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Cultivating copepods


Cappymrgn

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Im not sure if this is the right forum, so please feel free to move it if Im way off. I was going to try to cultivate some pods outside my tank. I have a link to another thread that describes how to do it, and will include it later. I have two general questions:

1) do pods need any light or can I keep them in a dark cabinet?

2) how sensitive are they to temperatures? I imagine pods are found in most oceans, but can they take temps into the upper 80s maybe 90s (if this is done in a garage)

 

Thanks for the input!!

 

Jason

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Is there a specific reason you want to cultivate pods?

As for the light, I think, pods themselves wouldn't need it, but their food source, such as live plankton would need a light source.

Since there are pods in our tanks with the temperature range around 78 - 81, I'd think that would be a good temp for your pod culture.

Hope someone more experienced on this subject will give some better tips though.

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im growing pods in a 2.5 gal tank. you'll need a container or tank, airstone, normal sw mixed, temps should be around 76-80.

 

You need to feed live phyto daily, add enough to tint the water green.

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I just attended a short lecture at a frag conference by reef nutrition. They highly recommend doing rotifers instead. The turn over rate is every 18hrs. the temperature doesn't have to be perfect and neither does the waters salinity. Very easy to feed to. Do some research. Here's a helpful linky rotifer.com

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Care and Feeding of Live Copepods

CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR LIVE COPEPODS

 

Once you Receive your Live Copepods

 

Here are some tips to keep your copepods happy upon arrival:

 

When they first arrive,the copeods may not be very active since they have been out of the sunlight for several days. Live Copepods love the light, so they will begin to wake up once you get them out of the box and into room temperature conditions. They may take longer to wake up when shipped with ice or stored in the fridge.

 

If you see what appears to be inactive copepods on the bottom, there are a few possibilities: discarded carapaces from molting, excess food, or a few expired animals (copepods live about 10 weeks).

 

When the copepods get to your home, open the bottle cap to provide some fresh air. Once acclimated to room temperature, introduce them into a larger container or pour them directly into your main tank, refugium and/or sump. While they can live several weeks in the bottle if fed, you will get more milage from the culture if you can place them into a larger container with some food, such as crushed up fish pellets or any live phytoplankton.

 

In nature, copepods feed on microalgae, fish detritus and macroalgae. In captivity, they can eat excess algae and bacteria in your tank. If you are maintaining a culture outside of your tank, remember to feed them occasionally with crushed up fish feed pellets or live phytoplankton.

 

Copepods can live in your main tank, your refugium, or in a separate culture system. Fish LOVE copepods, so they will be eaten and depleted in your main tank by your happy and active fish and corals. When the copepods are grown with predators, they will reproduce rapidly. Copepods reared in your refugium, sump or separate container can be harvested and fed to your main tank once or twice a week (depending on the size and density of the culture container).

 

Here are some directions for setting up a side culture system

 

Gather the following materials:

 

1. Culture container: mason jar, tupperware container, small unused fish tank. Do not wash the containers with soap - only use hot water and a stiff brush. Live copepods HATE soap.

 

2. Artificial seawater, can be dirty water from your tank system, since the copepods like slightly dirty water. Copepods like a saltwater concentration of 1.021 to 1.026.

 

3. Do not aerate the culture unless it is in a container of 5 gallons or more, and cover the system to prevent evaporation. Saran wrap and a rubber band are a simple solution.st and contaminants out and evaporation down.

 

4. Crush up some sinking pellets or other high quality fish food (except frozen), and provide a few pinches every few days.

 

When you are ready to harvest, collect the copepods with a fine mesh net (brine shrimp net), or turkey baster or pour a portion of your culture water into the main tank or refugium to introduce the copepods to the system.

 

Copepod populations will bloom after a few weeks, but eventually they will get depleted. It is possible to crash the culture by overfeeding, so it is important to use either live phytoplankton or another clean food source to prevent crashes. It is natural that the population will eventually become depleted, so it may be necessary to replenish your stock periodically until you get some practice maintaining the cultures.

 

hope this helps! :happy:

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Care and Feeding of Live Copepods

CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR LIVE COPEPODS

 

Once you Receive your Live Copepods

 

Here are some tips to keep your copepods happy upon arrival:

 

When they first arrive,the copeods may not be very active since they have been out of the sunlight for several days. Live Copepods love the light, so they will begin to wake up once you get them out of the box and into room temperature conditions. They may take longer to wake up when shipped with ice or stored in the fridge.

