I'm newly culturing Parvocalanus pods and T-Iso. And generally new to culturing microfoods in general. Got a few Qs.
The parvo I'm raising on T-Iso and a small amount of refrigerated PhycoPure Copepod blend. At the moment I'm forced to keep the Parvo culture afloat on Phycopure for a couple more days, until I can get my T-Iso re-established because I crashed it through poor hygiene.
I'm basing my Parvocalanus info off of these sources.
#1. The
info sheet from Reed Mariculture
#2. Jim Welsh's
thread on parvocalanus culturing
#3. Development of intensive copepod culture technology for Parvocalanus crassirostris : Optimizing adult density
Google
My Parvo cultures have a lot of growing to do. They've seemed very thin to the eyeball looking like much less than 1 adult per ml.
I put them under the scope yesterday and counted in 10 mL: 4-5 adults, and about 80 nauplii - I'd probably estimate 1/3 late stage, 2/3 early stage.
So it looks like my current adult density is .5 per mL, but in the next 3 or 4 days it'll go to over 2 adults per mL.
So when to split a culture?
Reproduction grinds to a halt when too dense in # of adults.
Source #3 "Fecundity decreased from 26 eggs per female per day at an adult density of 0.25 per mL to less than 1 egg per female per day when operated at 8 adults per mL."
It shows max egg production from females at less than 1 adult per mL, but greatest egg production
per volume at around 2 adults per mL.
So early, when population growth is biggest concern split early maybe before 1 adult/mL and later when space is a concern, split at 2 or 3 adults mL?
Ammonia control?
Source #1 says "Perform 100% water changes weekly," and I'm up past a week on some of my cultures, but I don't have my strainers in yet. Can I just dilute with fresh SW, or add a little ammonia detoxifier from LFS to buy me a few more days until my strainers arrive?