Harvesting copepods

[W1thr0w]

New to harvesting copepods. I have 4 cultures running. Tisbe and Tigriopus. I have 2 one gallon containers and 2 five gallon buckets. I have not harvested from the buckets but add a cup of water out of my tank about every other day. The 1 gallon containers I have been pouring about a cup to half the container (depending on the number of pods I can see) directly into the tank and refugium when I see more than a few in a square inch. I also add a cup of water to the gallon containers every few days or week.

My question is, how many copepods should I have in a container before harvesting and how do I tell or know when I have enough to harvest?

 

[gulfcoast76]

following!

 

[TWYOUNG]

New to harvesting copepods. I have 4 cultures running. Tisbe and Tigriopus. I have 2 one gallon containers and 2 five gallon buckets. I have not harvested from the buckets but add a cup of water out of my tank about every other day. The 1 gallon containers I have been pouring about a cup to half the container (depending on the number of pods I can see) directly into the tank and refugium when I see more than a few in a square inch. I also add a cup of water to the gallon containers every few days or week.

My question is, how many copepods should I have in a container before harvesting and how do I tell or know when I have enough to harvest?

Good question and based on the shipments of pods I've received most merchants don't have any standard either. I also have two one gal jars of tig pods, and two tisbe. Attached is a pic of my denser of the tig bottles. Tisbe pods are SO small this is pretty much guesswork.
I've been working under the impression all my culture equipment needs to be regularly sanitized and the media replaced. Therefore I sieve them monthly, do a 100% water change, then either double the initial volume or feed half and dilute to the original volume. Ideally if I could keep half of the original water it would save $ and effort. Can I use a five gallon jar with a spigot and weekly sieve out a gallon and add a gallon of fresh sw to make five gals. again? Do you think adding the culture media along with the pods could cause any issues in the display?

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

Only you can be the judge of when it's ready to harvest as each culture is different trust me you will know when it's ready. There's no set numbers as it's widely inaccurate to put a number on copepod counts .

 

[52728299]

I add pod culture directly from container to display tank. I use a large turkey baster and fill a big measuring cup with 500-600ml from each vessel. I suck up the bottom waste when I do this. Then I just replace it with fresh saltwater. This basically counts as a water change imo and haven't experienced any issues either in the dt or cultures. I do this once a week, usually I can tell the pods are ready to be harvested when the phyto lasts 24hrs or less before the water starts to go clear. I just add phytofeast every day or every other day.

Your vessels are much bigger so waiting for the water to clear may not be feasible. Usually once a week is a pretty common timespan to wait for a mature culture to be ready to be harvested imo. But a new culture you would probably want to wait a couple weeks. But yea there's lots of variables that go into their reproduction, just use your best judgment

 

[W1thr0w]

Good question and based on the shipments of pods I've received most merchants don't have any standard either. I also have two one gal jars of tig pods, and two tisbe. Attached is a pic of my denser of the tig bottles. Tisbe pods are SO small this is pretty much guesswork.
I've been working under the impression all my culture equipment needs to be regularly sanitized and the media replaced. Therefore I sieve them monthly, do a 100% water change, then either double the initial volume or feed half and dilute to the original volume. Ideally if I could keep half of the original water it would save $ and effort. Can I use a five gallon jar with a spigot and weekly sieve out a gallon and add a gallon of fresh sw to make five gals. again? Do you think adding the culture media along with the pods could cause any issues in the display?

I’m right there with you…. Adding water to substitute for a water change or adding an equal amount of water I take out when transferring to tank/sump…. And they are sooo small that I’ve been too scared to try and sieve them out worried I would lose at least half and whatever I did get, that I would collect the gunk/junk in the harvesting tank along with them…. I’m stumped on how to do a proper water change with how small they are.

 

[W1thr0w]

I add pod culture directly from container to display tank. I use a large turkey baster and fill a big measuring cup with 500-600ml from each vessel. I suck up the bottom waste when I do this. Then I just replace it with fresh saltwater. This basically counts as a water change imo and haven't experienced any issues either in the dt or cultures. I do this once a week, usually I can tell the pods are ready to be harvested when the phyto lasts 24hrs or less before the water starts to go clear. I just add phytofeast every day or every other day.

