best place for copepods...??

jubjub

jubjub

New member
i recently got a green mandarin....tank is about 7months old and i do see a pretty good amount of copepods in my sump/cheato.... but i was thinking it would be best to order a good supply of them early so they can multiply.....

so where is the best place to order live copepods online?
 
dont get me wrong i like liveaquaria......but they tend to charge a arm and a leg for shipping...and me being in cali...always takes a week+ to get here....

can anyone suggest any other place?
 
haha

same boat here, but i am about to do that this week. two 5 gallons tank. i can hide those somewhere in my room aha
 
Is culturing with the method posted in the link a better option than growing them in a refugium? Obviously you would be losing the benefits of the macroalgae and such from the fuge, but would the culture method give you a significantly higher amount of pods?
 
i am no expert and i am barely gonna try this week, but that's what i am thinking.

plus in your fuge you have lights on at least 12 hours a day. when culturing copepods, you're supposed to cover all side of the breeding tank, so the only light coming in is the natural light from the surface/top.

and i wouldn't wanna feed that much phytoplankton to my refugium anyway (A LOT - in order for the pods to grow fast and reproduce).
 
Flippo, have you read much of the article about growing phytoplankton from that same site?

I agree with that probably being excessive phyto to be adding to the fuge, but i think when i try this i will probably add some culture to the fuge and some to the main tank. thanks for the great link!
 
i did. that and many more. :)

here's another great article:
http://www.reed-mariculture.com/zooplankton/rotifer/small.asp

i also bought this book - a must for everyone culturing plankton.

PLANKTON CULTURE MANUAL 6TH EDITION
https://3kserver7.com/~frank/secure/agora.cgi?cart_id=4927728.24555*g98ON3&product=BOOKS_MANUALS

Reef Nutrition has it cheaper, $27 w/ free shipping.
http://www.reed-store.com/?category=49&subcategory=38&productid=PCM

by adding too much phytoplankton to your fuge you're adding lots of algea into your system and you're not quite sure if what you're adding is enough or too little. what if it's too much? most if not all of us hobbyists are trying to remove algea from our main tanks - that is why i wouldn't culture pods in my fuge. sure, i'll feed them if need to be.

my goal: culture pods in a 5 gallon tank, constantly. feed them well in order to reproduce like crazy, and then add them to my main tank, and refugium as well.

enough paying $8 + tax for copepods at my LFS (10-15 pods per cup).

:)
 
I'm sorry. I don't think i stated my intentions clearly. I meant that after culturing I would put pods in my main tank as well as some in the refugium, just as you stated in your goal.

My brother ordered copepods from liveaquaria a few weeks ago and payed $25 for very few. They can be very expensive, which is why I am pretty excited to start trying this.
 
Is culturing with the method posted in the link a better option than growing them in a refugium? Obviously you would be losing the benefits of the macroalgae and such from the fuge, but would the culture method give you a significantly higher amount of pods?
Click to expand...
Oh yeah MUCH better. With the method outlined in advanced aquarist you pretty much get exponential growth. You could use a quarter of the pods in the bottle for a starter culture and with a few 10 gallons w/a center divider you could grow enough pods to feed a couple pod munchers w/o using a fuge
 
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