how to culture pods without starter

[filefishfinatic]

how do i make a pod starter 

[righttirefire]

[seabass]

Typically, you start by cultivating a viable phytoplankton culture to feed the pods.  Then generally, you'd purchase a live pod starter culture.  However, your title implies that you don't want to use a starter culture.  Therefore, you need a way to either collect existing pods or purchase new pods.  Possible other sources of pods would be macroalgae or live rock.

 

Cultivating pods is a big topic.  IDK, maybe I'll write an article about it some time.  A quick search of "cultivating copepods" should reveal a number of online write-ups.  Here's one: https://reefs.com/magazine/the-breeder-s-net-a-simple-how-to-on-home-culture-of-copepods/

Note: I didn't read through it all, so I can't speak to how good it is.

[filefishfinatic]

i am doing subsea banana method. 

[Tired]

Generally, the best way to culture pods is to start off with a dense single-species starter. Pods caught from a well-established reef might work. Do you want copepods or amphipods? They're very different. 

[filefishfinatic]

i dont care what. i just want to feed my fish. they eat microalgae and plankton the same right? i dont think i have amphipods in my tank. i know theres tons of isopods and copepods in my tank. 

[Tired]

Well, different fish eat different things. Amphipods are probably a better crowd-pleaser, as they're larger, but are harder to culture because they're cannibalistic. 

 

"Plankton" is a very broad term for anything that drifts in the water. It includes everything from phytoplankton, to jellyfish, to (debatably) mola mola fish. Copepods eat phytoplankton, but don't eat jellyfish or mola molas. Except parasitic copepods, but we don't want to culture those. 

 

Isopods look like pillbugs. Are you sure that's what you have? I'd guess you have amphipods instead. Amphipods look sort of like a little shrimp bent into a C, and mostly come out at night.

[Kindanewtothis]

https://judespassions.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/culturing-copepods-tigriopis-californicus/

 

That's the best one I found (tx seabass).

 

But it's starts with buying pods.

[filefishfinatic]

here is what they look like. i also have worms and copepods 

[Kindanewtothis]

Also why without starter?

[filefishfinatic]

starter expensie 

my lfs sells starter for 20$ 

[Kindanewtothis]

17 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

starter expensie 

my lfs sells starter for 20$ 

But you will save a lot once the culture is going.

[filefishfinatic]

how? i can make one without a starter and save money even more. 

[Kindanewtothis]

3 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

how? i can make one without a starter and save money even more. 

Yeah but how long is it gonna take without a starter and what do you seed your tank with for the moment, isn't it costing you money now anyway? Or maybe you are not seeding pods yet?

[filefishfinatic]

5 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Yeah but how long is it gonna take without a starter and what do you seed your tank with for the moment, isn't it costing you money now anyway? Or maybe you are not seeding pods yet?

live rock seeded my tank 

[Tired]

You really are best off buying a starter. Otherwise you're going to be dealing with all the competition you'll introduce. The most efficient way (and therefore most cost-effective way in the long run) to run any culture is to start with an un-contaminated starter. 

 

What are you hoping to do? Just culture some extra pods as treats, or actually raise enough food to keep your fish fed? 

[Ratvan]

If you can find it this is a great book for setting up multiple cultures at home

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

On 9/16/2021 at 3:37 PM, filefishfinatic said:

i am doing subsea banana method. 

What's that please?

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Also not being rude but do you actually have enough money for this hobby if you can't afford $20 on a starter culture?!?!

 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all for doing things on a budget (I AM on a budget, my rent is £7k without living costs and I'm in full time education....) sometimes you just gotta do what's best for the long-term and if you can't afford that maybe tone things down a bit. I definitely think you need to hold off starting your 3*20g rack/5g nano/contest tank(???) Until you have a bit more disposable income tbh.

Shoot me for being negative but there it is - someone had to say it frankly. But if something goes wrong, badly wrong, you don't have the financial means to fix it and animal welfare is going to suffer.

 

[Ratvan]

3 minutes ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

What's that please?

Add small pieces of banana peel to water change water and wait for it to turn green, can even leave it outside without a cover so that the rain tops it up 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

For micro organism food? 

Ohhhh I've heard of people in the goldfish hobby to do similar to culture Daphnia with sugar water to make a green water/  live food culture 

[Ratvan]

Just now, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

For micro organism food? 

Ohhhh I've heard of people in the goldfish hobby to do similar to culture Daphnia with sugar water

yeah its a good way to make the 100ml pouches explode once the green water culture is ready have a tonne of pods

[Murphs_Reef]

15 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

Also not being rude but do you actually have enough money for this hobby if you can't afford $20 on a starter culture?!?!

 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all for doing things on a budget (I AM on a budget, my rent is £7k without living costs and I'm in full time education....) sometimes you just gotta do what's best for the long-term and if you can't afford that maybe tone things down a bit. I definitely think you need to hold off starting your 3*20g rack/5g nano/contest tank(???) Until you have a bit more disposable income tbh.

Shoot me for being negative but there it is - someone had to say it frankly. But if something goes wrong, badly wrong, you don't have the financial means to fix it and animal welfare is going to suffer.

 

Absolutely correct H.. this isn't a game or an ornament we are talking about.. if something goes wrong you can't leave it till later to fix.. it's a right now job! 

 

@filefishfinatic just make sure you have enough quality food no matter what way you go about it..

[Tamberav]

I would probably just try moving some rubble or such from your tank with pods into the culture and see what happens. I always see pods crawling under the sides of frag plugs or rocks and such. Should be able to move some to get started. It won’t be a pure culture but worse case it doesn’t work and you lost nothing but time.