Culturing Copepods

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Cheesehead

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 7, 2011
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Since I just found out the red scooter blenny I picked up is actually a dragonet I was wondering if I could culture pods in a fish bowl (~1gal I believe). So what would I do to successfully breed pods? 1 bottle of tigger pods, saltwater, air hose and phytopaste? How/where could I get phytopaste as I really don't want to culture phytoplankton.
Thanks!


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Also could I do a 12 gal refugium and just dump a bottle of them in there? What lighting would I need for that and what equipment to get the water back into the dt? I mean it makes sense but how would they get into the dt? Also what if I get him hooked on formula 1 and other foods like brine shrimp and bloodworms. Would that be enough?
 
Culturing pods isn't that dificult if you make your setup correctly. But i do not believe that a 1 gal bowl will produce enough pods to feed a planctivour (spelling fail). I would not recommend using phyto paste of any kind as most of these are dead phytos which will rot and foul you water quickly since filtration is impossible with pods (the filters suck up baby pods). If you want to provide enough food you will have to have several cultures going continuously i recommend 2L coke bottles. You can also culture phytos in these as well needing only light and an airstone. As for fuge production you need a few things a pod friendly algae such as ulva (sea lettuce) which is an excellent breeding ground for amphapods you will need light and some sort of return. The return can be a pump but some of the pods will be killed. The other option is an in tank fuge with small holes in it to allow pods out but not let fish in.

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So i could do an in-tank fugi and culture them in coke bottles? How many bottles of them shoul I get of tham and could I get them from this sight with their "phyto-feast" http://reefnutrition.com/tigger_pods.html Also it looks like the dragonet is trying formula 1, will that hold him over untill i get a good population going? Finnaly how do I harvest the pods from coke bottles?
 
I honnestly dont know how many bottles you need... it somewhat depends on the reproduction/survival rates of the pods, and ive only ever cultured HUGE overkill amounts (im talking 50+ gallons total with various verieties). Harvesting, the way i like to do it is with a micron sieve holes need to be smaller then the pods obviosly, (and idealy the holes should be larger then the nuaplii) so what you do is SLOWLY poor the water from the bottle through the sieve (or even hold the sieve in a bucket partly submerged reduced damage to the pods) then once thats done, you should have a bucket containing baby pods and a sieve filled with adults. To again keep damage to a minimum, (more important with calanoids then harpacticoids or cycolpoids) i place a small cup under the strainer in the water, then dump that whole cup into the tank then give the sieve a little swirl to clean it out (the reason behind this incase it isnt clear, is to prevent the pods from being pressed against the hard sieve). I then take the water that came out of the bottle, and put it back into the bottle (cleaned the bottle first), add food, wait, repeat.

Reefnutrition isnt bad, I personally preffer the products offered by Algagen they have a wide veriety of pods available, and i can buy in bulk (for starting my huge cultures haha) http://www.algagen.com/prod/?cat=16
 
You can buy copepods (sometimes sold to kids as sea monkeys) from most arts and craft stores. Not sure if it would be a similar diet or not. But might be something to look into.

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Sea monkeys are brine shrimp I thought....
 
Slippery K said:
You can buy copepods (sometimes sold to kids as sea monkeys) from most arts and craft stores. Not sure if it would be a similar diet or not. But might be something to look into.

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Click to expand...

These are generally Brine shrimp, there are far cheaper options to buy these in bulk, but sadly they are rather nutritionally defficient.

Sieve sieve sieve.... ummmm trying to rememeber where I got my first few (after a wile i started buying material and making my own... ummm

They sell some, but not really ideal ones... you want something between 800 and 900micron or 19-20 mesh(US) (as the adult size is 1000-1500micron) so if you buy from them get the 475 from the 8" drop down, as its the only suitable one (though far from ideal).
http://florida-aqua-farms.com/secure/agora.cgi?cart_id=4536683.24955*0K5-h8&product=COLLECTORS

Try googling it? it should be fairly easy to find now that you know the size needed. Just another quick note, if you have a skimmer running (most people do sadly...) then you will have to dose your fuge regularily with phytos as well, or they will not breed well (still need phytos to eat, skimmers remove them), the sea lettuce is more of a hiding space/breeding grounds, they like tight spaces to "sleep" breed and hide (a selection of snail shells is good for this as well).

here is Reefnutritions on statement on it

"Culturing Tigger-pods will typically not thrive in your main tank for three reasons:
1.there is no place for them to hide, and they are such attractive food that they get eaten quickly and disappear
2.there is not enough food (microalgae) for them
3.it takes 20-30 days from when their eggs are laid until they mature into breeding adults ready to start laying eggs, so the chances that they can persist long enough to breed under these conditions is practically zero.
The best way to culture Tigger-Pods is to put them in your sump or refugium where they are safe, or culture them in a separate tank. Either way, give them lots of microalgae "
 
So I could goto a hardware store and get some 19 or 20 mesh (maybe both?) and make my own? So I will get an in tank refugium with some sea lettuce, 2 2L bottles for culturing and the fish bowl. Will this work? How will I do water changes if the babies are don't get stuck in the sieve? Thanks!
 
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