Reef Pods TISBE vs Tigger Pods

[seafarm]

Mary - It's possible to culture them to your sump, however they might get pushed out depending on how high the flow rate is. They can be added directly from the cold bottles to your sump, however I'd suggest letting them warm up to room temperature first.

By far the most successful way to culture them is in a simulated tide-pool, and a 9x13 glass cake pan works perfectly for that. It will be about 30 days until you see results, but after that you can scoop them out regularly.

Hope this helps

 

[djkms]

By far the most successful way to culture them is in a simulated tide-pool, and a 9x13 glass cake pan works perfectly for that. It will be about 30 days until you see results, but after that you can scoop them out regularly.
Hope this helps

Randy,

Can you give more details on the simulated tidepool approach? I currently culture tigriopus copepods in a 5 gallon bucket with roti's and feed nanno paste daily. The results are ho-hum.

So..
culture container - 9"x13" glass pan
Temperature - ambient room?
Salinity - 35ppt work?
Lighting - Indirect ambient room light?
Circulation - Rigid tubing (1,2 - bubble count?)
Food - (If phytopheast - then wouldn't some of the algae be wasted since they prefer dynoflagellate's?) (maybe a Iso paste?)

Any other tips to help along a culture?

Thanks Randy!

btw great conversation, good to have Randy and John giving input here!

 

[seafarm]

Let me see if I can help

Culture container - anything that is long, wide, at least 2 inches high. Cake pans are a perfect example. If you get deeper than 2-3 inches you have to add an airstone.

Temperature - room temp. Anything from 60-85 is optimal.

Salinity - 30 ppt to 40 ppt. They are used to the tide pools evaporating during the day and the salinity going up.

Circulation - not needed, especially in a shallow system.

Lighting - ambient

Food - Phyto-Feast or Shellfish Diet, they like variety. Nanno is the least effective species for them.

When you have a good population going simply scoop some out and feed them to your tank. Then replace the water in the "tidepool". If you are replacing it with water from your aquarium I'd pour it through a coffee filter first to keep other organisms out.

 

[dzhuo]

Randy,

1. How fast do tiger pods reproduce? For example, how many eggs do they lay per life time?
2. What's the life span? Weeks? Months?
3. How much do we need to feed the pods? Once or multiple times per day?
4. Typically, how many pods can live in a 9x13 glass cake pan?

 

[seafarm]

1. How fast do tiger pods reproduce? For example, how many eggs do they lay per life time?
** I'll see if I can find that out and get back to you.

2. What's the life span? Weeks? Months?
** My understanding is their lifespan is about 100 days

3. How much do we need to feed the pods? Once or multiple times per day?
** 2-3 times a week should be fine. They have a MUCH slower metabolism than rotifers.

4. Typically, how many pods can live in a 9x13 glass cake pan?
** Good question - I'll see if I can get an answer for you.

 

[dzhuo]

Randy,
Keep us post on question #1 and #4. Appreciate your help and sharing your experience and knowledge with us!

 

[C-Dragon]

Hey everyone,
Randy asked me to jump in here to help shed some light on the Tigger pods. I am the aquarist in charge of Tigger culture and have been working with them for almost 3years. Well, enough about my background.

Question #1. How fast do tiger pods reproduce? For example, how many eggs do they lay per life time?

Answer: Regarding the question of how fast Tiggers reproduce. Most females only require one or two mating occurences during their lifetime. They have the ability to store sperm. From only one mating occurence, they can produce up 12 batches of fertilized eggs every 4 days with optimal nutrition and a temperature of 23C (73F). Females can hold anywhere from 30 eggs to 140 eggs at one time. In fact, with plenty of oxygen, light and a good food supply, a population of Tiggers can double itself every 6 days at 15C (59F) or every 4 days at 23C (73F).
A female Tigger is sexually active by day 14 at 23C. From there, if she lives another 86 days, at 23C she could potentially produce anywhere from 645 embryos to 3,000 embryos in her lifetime with only needing to mate twice!

