Copepods

CJRIZZOTTI · Oct 13, 2017

Anyone have a cheap easy way to produce copepods myself? Any advice will be greatly welcomed ty for reading

sfin52 · Oct 13, 2017

@Paul B has bed doing it for a while. Check out his posts. He has some great info

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 13, 2017

What do you need them for? You can usually get free culture with the purchase of some chaeto from your LFS, otherwise you're going to have to buy starter cultures from the LFS or order them from an online vendor.

Some guy in my local reef club takes a frayed rope and sinks it in gulf off of a pier for a day and then goes back the next day and shakes everything off in a bucket, he also ends up with baby stone crabs and other pests in his tank so it's not advisable to use that method even if for the cost savings.

I think you have to grow rotifers for the pods to eat and phytoplankton for the rotifers to eat, phyto just eats light and nutrients. It's a pretty simple process once you get it going and just takes some scheduling and has similar levels of maintenance as a reef tank.

sfin52 · Oct 13, 2017

I Know pods need phyto. I believe roti need phyto to grow as well

GarrDen79 · Oct 13, 2017

I culture pods now. Just need clear gallon jug, constant supply of phyto, air pump. It's pretty easy. I can send detailed info if PM me

sfin52 · Oct 13, 2017

@GarrDen79 can you pm me about growing phyto. I just got my culture in. Any suggestions would be great. I've got my all my stuff set up. At work right now so I'll start the cultures tomorrow.

75galOCD · Oct 13, 2017

GarrDen79 that sounds interesting, good info for all post it! Please

atoll · Oct 14, 2017

Take an old salt bucket fill it with tank water from a water change. Put a piece of banana skin in it and leave in a sunny position until the water goes green. Add a starter culture of pods and leave for nature to take is turn after a few weeks you should have a teaming bucket of pods. Simples.