Copepods

[leemarch]

I'm brand new to this and I know some people will say to just scroll through other posts of the same nature but I'm hoping someone will help me with a step by step guide to 'breeding' copepods.. How to do it.. Equipment needed.. Time frames.. And eventually help me to understand how to add to tank.. Do they continue to breed in the tank?

Basically I'm wanting to set up a good copepod world so that I can feed a manderin dragonet well and keep it healthy!

I'm wanting it easy step by step instructions as like I said.. I'm new and get kind of intimidated by "experienced hobby" words!

 

[JuicyJ]

This is too easy. Do you have a refugium? If yes, make sure you have some good macro algae. Buy some pods and add it to said fuge. Presto you have pods.
If you said no, see above.

 

[leemarch]

This is too easy. Do you have a refugium? If yes, make sure you have some good macro algae. Buy some pods and add it to said fuge. Presto you have pods.
If you said no, see above.

This will sound really dumb but I don't really know what a refugium is. So I guess I don't have one!

 

[hijinks]

Refugium is an area usually in the sump with sand/mud and live rock pieces and macro algae. It's usually low flow to allow pods to reproduce and thrive.

 

[skydvr]

Here's some links. I don't think they get too technical to understand. You need to start somewhere to understand what is going on.
The first two are fairly in depth, but they give you and understanding of why you are doing things and how to provide optimal conditions. They walk you through the process pretty well. You can scale it to suit your needs.
Unless you have a large refugium and no other predators in the tank, I doubt you would provide sufficient food for a dragonette, at least not if you relying on that as it's sole food source.

Breeding Copepods
Phytoplankton culture
another phyto culture
one more phyto

 

[leemarch]

Here's some links. I don't think they get too technical to understand. You need to start somewhere to understand what is going on.
The first two are fairly in depth, but they give you and understanding of why you are doing things and how to provide optimal conditions. They walk you through the process pretty well. You can scale it to suit your needs.
Unless you have a large refugium and no other predators in the tank, I doubt you would provide sufficient food for a dragonette, at least not if you relying on that as it's sole food source.

Breeding Copepods
Phytoplankton culture
another phyto culture
one more phyto

That first link was more than brilliant!! It answered everything I wanted to know.. In a way I understood thanks )

 

[Fury165]

It is not that difficult to culture your own copepods in standalone containers. I culture Tigriopus californicus "Tiggerpods" from a starter culture I bought from Reef Nutrition.
I put them in three shallow plastic containers and feed them PhytoFeast http://reef nutrition.com/phyto_feast.php. They really can't eat regular green Nannochloropsis Phytoplankton and do best with brown Isochrysis phytoplankton. Phytofeast has a mixture of planktons and is super concentrated so only a few drops are needed to feed the cultures every day (just enough to make the water cloudy)

There are quite a few guides out there but not sure I can link to other forums.

 

[Knishfish]

I had copepods come into the aquarium on rocks, coral, etc. Never did anything specific to culture them and there were quazillions of them after a while. Best way to see them is at night, with the lights off and a flashlight held near the bottom. You'll see clouds of little beasties after a couple of months. I would wait until you can see a good population before putting a Mandarin or other dragonette into the aquarium. Otherwise you'll just preside over their slow starvation. As with everything else in this hobby, patience is a virtue.

 

[philosophile]

I have two mandarins in my 90g. I've never seen them eat "tigger pods". They mostly eat Tisbe pods. If you want a mandarin, just have some patience and wait until you see a good population of pods on your glass. If they are all over the glass, they'll be all over the rocks. Also seriously consider removing the wrasse, since they'll compete over the pods.

 

[leemarch]

I have two mandarins in my 90g. I've never seen them eat "tigger pods". They mostly eat Tisbe pods. If you want a mandarin, just have? some patience and wait until you see a good population of pods on your glass. If they are all over the glass, they'll be all over the rocks. Also seriously consider removing the wrasse, since they'll compete over the pods.

Really? I didn't know that about the wrasse! Would I take it back to the LFS?

 

[Knishfish]

I had lunare wrasse, 6-line wrasse with my mandarin and never had a problem. Lunare was probably too big to go for he copepods but 6-line definitely wasn't. Granted, it was a 180 gal. I could also see yellow wrasses going for them.

 

[leemarch]

It's a yellow banded possum wrasse?

 

[Knishfish]

Easy way to find out. Put copepods in. Wait a couple of months. Check it out at night, per above. If you have a thriving population, you'll know you can support more predators. Depending on the species, I have found most of the little critters are pretty hard to spot in daylight.

 

[Fury165]

I have two mandarins in my 90g. I've never seen them eat "tigger pods". They mostly eat Tisbe pods. If you want a mandarin, just have some patience and wait until you see a good population of pods on your glass. If they are all over the glass, they'll be all over the rocks. Also seriously consider removing the wrasse, since they'll compete over the pods.

My Mandarin and Ruby Reds absolutely eat Tiggerpods. I have cultured both Tisbe and Tiggerpods however I've had better sucess with the Tiggerpods. Both are harpacticoids and while Tiggers do swim around they will feed at the bottom and on rocks. Here is a RC thread on Tisbe vs Tigger pods.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2030920

 

[Pife]

Great links thanks guys

 

[mrehfeld]

great links thanks guys

+1

 

[syngraves]

i had pods hitchhike into my tank on some live rock. never noticed the critters until about 2 weeks ago and freaked out bc i had no clue if they were harmful or what. ended up actually scooping acouple into a small container and took it to my lfs and the owner told me all about pods and the benefits lol no i actually looks for them and seem to have a good population. its definitely the little things about this hobby that keeps me interested haha