. See product review post here for details and pictures. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Myabe it was a salt differnece that wiped it out. Link to comment
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