4. Typically, how many pods can live in a 9x13 glass cake pan?
Answer: I would have to say you could potentially see anywhere from 10K to 50K individuals in your cake pan if the females are producing large clutches of eggs and you are feeding them well. They have the ability to filter feed as well as scrape algae off of any surface.


I hope this helps. Randy did a great job answering all the other questions accurately.

Chad M. Clayton
Aquarist, RMI

 

[djkms]

Thanks Chad, good info there! May I ask what you guys feed your cultures at Reed? Also, do you think we could use these same methods for tisbe pods with the same degree of success?

 

[mwilliams62]

What does the "ppt" stand for when referencing salinity????

mary

 

[djkms]

What does the "ppt" stand for when referencing salinity????

mary

Parts per thousand

http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs/SgPptConv.php

 

[C-Dragon]

What does the "ppt" stand for when referencing salinity????

mary

Mary,
For example, if you are trying to achieve a salinity of 35ppt, you add 35grams of sea salt mix to every liter of water.

Thanks Chad, good info there! May I ask what you guys feed your cultures at Reed? Also, do you think we could use these same methods for tisbe pods with the same degree of success?

PhytoFeast is a great food for Tiggers. Tigriopus and Tisbe are harpactacoid copepods and should do fine with PhtyoFeast.

 

[mwilliams62]

Thanks Chad... please forgive the stupiness question here: i am not very good at the grams stuff how much would be in relations to the measurments in teaspoons???

mary

 

[dzhuo]

Chad,
Great info! A couple of follow up questions:

1. Do we need to maintain temperature to ensure we have both male and females? Or would a higher temp only produce one gender of babies?
2. Do we need to put anything such as rock, sand or algae in the cake pan for the pods?

 

[GreshamH]

Mary - It's possible to culture them to your sump, however they might get pushed out depending on how high the flow rate is. They can be added directly from the cold bottles to your sump, however I'd suggest letting them warm up to room temperature first.

By far the most successful way to culture them is in a simulated tide-pool, and a 9x13 glass cake pan works perfectly for that. It will be about 30 days until you see results, but after that you can scoop them out regularly.

Hope this helps

There is also the issue of predation by amphipods and mysids as John noted earlier. In tank copepod cultures are very hard to maintain given that factor alone Luckily stand along cultures are very easy to maintain.

 

[mwilliams62]

I don't recall seeing an answer for the question about TISBE can they be cultered as the Tigger Pods??

Mary

 

[GreshamH]

Chat,
Great info! A couple of follow up questions:

1. Do we need to maintain temperature to ensure we have both male and females? Or would a higher temp only produce one gender of babies?
2. Do we need to put anything such as rock, sand or algae in the cake pan for the pods?

Gresham from RMI here...

1. no, the shift from female to male at higher temps is very insignificant.
2. bare vessel is suggested. No rock, no sand, nothing.

 

[GreshamH]

I don't recall seeing an answer for the question about TISBE can they be cultered as the Tigger Pods??

Mary

Me neither I have seen write-ups for Tisbe floating around on the net, I'd suggest checking MOFIB dot Com or MBI dot com. Both have areas where members do zooplankton culture write ups.

 

[dzhuo]

Sweet! Thx Gresham!

So basically get a cake pan, pour salt water and add eggs, once hatched feed the pods once every 2 or 3 days. And then just occasionally check salinity and add RO/DI or fresh salt water (no tank water) and continue to maintain the culture? Anything else I missed?

 

[GreshamH]

Well close, but you will be adding live copepods. To my knowledge the eggs have to develop on the female and hatch off her. I do not think they produce a resting cyst like rotifers or artemia.

That is virtually how I have done it in the past, except I prefer plastic kitty liter pans since they offer a litter larger area and because they are opaque. I've found clear tanks/vessels and light makes the Tigger-Pods concentrate in one area and eventually you see large die offs in those areas (localized low dissolved oxygen, dunno). The funny thing is they are not always attracted to light. I've tried harvesting just using light and only half would typically make the migration. Light flashes will make them disperse and hunker down.

 

[dzhuo]

How many bottles do you suggest that we should start with? Also, do I need special net to take out the pods (young and adult) for feeding?