Mandarin and Scooter Dragonets
Where to find live pods
for starting own culture
If they are not available in your area
If the starter culture of live pods is not readily available in your area, you may find them as hitchhikers on the live rock (LR), with or without corals. Only make sure, that all life on your LR wasn't killed by ammonia during tank cycling or LR curing. Or buy the rubble LR, with or without attached corals. If you don't have scooters, mandarins or wrasses in this tank, in a month or two you should be able to see the live pods, swimming there.
What worked for me: the mysids, amphypods, isopods and the smallest copepods on the glass just appeared several times in different tanks, likely hitchhikers on the live rock. If there are no fish, or the tank has a protected area, like a piece of LR with algae or a polyps, where the scooter just don't fit, sooner or later this place becomes inhabited by pods. Especially if this place is not disturbed by syphoning during the tank cleaning. You can make such place near the glass to see, how it's going.
Part of the 5g hexagonal tank with scooter, below are areas with mysid shrimps, despite the small scooter presence:
As you can see, enough places for pods to hide. Scooter is in the middle.
Pods are protected by this bush.
Or yellow polyps near the wall.
Later this 5g hexagonal tank was set again - with shallow sand bed, some soft corals, live rock and different macroalgae, that has only heater and small pump for a water movement, near the window. No feeding, no cleaning, some small water changes very rarely, practically abandoned for the months - the pods are swarming there. Only keep alkalinity in check.
The smallest copepods on the glass - in the tank with heavy feeding by frozen food and rarely cleaned glass, lighted and not. Big gammarus-like amphypods - mostly in the jungle of chaetomorpha (see it in the hex - the green mass, thread-like algae, common in refugiums for nutrients export, you can get it through classifieds, cheap).
Next page: Images of pods