Culturing copepods

[CJO]

Bill, thanks for the info. I was hoping to get away cheaply as I have a bottle of DTs, which contains the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. However, after reading some articles on it, that particular diatom seems to be poor food for copepods. Looks like TW it is!

CJ

 

[GreshamH]

dont trigger pods come from colder waters? i baught some for my tank and they almost instantly died

Sorry but that is false and I am unsure why they died so fast. The can take that shock with no problem as it happens to them all the time where they actually live.

They do not live in the ocean, not to mention their range is from Alaska to central America. They live in the upper splash zone which can get to the upper 90's and then instantly drop to the mid 50's in seconds. TP are cultured at reef temps and have been for many years. Out tanks never drop below 75F (heaters for the winter), but can be up in the 80's most of the summer. FWIW the top of our greenhouse was 160F the other day.

 

[kermit_criminal]

Sorry but that is false and I am unsure why they died so fast. The can take that shock with no problem as it happens to them all the time where they actually live.

They do not live in the ocean, not to mention their range is from Alaska to central America. They live in the upper splash zone which can get to the upper 90's and then instantly drop to the mid 50's in seconds. TP are cultured at reef temps and have been for many years. Out tanks never drop below 75F (heaters for the winter), but can be up in the 80's most of the summer. FWIW the top of our greenhouse was 160F the other day.

ok thanks.. maybe il give it another go this week. do you keep them in a special container or in your fuge? or do you just throw them in the DT with everything else?

 

[GreshamH]

How you implement them is dependent on what you want to do. If you want to culture them a stand alone tank with an airstone and feed is all you need really (shallow with a higher surface area is better then deep with less surface area). If you have a refugium that is the best place for them in a tank. They aren't great DT critters due to them being in the water column for the most part (makes it easier for prey to see them).

 

[IAReefer]

Im just chiming in with my .2 cents here, but i bought 1000 pods reefs2go for $20ish. I put them in my sump. Some of the pods were mature, some were pretty small when I put them in. Within two months, my sump is crawling with them, I mean they are EVERYWHERE. They made it into my display tank and they are everywhere in there also. I dont do anything special for the pods either and put in a little bit of phytoplanton in the tank every couple of weeks or so. I never would of imagined the population would of exploded like that. Ill try and embed a picture of video of them.

 

[IAReefer]

sorry for the crappy video..I took it with my iphone.

<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid1021.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf336%2Fasnelson15%2FIMG_0710.mp4">

 

[CJO]

I'm pretty sure those are amphipods.

CJ

 

[IAReefer]

yes, you are correct, but I tend to generalize them, which I shouldnt I guess. I cant pick up the copepods with any camera that I have, but there are so many in there and that is just what I can see on the glass.

 

[CJO]

It's not a tough one to culture, just got to keep things sanitary like with Isochyrsus. Aquatic Ecosystems has it, but CCMP might actually be a cheaper.

Just wanted to thank you again. I found that seahorse source had Thallassiosira Weisflogii for a good price. I'm now running cultures of Nannochloropsis, Isocrysis and Thallassiosira Weisflogii

CJ

 

[billsreef]

:thumbsup:

 

[nanshaw2001]

Just a little off topic. This is going to sound like the goofy- est question..sorry! I have a sump with cheato and plenty of critters I'm sure. Some of the shrimp like guys are larger and I also keep biofloss in the sump. Am I raising any critters for the DT? Or does what is there stay there and multiply and what comes in on lr etc multiply for the tank? I don't see how they could get through the filtration material. The reason I as is I will eventually want a dragonet of some type in my 150 and will want to be raising my pop population!

 

[Fishtastic]

step 1: get a small tank (I use a 1g)
step 2: fill with 1.025 water
step 3: put in sun for multiple days
step 4: after algae has covered sides mostly, add pods
step 5: put somewhere where it will get sun everyday

that's all. the o2/co2 cycle will go with the plant life in there, and the pods will have an endless food supply. someone originally told me "oh that balance won't last long!"
Well it's been almost 6 months and I haven't done anything to it, and I use the water and replace it with 1.025 water ALL THE TIME, and it has yet to do anything other than thrive.
(yes, I discovered this when I was being lazy)

 

[JMartin104]

step 1: get a small tank (I use a 1g)
step 2: fill with 1.025 water
step 3: put in sun for multiple days
step 4: after algae has covered sides mostly, add pods
step 5: put somewhere where it will get sun everyday

that's all. the o2/co2 cycle will go with the plant life in there, and the pods will have an endless food supply. someone originally told me "oh that balance won't last long!"
Well it's been almost 6 months and I haven't done anything to it, and I use the water and replace it with 1.025 water ALL THE TIME, and it has yet to do anything other than thrive.
(yes, I discovered this when I was being lazy)

I don't mean to sound stupid, but I'm interested in raising pods in my 110 (I have a refugium) and this seems so simple. Do you need any water circulation or filtration?

 

[billsreef]

Pods culture best with minimal circulation. A bit more than rotifers, but not much. Filtration, if any, is best done with a sponge filter with a very low flow.