HELP...Did I Kill All My PODS

[downhillbiker]

I had tons of pods in my tank and could literally see the sand crawling, about 20+ pods per sq. in.

Today I went to the LFS and they gave me some free live brine with my purchase so I thought I would put some in my tank for the corals to eat. All my fish are in QT, and I don't see many pods, and brine scurrying everywhere.

Did the brine out compete the pods and kill them off, and what do I do?

[edwing206]

They won't starve out the pods in as little as a day. It's more likely that the pods got scared into hiding.

[downhillbiker]

i still have 5 weeks until the fish go back into the display. are the pods going to survive? the brine? will everything get way out of whack?

[edwing206]

I used to have TONS of pods then suddenly I saw them less and less and now barley see any even at night. I'm pretty sure they are just hiding.
Also, are you positive that what you are seeing are brine shrimp and not pods?

[downhillbiker]

i am not positive, but i do know they look different than what i normally see. i look at my tank every night, and these are new, and the coincide with my first dosing of live brine shrimp. they also are moving about 4x as fast as the pods ever moved, and are bigger.

[jcollins]

IMO if you feed a small amount of flake food every few days every one should be fine. On another note, why are your fish out of the tank?

[downhillbiker]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12863380#post12863380 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jcollins
IMO if you feed a small amount of flake food every few days every one should be fine. On another note, why are your fish out of the tank?

i am confused on your reasoning for the flake food. is that for the pods? brine? or fish?

the fish are in QT for ich treatment. they are done with almost 3 weeks and have another 5 to go.

[downhillbiker]

because if you are talking about food for pods, i have DT's phytoplankton, and for the fish and corals i have a great variety of foods that i mixed together.

does anyone else have input on this? i still am worried, i dont know if the brine so much out competed the pods, but maybe ate them.

[virginiadiver69]

I have noticed that my pod population will go through cycles. They will seem to die off then come back just as strong as before. Besides...I doubt the brine are able to eat the pods anyhow.

[Paul_PSU]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12865524#post12865524 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by virginiadiver69
I have noticed that my pod population will go through cycles. They will seem to die off then come back just as strong as before. Besides...I doubt the brine are able to eat the pods anyhow.

When you say "die off" did you see them floating or were there just less of them? The reason I ask is the other day my display looked like a snow storm of pods. This happened in the evening before the lights went off. The next morning I did not see the normal amount of pods on the rocks when my actinics came on. I have them in my fuge still, ;but overall I just have less. I just was curious. My water parameters where good and I did not add anything out of the norm. I just wondered if they cycled or something.

[crvz]

The pods arent going to live off the phyto. You'll want to add flake or whatever you feed the fish if you want to put food in for the pods. Honestly, though, I wouldnt worry about it. Their population is cyclic, as others have said, and there's no way you'll kill them all off (unless you drop some interceptor in the tank... at a high dose).

[Kannin]

Brine are free swimmers with little fins that look like feathers. If you have bigger things scurrying around... I would say that they are a different kind of pods.

[davocean]

Yeah, there are copepods and amphipods, which are bigger, shaped like a comma.
I've heard they can populate, eat food supply, decrease, kind of a cycle.
Should still have some, especially if you have fuge w/ macro, and established LR.
When I ordered online, they said to feed phyto for best results.

[Semper Fi 1959]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12863447#post12863447 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by downhillbiker
the fish are in QT for ich treatment. they are done with almost 3 weeks and have another 5 to go.

Isn't this a little long? Some feel that ich is always present anyways and will NEVER be out of the tank no matter how long it is 'fish free'. Others can chime in, but I'd say if they've been out of the DT for 3 weeks and you've been actively treating them (copper, hypo etc) and show no signs of anything...give them another week or so in QT and then readd them.

8 weeks just sounds excessive to me. The best fighter of ich is a strong immune system.

[Kannin]

I second the ich comment. If they've been out of the display for 3 weeks... and you have treated them with either copper, hyposalinity or just good nutrition and garlic, I would say that it should be good. Continue to soak food in garlic once back in the display.

[Amazon4]

I disagree on the ich comments. Don't cut the hypo period short. And if you can go the extra mile and leave your DT fallow for 8 weeks all the better.

I went through this and hypo in QT & fallow DT for 8 weeks was the only thing that worked. Garlic, vitamins, No Ich, etc. did not work.

I know people have other experiences. But if you've decided to do this, don't end it early. Or you may have to start all over.

[Kannin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12974724#post12974724 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Amazon4
I disagree on the ich comments. Don't cut the hypo period short. And if you can go the extra mile and leave your DT fallow for 8 weeks all the better.

I went through this and hypo in QT & fallow DT for 8 weeks was the only thing that worked. Garlic, vitamins, No Ich, etc. did not work.

I know people have other experiences. But if you've decided to do this, don't end it early. Or you may have to start all over.

I am really not trying to argue but, I am curious as to why eight weeks? I have heard that 3 is all it takes to break the life cycle. When did people start using 8? And, you said that 8 weeks is the only thing that worked. Did you try 5 and fail? Or 6 weeks?

[areze]

if the tank is empty, why QT at all? you have no risk to existing fish in the DT since there are none...

[Kannin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12975225#post12975225 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by areze
if the tank is empty, why QT at all? you have no risk to existing fish in the DT since there are none...

By removing the infected fish from the display... you can break the life cycle of the parasite in the tank and you can treat the fish in a bare quarantine with tactics that would be hazardous to the corals and fauna in the display tank.

[downhillbiker]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12974493#post12974493 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kannin
Brine are free swimmers with little fins that look like feathers. If you have bigger things scurrying around... I would say that they are a different kind of pods.

you are exactly right. i have done more research and found that these are another type of pod. i just wasn't used to seeing them because they are 10x faster than the others and now i have tons of pods, both the old ones and new ones, along with amphipods.

as far as the pods eating when fish are in QT, i feed the phyto, but also feed the corals a DIY coral mix of zooplankton and it has plenty of mysids, cyclopeze, daphnia, oyster eggs, ect for them and the corals to feed on.

[downhillbiker]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12974753#post12974753 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kannin
I am really not trying to argue but, I am curious as to why eight weeks? I have heard that 3 is all it takes to break the life cycle. When did people start using 8? And, you said that 8 weeks is the only thing that worked. Did you try 5 and fail? Or 6 weeks?

i did try 6 weeks. ich can be dormant in the display. yes after 4 weeks the ich is completely killed on the fish, but it is still in the display. the 8 weeks fallow is more for the display than the QT. i failed with 6 weeks, so am doing 8. i figure 2 more weeks isn't to much to pay, for the added security.

i dont know about the whole ich always in the display concept, but what i do know, is that copper and hypo are the ONLY ways to truely kill ich. i tried garlic, have exceptional water quality, have all lights on timers, dont change parameters too fast, and they still had it. it may work for some, but the only TRUE TREATMENT is copper and hypo.

Now only taking 3 weeks to "break the cycle" is not true. there was a post earlier this month about ich started and there were several comments made by respected people, such as greenbean, a marine biologist, that ich is only killed after 6 months.