Green Mandarin

[kerry]

Say Hello To My NEW Little Friend!!! These tuned out real good for Phone Pics!!

[Floyd R Turbo]

I love those guys

[Garf]

Have you got a pod culture going?

[kerry]

Yes, me too. One of my favorite on my list.
Yes, I have tons of pods in the 150G. I have kept my other Mandarin in a 10G for years. I have a 10G tank dedicated to raising/breeding pods. In my 10G mandarin tank I have a few rocks I swap out with the 10G pod tank. This is how I started the colony in my 150G, when the lights go it looks like the sand moves, its kind of eerie to watch with the flashlight. My 10G pod tank has so many pods they make it hard to see through the glass because your eyes want to focus on them moving around the glass.
I have found that a horizontal scrubber is best for raising/breeding pods. I went back to this type after making a waterfall for it. The population must have dropped about 50% with the waterfall so I had to put the horizontal back up.

[SantaMonica]

Makes sense, the waterfall would wash them away

[kerry]

That is absolutely what I have observed. When I rinse the screen in the tank before I scrap it there are many many many more pods that come off the horizontal screen then the waterfall screens. I rinse all my screens in the pod tank to insure I have a huge thriving colony for my mandarin and the other fish too. Sometimes I see the button polyps close when they catch one. Many times the pod escapes but its neat to see every now and then.