copods

tanksman · Oct 7, 2013

I have been trying to establish a strong community of copods so that I may one day introduce A scooter blenny or Mandarin to my tank but they just don't seem to be populated about 3 months ago I added a melanurus wrasse to fight the flatworm problem that I had and he did an excellent job I don't see any more flatworms ,my question is are they known to eat copepods also. thanks for the advice

3Twinklets · Oct 7, 2013

Yes they will.

Kimberlee · Oct 7, 2013

May I rocomend buying a starter culture and setting up a 10gal for it. In 2 weeks time you can staart adding from the culture back into your DT. ou can do this until your happy w/ your population, sell off the extra and do it for about 35-40$. It is also easier than they say. y running culture has been going for over 2 months now and I some times half to give it away just to thin the culture and keep it from crashing. If you'd like links and culture tips, LMK and I'll get them together for you. y bookmarks are a mess.

Kimberlee · Oct 7, 2013

Sorry for the typos it is my key board. It badly needs to be replaced

tanksman · Oct 8, 2013

sure I would love some links, I've been having problems even trying to hatch Brian shrimp eggs

shred5 · Oct 8, 2013

I agree culture the copepods... Copepods will not be in large enough volumn in your tank unless it is very big.. Most tank now adays do not support enough copepod population because we keep our tank much cleaner. Copepods require detritus and algae to grow populations to large size to support a blenny or mandrin and both algae and detritus are udesirable. Culture them in a seperate tank with phyto and a little air tube with pump set really low... I like to throw a little cheato in there too.. This helps keep the nutrients lower and gives the pods a place to rest/hide.

Kimberlee · Oct 8, 2013

tanksman said:
sure I would love some links, I've been having problems even trying to hatch Brian shrimp eggs

How are you hatching them? Are you using a hatchery you bought?

Kimberlee · Oct 8, 2013

shred5 said:
I agree culture the copepods... Copepods will not be in large enough volumn in your tank unless it is very big.. Most tank now adays do not support enough copepod population because we keep our tank much cleaner. Copepods require detritus and algae to grow populations to large size to support a blenny or mandrin and both algae and detritus are udesirable. Culture them in a seperate tank with phyto and a little air tube with pump set really low... I like to throw a little cheato in there too.. This helps keep the nutrients lower and gives the pods a place to rest/hide.

Yeah all my nutrients stay at 1 at less so replenishing is a must for me w/ my mandrin (who is a fat girl) and the corals eat them as well. Culturing allows me to feed my tank a 90% live food diet, and it's very hard to over feed a system this way. Though I don't like throwing anything in the pod culture and recommend if you do so make sure the cheato is free of hitch hikers that will eat them.

RogerWilco357 · Oct 9, 2013

shred5 said:
I agree culture the copepods... Copepods will not be in large enough volumn in your tank unless it is very big.. Most tank now adays do not support enough copepod population because we keep our tank much cleaner. Copepods require detritus and algae to grow populations to large size to support a blenny or mandrin and both algae and detritus are udesirable. Culture them in a seperate tank with phyto and a little air tube with pump set really low... I like to throw a little cheato in there too.. This helps keep the nutrients lower and gives the pods a place to rest/hide.

Can such a setup be plumbed into the main tank for constant feeding into the DT ? Or is the water you grow the copods in high in NO3 etc..?
Can you do this in the refugium? sorry for the hi-jack...

shred5 · Oct 9, 2013

RogerWilco357 said:
Can such a setup be plumbed into the main tank for constant feeding into the DT ? Or is the water you grow the copods in high in NO3 etc..?
Can you do this in the refugium? sorry for the hi-jack...

No ... The idea is to concentrate the food.. It can be done in a jar or small fish tank, it really dont take much.. If it was tied to the main tank the pyto would just get used up in the tank and removed by the skimmer in no time.
You can use live phyto like dt's or dead like reeds algae pastes.

I just use gallon jars, drill a small hole in the top and insert rigid air line tubing. I have also used 2.5 gallon aquariums. It really dont take much to raise them..

Hollback on reef2reef sells really good copepod starter kits so you may want to contact him about getting some...

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/selling-forum-livestock/121200-copepods-fs-$15.html

I also supplement with brine shrimp when I had mandarins.

I just dont think most fuges are be big enough, Mandarins eat a lot and we have got to the point where our tanks are so clean it really limits copepod population. The other issue with fuges is how many copepods actually leave a fuge especially when they provide places for them to hide.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/breeder
This is a pretty good article on culturing them.. Dwayne the guy who wrote that article is the guy who got me into culturing copepods long long time ago.. Kind of reminds me I have not talked to him in a while...