ocean pods vs. tigger pods

i was curious to know if anyone has had experiences with either of these products and which would prove to be more beneficial when used in a refugium...

can you directly place each product into a refugium or aquarium? water and all? or are the products meant to be used in "doses"? do the tigger pods need to be specifically fed since they are a larger variety of pod?

here are the links to both products...

http://www.oceanpods.com/

http://www.reefnutrition.com/

thanks in advance and i would appreciate all feedback, positive or negative.

 

Being a sponsor of this forum, as well as the product manager for Reef Nutrition, let me help you out a bit on this:

Look at the scientific names of each product, you'll notice that we both use Tigriopus californicus. Adalaide (OceanPods) uses much fewer of that species, and relies more on a smaller species to get her total count. Those other ones are barely visable to the eye, but still benificial.

Tigriopus can feed off the same food sources in your tank, as the other species of copepod really. I've never seen a tank that doesn't have some sort of phytoplankton present, like diatoms. Feeding a phytplankton product heavy in brown algaes will help increase all your infauna, as well as really make all your "pods" populations fully bloom.

Tigger-Pods is sold as a refugium/culture starter. You can dump the whole thing in, or just part, but I suggest dosing the whole thing all at once, at night. The water is of a clean source and uses one of the finest mixes on the market, so it won't harm your tank in any manor.

 

thanks gresham, i appreciate the feedback. i remember something you said on another thread about phytoplankton, being that dt's and kent don't have what you have in your product (i'm assuming it was your product). were you referring to the phyto-feast and if so would this product be beneficial to the population growth of the tigger-pods (is this what you mentioned above when brown algae is present?)? again thank you for the response...

 

Ocean Pods product

Hi there - Just wanted to respond to this thread. Gresham is essentially correct, that the Tigger Pods contains one type of copepod and the Ocean Pods contains three types of copepods.

The reason I add a variety of species is that you are more likely to get higher numbers of pods all the time by having three species living and reproducing in the tank - the blooms are more likely to occur subsequently rather than having one big bloom and then a recovery period.

Copepods thrive on the algae in the tank, and are usually present in mature systems. To help people out with mandarins, I developed the three species product to allow people to culture the product and restock their tank as needed.

Ocean Pods can be added directly to the tank, but if you have a small tank and a picky eater such as a mandarin goby, I recommend having a side culture in your refugium, sump or in a side culture system. There are instructions on the website.

So, the products are different, and each tank is individual, so it is always a good idea to figure out what your approach will be when adding a new fish that depends on live feeds to a tank.

Regards,

Adelaide

 

since tiggerpods are larger copepods will they eat smaller copepods already in the tank.

 

The 2000 th customer and yet only the fifth reply. Wierd ! Ocean pods are more diverse.