(upbeat music)
- Today, we're here to talk with you about the Pod Hotel.
It's a clever new device that will provide a safe haven
for your pod to grow or reproduce
inside your tank, shielded from predators.
You can shake the hotel in your display tank to deliver
the pods to your fish and other hungry tank mates.
In the reef hobby, we use the term pods
to refer to both copepods and amphipods.
These are tiny crustaceans that serve
a couple of important functions in your reef aquarium.
First these little guys are an underrated part
of your clean-up crew because they feed on detritus.
They help keep your waste levels under control.
Second, the main reason most reefers want them
in their tank, pods are a highly nutritious
and natural food source for your marine fish and corals.
In fact, some fish like the mandarin dragonhead rely
exclusively on pods if they're not trained
to accept frozen foods.
Dragonheads spend their day swimming around the tank
hunting incessantly for these tasty reef bugs.
Other fish like your clownfish or wrasses
may not require pods as part of their diet,
but they won't miss the opportunity
to snack on them as often as possible.
These tiny creatures are a great live food source
for your corals and other filter feeding inverts.
You will not typically see pods during the day
in your reef tank since they are hiding
from all the predators.
If you wanna see your pod population,
check out your reef at night with a flashlight.
Using a red color light is best
because it will not startle the tank inhabitants,
and will allow you to closely observe
the nocturnal activities inside your tank.
Pods will appear like little bugs,
and can typically be seen crawling on your glass
or darting around your rock work and substraight.
If you have a refugium,
this is also a good place to check out copepods.
They really enjoy using macro algae as shelter.
If you don't see many pods in your tank,
then you should really consider seeding your tank.
Marine Depot sells a couple
of different species of live copepods.
One bottle can easily seed your tank with enough pods
to maintain a healthy breeding population inside your tank.
Just give it about three to four weeks time
for the pods to really grow, and become prevalent.
We have an excellent video all about adding pods
to your tank, and you can find a link
to that video description below.
In most aquariums, the copepod populations
will sustain themselves.
If you are keeping fish such as dragonheads or pie fish
that will particularly hunt for pods,
you will likely need help to facilitate
the stable population inside your tank.
You can do this by providing a safe area
for the pods to reproduce away from predators.
A refugium or separate aquarium with a Pod Hotel inside
is a very effective way of maintaining a population of pods.
Then offer them as a supplement to your tank inhabitants.
The Pod Hotel has six floors
of space for your pod population.
With a three by three footprint, it easily fits
in your sump or refugium where you pods can move in
and build their numbers.
These hotels can easily be stacked on top of each other,
which should result in a larger population
of breeding copepods.
When it comes time to evict the pods,
just shake the entire Pod Hotel in your display tank,
and watch your fish chow down.
While pods are an excellent food source,
you really don't wanna rely on them
as your sole source of nutrients in most cases.
It's best to train your fish,
especially your difficult to feed fish,
like your dragonheads, to regularly accept
prepared dry or frozen foods.
The pods should then be only offered as a supplement
to this daily regular diet.
I would say at most, once per week.
This way, your fish don't get spoiled
on these tasty live foods and stop accepting
the prepared flakes, pellets, or frozen foods
they really should rely on for most of their nutrition.
In summary, the Pod Hotel is a great way
to interact with your aquarium.
Through regular supplementation,
you can improve the health and quality of life
for many of your reef tank inhabitants.
I appreciate all of you for watching today.
Until next time, take care, and happy reef keeping.
(upbeat music)