Microscopic (40x-400x) pictures.

[Western_reefer]

at the volume you're A OK for collecting but at larger volumes there is a permit system required and IIRC it's no small feat.

FWIW field agents and the office tend to have a disconnect. Prior to asking I would do as much background searching on the subject as you can. Countless times I have corrected field agents on issues as well as office staff. It's not an easy job they have as the amount of species they need to know is no short of an encyclopedia so I'm by far not ragging on them/bashing them I respect what they are doing and at times have thought about going into that field myself... then I wake up and think to myself, why on earth would I want to enter Cali government when Arny is talking about dropping state workers to the federal min wage until the budget is worked out.

Oh, ok.

Ok, will do.



Also, about the Tigger pods, should I put any water movement in the farm? Like bubbles? Or is it better to have no flow at all?

Since you know a lot about pods, are the good isopods and Amphipods easy to culture as well? Are they just as hardy as the Tigger pods? I'm thinking about culturing several different kinds of zooplankton, like Amphipods, good Isopods, Trigger pods, Rotifers, etc.

 

[GreshamH]

We use air and pure O2 but we're doing massively dense cultures. I would provide some aeration but not a ton. It's hard to put a value with out knowing the tank volume/dimensions you plan on using.

Amphipods are like mysids, not easy to culture in a stand alone culture. In your reef tank they have a lot of space and a lot of copepods/detritus to eat. In culture they are very cannibalistic and require a lot of daily attention. It's best to separate the various life stages just like you'd do with mysids.

 

[Western_reefer]

We use air and pure O2 but we're doing massively dense cultures. I would provide some aeration but not a ton. It's hard to put a value with out knowing the tank volume/dimensions you plan on using.

Amphipods are like mysids, not easy to culture in a stand alone culture. In your reef tank they have a lot of space and a lot of copepods/detritus to eat. In culture they are very cannibalistic and require a lot of daily attention. It's best to separate the various life stages just like you'd do with mysids.

Oh, ok. I'm using a clear plastic container that is 8" wide x 13" long x 11" high but I'm going to fill it up to 9" high which will be 4 gallons.

Oh, ok, that kinda sucks.

What are a few other zooplanktons that are easy to culture? I know Tigger pods and Rotifers are very easy to culture.


Can you post a few pictures of your Tigger pod farm? How many gallons are the tanks?

 

[GreshamH]

Sorry we don't publish our TP ponds. We give some details in public but the over all farm pictures are not something we'll publish. I can tell you we've got around (24) 250g ponds but honestly I do not know the exact number, we have Techs on staff that run those now Gone are the days when it was me doing that.

shallow is better with them. The more surface area the better.

Black or darker colors is better then clear or white for their culture vessel. You may want to spray paint yours black.

For a tank of that volume I would do a bubble every second to 2 bubbles a second, no airstone. Simply get yourself some rigid airline (1/16"?) and a stainless steel 1/4" nut from OSH to weigh down the rigid airline.

There's other copepods (smaller) that you can do. Rotifers aren't that hard. Artemia is always an easy one. Ciliates are easy to culture but since your not breeding fish there may not be much use for them. Not sure how they are for coral food as some ciliates are known to attack corals.

 

[Western_reefer]

Sorry we don't publish our TP ponds. We give some details in public but the over all farm pictures are not something we'll publish. I can tell you we've got around (24) 250g ponds but honestly I do not know the exact number, we have Techs on staff that run those now Gone are the days when it was me doing that.

shallow is better with them. The more surface area the better.

Black or darker colors is better then clear or white for their culture vessel. You may want to spray paint yours black.

For a tank of that volume I would do a bubble every second to 2 bubbles a second, no airstone. Simply get yourself some rigid airline (1/16"?) and a stainless steel 1/4" nut from OSH to weigh down the rigid airline.

There's other copepods (smaller) that you can do. Rotifers aren't that hard. Artemia is always an easy one. Ciliates are easy to culture but since your not breeding fish there may not be much use for them. Not sure how they are for coral food as some ciliates are known to attack corals.

Oh, ok.

I guess I'll paint the container black and add an air stone.

Ok, I guess I'll stick with the Rotifers, Triger Pods, and Artemia.

