Culturing phyto and pods

[nicoleah]

Is anyone culturing phyto and/or copepods? I feed baby brine shrimp but that has become boring plus they can't reproduce in the tank. I'm making the spare room my laboratory (Mwahahahaha! Okay, it's mostly to hide all my aquarium junk, let's be real here) and want to to try out culturing phyto and either tisbe and/or tig pods. Because I'm kind of a nerd and am all about the microfauna. I've found some decent articles and starter sources, it sounds pretty simple. Hopefully my little experiment goes well but I'd love to chat at some of you who have done it already.

 

[Nanook]

I've cultured several types of microalgaes and pods over the years and would highly recommend the manual "œPlankton Culture Manual" by Hoff & Snell. It will break it down easily and set you up for success. Florida Aqua Farms is where I bought my micros and equipment from and that manual can be found there as well. FAF has been around for a looong time.

 

[nicoleah]

I thought you'd probably know.

:beer:

 

[Nanook]

If you need help setting stuff up let me know. As long as it’s not heavy lifting these days , I’m good.

 

[nicoleah]

That book sounds awesome. Thanks for the offer, I'll let you know if I need help.

 

[nicoleah]

I'm starting very small scale, couple of 5 gallon buckets for pods, bottles for phyto. This article made it seem pretty simple for a beginner:

https://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/about-us/articles/raising-live-rotifers-copepods/

 

[nicoleah]

I decided to try tig/tiger pods (tigriopus californicus) first, they are supposedly easy and reproduce quickly, plus are fairly large (visible without a microscope.) If that goes well then I'll expand the operation to additional species of pods and rotifers. You know, for fun. :dance:

On a related note, I set up an empty 10 gallon last weekend and started a culture of freshwater amphipods because the betta in my 29 gallon planted tank loves them and decimates the population. (Hey, Smack, I'm talking FW here again! HAHAHAHA :deadhorse


The tig pods will be here tomorrow, here goes my little experiment.