Can brine shrimp and copepods be cultured in the same tank?

[><((((o>]

Hiya

Lately I've started a culture tank and added a piece of LR, air pump, nanno plankton and some brine shrimp eggs. I was expecting BBS but saw some little white specs on the glass that look like copepods(i assumed they crawled from the LR). Do you guys think copepods can brine shrimp can live together & breed peacefully? Many thanks in advance.

 

[ctenophors rule]

Hiya

Lately I've started a culture tank and added a piece of LR, air pump, nanno plankton and some brine shrimp eggs. I was expecting BBS but saw some little white specs on the glass that look like copepods(i assumed they crawled from the LR). Do you guys think copepods can brine shrimp can live together & breed peacefully? Many thanks in advance.

hmmm, no.

first off, you would be hard pressed to be breeding brine shrimp. most of the time the eggs have to be dried out and re animated before they will hatch.

and with all the nutrients and waste produced by the brine shrimp, the ideal set up is easily taken apart, emptied, and sterilized after usage.

for me, we use water bottles quickly at my house, so i would just use one and scrap it when i was done.

why are you putting live rock and nanno phyto in a brine shrimp culture vessel?

 

[><((((o>]

I remember someone mentioned before brine shrimp can eat of phyto and can continue to reproduce in a 5G+ tank, was hoping with this method I wun have to buy brine shrimp eggs from my LFS.

 

[ctenophors rule]

I remember someone mentioned before brine shrimp can eat of phyto and can continue to reproduce in a 5G+ tank, was hoping with this method I wun have to buy brine shrimp eggs from my LFS.

hmmm...:hmm2:

I guess if you want to do this, its up to you. I wouldn't maintain the adults on phyto, it will also make it harder to see the nauplius.

most breeders (all that i know of actualy) hatcth them from cysts, their eggs realy are not all that expensive. it may even prove to be more expensive to do it this way. and you likely wont be able to produce enough babies to sustain your larvae.

but if you do decide to do this, please post your results, maybe you will be succesful.

 

[ctenophors rule]

oh and to answer the orriginal question, while copepods may live with the brine shrimp, they most likely wont reach numbers where they would be effective food sources. the best copepods for aquaculture are calanids, the ones you are talking about are harpactoid (sp) mofib has a lot of research on this, no need to reinvent the wheel.

 

[><((((o>]

I haven't found any brine shrimp in my culture tank yet cept for copepods, they're kinda growing slowly as ya said, hope they reproduce faster once their population reaches over 5 copepod per cm cube.

 

[Luis A M]

I agree,check the links for copepod info.
You should culture (grow and reproduce) bs in a dedicated bare container,from a bucket to a wading pool.Some harps in there won´t harm and will help with janitoring,but not a co-culture really.
You can use waste water for your bs and feed them on algae paste or a cheaper Spirulina/yeast mix.
And you don´t need to use more eggs or collect yours,bs will livebear in your culture.