First Try at Culturing Copepods

[Zephrant]

For harvesting, you have two options. Harvest when you need them, or wait until you look in the culture and think “Wow, that’s a lot of pods!”. Harvesting too early just means it will take longer for them to recover.

Tisbe breed fast and furious, doesn’t take long to get to a full culture. Tiggers are much slower, and max out at a much lower density.

 

[drevalenz]

What did you use for lighting? How long

 

[D. Torres]

What did you use for lighting? How long

I'm using the tank and light from this kit:

Aqua Culture Aquarium Starter Kit with LED, 5-Gallon
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Aqua-Culture-Aquarium-Starter-Kit-with-LED-5-Gallon/20693704

I leave it on 24/7 and I do not use a heater just an air pump and my culture has been doing well so far. After about the 2.5 week mark is when I noticed the culture getting bigger, almost daily it seems. I have not harvested any yet because I didn't want to thin out my culture and slow down the growing but I might harvest some tomorrow since the culture is looking healthy.

 

[drevalenz]

Nice mine was doing really well and the water got really bad so I changed it, and since then I have seen nothing, guess I need to start over

 

[D. Torres]

Nice mine was doing really well and the water got really bad so I changed it, and since then I have seen nothing, guess I need to start over

I've only had my set up for about 3 weeks. What was the time frame on your water change? How did you do your water change? I started my 5 gallon tank about 1/3 way full and have been adding water to it to lower any ammonia levels instead of doing a water change and cleaning the tank. I know it's inevitable so just wondering what you did and what you think might have gone wrong.

 

[D. Torres]

Here is a video I just took about 10 minutes ago

 

[drevalenz]

Wow looks good. I syringed out anything moving, down to the debris in the water. Then added that to a new tank and added a bit more salt water. Should have just left the dirty water, but my air stone was creating foaming bubbles on top surface. That’s the main reason I changed it

 

[D. Torres]

@drevalenz I've followed almost everything in the article except for the salinity which I've had at 1.024 and I've used Phyto Feast for feeding. Give it a read has a lot off good info.

https://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/about-us/articles/raising-live-rotifers-copepods

I also purchased these for harvest time, which might be tomorrow

https://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/sieve-combo-set

 

[drevalenz]

Cool thanks. I’ll look into it