 

If you see what appears to be inactive copepods on the bottom, there are a few possibilities: discarded carapaces from molting, excess food, or a few expired animals (copepods live about 10 weeks).

 

When the copepods get to your home, open the bottle cap to provide some fresh air. Once acclimated to room temperature, introduce them into a larger container or pour them directly into your main tank, refugium and/or sump. While they can live several weeks in the bottle if fed, you will get more milage from the culture if you can place them into a larger container with some food, such as crushed up fish pellets or any live phytoplankton.

 

In nature, copepods feed on microalgae, fish detritus and macroalgae. In captivity, they can eat excess algae and bacteria in your tank. If you are maintaining a culture outside of your tank, remember to feed them occasionally with crushed up fish feed pellets or live phytoplankton.

 

Copepods can live in your main tank, your refugium, or in a separate culture system. Fish LOVE copepods, so they will be eaten and depleted in your main tank by your happy and active fish and corals. When the copepods are grown with predators, they will reproduce rapidly. Copepods reared in your refugium, sump or separate container can be harvested and fed to your main tank once or twice a week (depending on the size and density of the culture container).

 

Here are some directions for setting up a side culture system

 

Gather the following materials:

 

1. Culture container: mason jar, tupperware container, small unused fish tank. Do not wash the containers with soap - only use hot water and a stiff brush. Live copepods HATE soap.

 

2. Artificial seawater, can be dirty water from your tank system, since the copepods like slightly dirty water. Copepods like a saltwater concentration of 1.021 to 1.026.

 

3. Do not aerate the culture unless it is in a container of 5 gallons or more, and cover the system to prevent evaporation. Saran wrap and a rubber band are a simple solution.st and contaminants out and evaporation down.

 

4. Crush up some sinking pellets or other high quality fish food (except frozen), and provide a few pinches every few days.

 

When you are ready to harvest, collect the copepods with a fine mesh net (brine shrimp net), or turkey baster or pour a portion of your culture water into the main tank or refugium to introduce the copepods to the system.

 

Copepod populations will bloom after a few weeks, but eventually they will get depleted. It is possible to crash the culture by overfeeding, so it is important to use either live phytoplankton or another clean food source to prevent crashes. It is natural that the population will eventually become depleted, so it may be necessary to replenish your stock periodically until you get some practice maintaining the cultures.

 

hope this helps! :happy:

 

Thank you all for the replies and the detailed response here!!

 

This is the link that made me think about doing this:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...hreadid=1286158

 

I do have pods in my tank, but want to supplement the population for a mandarin. I have some LR rubble in my rear chamber, but I dont really think of it as a fuge as of yet.

 

I would like to hear more about how people have succeeded in doing this. I would ideally like to get several cultures going to provide a constant supplement to my tank.

 

dtflemming are you able to cultivate a substantial amount?

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Pods are not very demanding. Their numbers will rise and fall until they reach a stable population, given the conditions you provide. Rotifers are ok for corals but do not have the nutritional value needed for mandarins or seahorses.

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I started today with an air-pump, 2 liter bottle, tigger pods and some phyto. We will see how it all turns out and I'll let you know.

 

I did have one more question about feeding the pods. I have phyto and plan on using that, but I also have "reefbugs" and was wondering what you think about using that to supplement the pod's food??

 

Thanks!

 

 

POOPCOLA- can you explain why I wouldnt aerate a smaller container? Like everything there are conflicting thoughts, but I dont want to do any harm.

 

Thanks

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You could make a pod pile. It's a small mound of rubble where you place pieces of shrimp/food inside for the pods to eat with no fear of predation.

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  • 1 year later...
You could make a pod pile. It's a small mound of rubble where you place pieces of shrimp/food inside for the pods to eat with no fear of predation.

 

Hi All,

 

I'm new to this forum and this is a very interesting topic "cultivating copepods". I'm going to set up a 10g reef tank (corals only). Do corals eat copepods too?

 

I used to have a 20g tank with two clown fish. There were white/screamy color fish egg shap alike thing on the tank glass. After a little short while, the clown fish started pick them out one by one quickly. I believe I had copepods, correct me if I'm wrong. However, I never add any live copepods in my tank. The tank was only couple weeks old, it had just finished cycle.

 

Can we cultivate live copepods without the initial seeding the tank? And would copepods repopulate themselves under the right living condition? I mean one new generation after another. So we will have copepods all the time and for a infinite time.

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Corals are usually too slow to eat live copepods. Pods (there are many types, including copepods) come from your live rock, which is what should be in the tank anyway.

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