Apex pod cultures crashed? Help!

[elbereth]

I've recently started culturing Apex pods with little success. I've read a few guides online and the one thread on copepod cultures I found on the forum, but I'm not finding it as simple as they all make it sound. So I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice.

I have (or had T_T) two cultures going in glass jars, about 2g I think, with airline and a heater in one of the jars. I was feeding Phytofeast Live. I could see some pods on the glass for the first week but now I can't see any. I suspect some if not most of the plankton in the Phytofeast wasn't alive by the time I bought it and fouled up my water faster than it should've. I didn't think to monitor ammonia at first and now my cultures are at over 4ppm. I'm sure my pods are dead at this point. I've already spent well over $50 on this so I really want to get the next culture right. Anyone know what the safe maximum ammonia level is for copepod cultures? I can't find a value online. Any other tips or ideas? I'd culture my own phytoplankton instead of relying on store-bought Phytofeast but I can't find anything other than Nannochloropsis locally and from what I've read that Nannochloropsis is not very nutritious.

Any advice would be much appreciated. (Please help me achieve my dream of keeping mandarins.) Thanks!

 

[elbereth]

No one here cultures copepods??

 

[tigerbob]

I don't culture marine copepod but I have a 5g where freshwater ones naturally grow. I'll just say what I see and know about freshwater ones.

What I notice is that during the hot summer days they experience crash. So maybe they prefer cooler temperature. Also it's common practice to add a few snails to daphnia culture because snail can eat left over food that falls to the bottom(daphnia can only eat food floating in the water column).

 

[elbereth]

End of term has been keeping me so busy I haven't been able to check the thread.
I like the idea of keeping snails in the culture to eat left over food. But looks like I'll have to try a reefkeeping forum for some more info. Thanks for chipping in though!