pod culture tank

[Modern-Revolution]

Hi I wasn'tsure what forum to post this in but I figure all you sea horse and pipe fish guys and girls must have lots of copepod farming experience.

I have a 10 gallon tank set up with 2 bottles of tisbe pods and then a poured some phytoplex in there. An air pump bubbles slowly in the middle.

so I have the water light green now, should I pour in the phytoplex until it is dark green?
Also I read that these pods will also eat fish food but I'm worried of dirty water issues as there is no filtration.

The tank is set up in my basement where it is finished and clean and dry, but it'salso ggenerally about 50-60* Fahrenheit. I've read this species of pod Iis tropical and prefers water of 65-80* Fahrenheit...but they've been swimming around Iin my refrigerator just fine for a week so idk if it matters. If I should heat it, what is the exact optimal degree for mass reproduction?

Ps. I know I should do live phytoplankton cultures but I already had these pods and phytoplexso I figure II'llget this working first.

 

[ViktorVaughn]

I have a ten gallon pod tank as well. Its probably got about 5 gallons of a light green colored, room temperature water. I've never heated it or added live phyto to a darker green color (overall tank water color) and they've been fine. I'll usually do 25-50% water changes biweekly and a complete 100% every 2 months or so.

 

[zeebies]

I have 4 Tisbe cultures going. Each container has about a gallon of water. I've found them very simple to set up and maintain. No airstones. Two are heated to about 76F and two have no heaters and stay between 50-62F. Tisbe pods do well in a ranges of temperatures though I understand they are more prolific around reef temperatures.

The salinity varies widely as I may top off or not top off and it doesn't seem to effect production much, though I try to keep the cultures around 1.025 so the pods aren't shocked when I add to my pipefish tank.

Originally, I fed live phyo but now I only feed flake food, pieces of algae sheet and some shrimp pellets. It's just easier. I have the four cultures in rotation so each vessel gets a 100% water change about every 2 months. I always have a good supply of pods.

 

[Modern-Revolution]

Thanks guys. So mine is at 62 degrees. Every day it looks like I see more pods on the glass so I guess the temp is ok. Do you notice any better production in the cultures that are heated to the 70s? Also how much do you feed the pods and how often?

I squirt what I assume is 10-20 ml of phytoplex every 2 or 3 days now. I just wait until I can see into the water but this phytoplex is expensive so I'll probably just go to fish food after unless I start a pphytoplankton culture. Nothing is as expensive as pods though.

This is my 10 g . Do you guys scoop out pods and water with a cup or this water really dirty and i really need a 50 micron net or something?

 

[ViktorVaughn]

Can't answer your temperature related reproduction rates as mine has always sat around 68-70 but I'd guess that the higher the temps equals faster pod reproduction. There's quite a bit of good literature and studies done on copepods so I'm sure you could find your answer with a little digging. I'll usually feed every 2 days, about 5 ml of phytofeast at a time. The small bottle was like $10 and I don't know if i'll even be able to use it all by the expiration date.

I don't add the culture water directly to my tank, looks too dirty and I'm guessing it would make my skimmer spaz out. Also if you add your culture water you'll have to top off whatever you took out with more water and phyto. I bought an awesome 53 micron sieve off ebay to harvest my pods. It's just a 4" wide, 4" tall pvc pipe with the screen fitted at the bottom. I place the sieve in a tupperware container and use a turkey baster to suck the pods off the walls. After I'm done I just reverse the sieve and pour my DT tank water through it to wash the pods into another container and then pour the culture water from the tupperware back into the pod tank.

 

[MondoBongo]

my cultures are all at ambient temperature in my office. it can get quite cool in the winter in there.

my phyto i culture in 2 liter bottles, and i notice a decent drop off in production during the winter, but i think that is more due to the reduced lighting duration (i have them in the window so i only use sunlight and don't supplement) more than the temperature.

i haven't really compared pod reproduction rates. i'm not even quite sure how i could do that in a meaningful way, but they seem good enough so far. nothing obviously amiss from any other time.

to get them out i actually have a few different sieve sets i picked up from brine shrimp direct. my favorite is their rotifer screen, which is a fine mesh on the end of a PVC pipe section. works great. when i do my water change i just pour it out through the sieve, and then rinse all the pods i want to keep back in to the pool with one of these guys:

http://www.amazon.com/Tattoo-Cleani..._2?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1419970256&sr=1-2

i actually use those big plastic pretzel jars you get from costco for my pods. a little easier to dump out than a 10 gallon, plus i get to eat all the pretzels!

as far as feeding, i wait till one of my phyto cultures is a real deep, dark green. then i do my water change on the pod culture, and top it up with about .75 liters per gallon of pod culture from my phyto. i do this usually every 2 - 3 weeks, or when the water starts to clear. i don't really have any hard measurements for when it gets done, or how much phyto density i need, i just kind of play it by ear with how long it takes the water in my pod culture to turn more clear.

the bottled phyto is really pricey, as you said, which is why i started culturing my own. it is super easy. i just use liquid miracle grow, some old 2 liters, and a spare air pump. then you only have to buy one bottle, use it to start your cultures, and not have to worry about purchasing it again.

 

[Modern-Revolution]

So it's been close to 2 weeks. I 5.4 on the room lights for a few hours each day and check on them. Sometimes I see a few. Sometimes I see none. When should I start seeing hundreds on the side of the glass? U think i read somewhere that every 2 weeks they spawn or something so by next week should there be many many more? Just wanna make sure i dont kill them somehow . How long before i should start harvesting. ?

 

[zeebies]

With mine, I saw the beginning of a population increase after about 10 days. I didn't start harvesting until around 5 weeks when the pods were all over the place.

 

[WerezMiePie]

May I ask this is under seahorse forums so what is this going to be used for? I'm not sure about copods as far as feeding but, I know that amphapods are larger and nutritious at least I think they are?