copepods in brackish water

[robert.mccook.elm]

so i recently went to reefapalooza in orange county, while i was there i found a booth that specialized in copepods. i have done some research and from what i have found it seems that some copepods have the ability to survive and multiply in brackish water. the guy that i talked to said that they have some pods that they collected from estuaries in Florida as well as some from India. to be honest it sounded to good to be true. he claimed that they collected pods from there because they survive better when being bought and sold because they come some an extreme environment. so since they were on sale at the reef show i decided to get some. i acclimated they how the guy told me to and that night before i put them into my tank, i could see some swimming around. so its possible that they lived.

Has anyone done this before? any advice or thoughts on using copepods to make your brackish water tank live? any info, thoughts, or experiences that you have will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Oddball]

Copepods exist in nearly every sort of water you can think of. They're found in among surface phytoplanktons and in benthic regions that never know sunlight. They're found inthe ocean, deltas, estuaries, rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and temporary rain ditches. They can be found in hot equatorial waters and in sub-zero temperatures. Some species can grow only to microscopic levels, others can grow to multiple pound size.

If you're asking if all copepods can be adapted to brackish conditions, the answer is no. There are over 13,000 species of copepods. 2,800 species are freshwater. Several marine species can live comfortably in brackish as well as several freshwater species. However, some marine species that can live in brackish do so until they reach sub-adult age. Then, they migrate to full marine conditions. Likewise with freshwater species. There are around 100 known species of brackish-specific copepod species. Best bet is simply to obtain those species that normally exist in brackish conditions.

 

[WinterAlloy]

+1 above

At Indian Pass, when the sea's tides are low, the resistance against the Appalachicola are low, allowing free flowing freshwater to mix with seawater. I don't know how low the SG gets but it does drop, but it bursts with life. Invertebrates are sometimes known to be picky about their parameters. Corals should be kept at SG 1.023-1025. Marine fish can be kept at SG>1.019. Some estuarine fish can kept at SG>1.015. Dog faced puffers can even be kept in high brackish water. All that said, if your pods came from Florida estuaries , chances are they can be slowly acclimated to SG 1.015, maybe even 1.012. There again, it's species dependent for the most part. If you pursue this, keep us updated.

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[Aw3s0m3]

Doesn't surprise me. I just noticed the other day in one of my freshwater tanks that I haven't scrubbed for a while, there were Copepods running around in there.


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[robert.mccook.elm]

i will keep everyone posted. so far they have been in my tank for almost a week. i will check my tank this weekend late at night and see if they survived.