Can you take a picture of the Tiger pods you guys culture, not the pool, but just the water to see how dense it is with Tiger pods? Like I did in post 1 picture #6.

 

[GreshamH]

The water has far too much phyto present and with the black tank, you can't see much. I'll post a picture tomorrow, I'll have a tech harvest a gallon of the culture water and place them in a gallon of clean water. He may fight me on this and probably will request that he does this on Friday when he's ready to harvest a pond.

 

[Western_reefer]

The water has far too much phyto present and with the black tank, you can't see much. I'll post a picture tomorrow, I'll have a tech harvest a gallon of the culture water and place them in a gallon of clean water. He may fight me on this and probably will request that he does this on Friday when he's ready to harvest a pond.

Oh, ok. Thanks!!

Do you guys harvest weekly? Also, 6000 gallons of culturing Tiger pods is a TON!!!! What do you guys do with it?? lol Do you supply public aquariums with it or something?

 

[GreshamH]

We sell +1K bottles of Tigger-Pods a week And we do sell to public aquariums, research facilities, universities, schools, etc but the majority is sold into the reef aquarium trade.

We harvest a pond or three a week, but that is not how long they are set-up for.

 

[Western_reefer]

We sell +1K bottles of Tigger-Pods a week And we do sell to public aquariums, research facilities, universities, schools, etc but the majority is sold into the reef aquarium trade.

We harvest a pond or three a week, but that is not how long they are set-up for.

Wow! That's a lot!! Nice!

Oh, ok. But how long do you wait till you harvest a pond from start to harvest?


*EDIT* How much do you guys sell a bottle of Tiger Pods for? I have a empty 125 gallon tank in the back yard and now I'm thinking about culturing them and start feeding my WHOLE tank with the Tiger Pods since they are so nutritious and my fish LOVE them!

 

[GreshamH]

Tigger-Pods Moses, Tiger-Pods is a knock off brand from some one violating our trademark.

I can't tell you how long start to finish, sorry. My hands are tied on this one, sorry.

They retail for $20 a bottle (2K-4K per bottle). If you really want to get into this email me... gresham @ reef nutrition DOT com and we'll talk offline

 

[Western_reefer]

Tigger-Pods Moses, Tiger-Pods is a knock off brand from some one violating our trademark.

I can't tell you how long start to finish, sorry. My hands are tied on this one, sorry.

They retail for $20 a bottle (2K-4K per bottle). If you really want to get into this email me... gresham @ reef nutrition DOT com and we'll talk offline

Oh, ok.

Its alright, I understand.

Very nice!! Email sent.

 

[Western_reefer]

Torch coral tentacle(this is not the Green ball tip)
You can see the golden/brown Zooxanthellae.
At 40x

At 100x

At 400x

This is the Torch corals Green ball tip.
At 40x

At 100x

At 400x
You can see the Green color pigment where the red arrow is at.

 

[Western_reefer]

Kenya Tree at 40x

Here are a few pictures and videos of a Mini Feather Duster.(In the videos, the feather Duster is still alive, so the videos are kick *** IMO. lol)

Mini Feather Duster at 40x

Mini Feather Duster at 100x

Mini Feather Duster at 400x

Mini Feather Duster VIDEO at 100x
View My Video


Mini Feather Duster VIDEO at 400x
View My Video
View My Video
View My Video

 

[Western_reefer]

Here are a few more pictures.

The good Isopod.

At 40x

At 100x

At 400x
Red eye

Amphipod
At 40x

 

[Western_reefer]

Here are a few pictures of a Caulerpa leaf.

At 40x

At 100x

At 400x

 

[Western_reefer]

Well, my pair of Cleaner Shrimps released their babies and there were tons of them! I turned off all powerheads and pumps, put a flash light against the glass and within minutes there were tons of them right in front of the flashlight. I sucked up as much as I could and put them in a container, wanted to take pictures but the battery died. I fed some live babies to the sun corals and they loved it! I'm currently freezing the ones I caught. I'll post pictures of them tomorrow once I charge the batteries and but them under the microscope.

 

[kb27973]

Very cool micro pics. Do you have a DSLR with some kind of adapter to get those pics?

Ken