Your vessels are much bigger so waiting for the water to clear may not be feasible. Usually once a week is a pretty common timespan to wait for a mature culture to be ready to be harvested imo. But a new culture you would probably want to wait a couple weeks. But yea there's lots of variables that go into their reproduction, just use your best judgment

Only you can be the judge of when it's ready to harvest as each culture is different trust me you will know when it's ready. There's no set numbers as it's widely inaccurate to put a number on copepod counts .

I’m just so new to it and having one pod doing great and the other so hard to see I have been worried I was doing something wrong or just plain ignorance on my part on knowing what to look for… they both seemed to be about equal in quantity at first but then tisbe had me going cross eyed and double visioned trying to spot just one…. But I can see them again now with less trouble. I guess I had a mishap and drop in numbers….. but when I say I have no idea in density when its time to harvest/split ect…. I mean it’s like asking how much sugar does one put in their tea. Are we talking lightly sweetened, sweet, or SWEET? ‍

 

[52728299]

Here's my fat mandarin. I don't do anything too heavy maintenance and this guy gets plenty of food

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

I’m just so new to it and having one pod doing great and the other so hard to see I have been worried I was doing something wrong or just plain ignorance on my part on knowing what to look for… they both seemed to be about equal in quantity at first but then tisbe had me going cross eyed and double visioned trying to spot just one…. But I can see them again now with less trouble. I guess I had a mishap and drop in numbers….. but when I say I have no idea in density when its time to harvest/split ect…. I mean it’s like asking how much sugar does one put in their tea. Are we talking lightly sweetened, sweet, or SWEET? ‍

Sweet lol you should see a dramatic difference in culture density if you don't then it's a culture issue

 

[PotatoPig]

If you have them in containers with an opening big enough to fit a nylon cottage cheese strainer through then get yourself one with mesh sized to net the adults but leave the juveniles.

Every couple days gently sweep the strainer through (without kicking up the detritus) and you’ll net about a third of the full grown ones and none of the growing ones. Two days later a bunch of the growing ones will be full size and a bunch of the full size ones will have reproduced, so you harvest again. Repeat.

 

[W1thr0w]

Here's my fat mandarin. I don't do anything too heavy maintenance and this guy gets plenty of food

 

[W1thr0w]

Mine… I can see the tisbe on the glass at times and around…. I put my beautiful guy in my refu to start out for safe keeping and ensure he got enough to eat. I’m planning on moving him to the main display in the next because I have several dozen of copepods I can see on the glass so they seem to be well established in both sump and display.

 

[W1thr0w]

I add pod culture directly from container to display tank. I use a large turkey baster and fill a big measuring cup with 500-600ml from each vessel. I suck up the bottom waste when I do this. Then I just replace it with fresh saltwater. This basically counts as a water change imo and haven't experienced any issues either in the dt or cultures. I do this once a week, usually I can tell the pods are ready to be harvested when the phyto lasts 24hrs or less before the water starts to go clear. I just add phytofeast every day or every other day.

Your vessels are much bigger so waiting for the water to clear may not be feasible. Usually once a week is a pretty common timespan to wait for a mature culture to be ready to be harvested imo. But a new culture you would probably want to wait a couple weeks. But yea there's lots of variables that go into their reproduction, just use your best judgment

Is the debris normal? I have that and got under the impression that my culture was not pure/good/poor quality

 

[52728299]

A bit of debris is normal, they are quite hardy Lil guys. Growing phytoplankton is more difficult imo, my cultures crashed twice so just switched to phytofeast

 

[TWYOUNG]

If you have them in containers with an opening big enough to fit a nylon cottage cheese strainer through then get yourself one with mesh sized to net the adults but leave the juveniles.

Every couple days gently sweep the strainer through (without kicking up the detritus) and you’ll net about a third of the full grown ones and none of the growing ones. Two days later a bunch of the growing ones will be full size and a bunch of the full size ones will have reproduced, so you harvest again. Repeat.

Interesting idea. The only concern I would have is you're not accomplishing any water change with this method. How do you prevent ammonia toxicity?

 

[PotatoPig]

Interesting idea. The only concern I would have is you're not accomplishing any water change with this method. How do you prevent ammonia toxicity?

Pods have surprising resilience against suspect water quality. Below is an ammonia test I ran on a thriving pod culture. I’ve since taken to putting a small chunk of rock in there to help process it a little, but they’re definitely not as sensitive to the stuff as the fish are.

I have a few cultures going at any given time, and a couple of “standby starters” consisting of a quart jar with tank water and a spritz of spirulina in it, no airline, that then populate themselves with pods from a modest seeding. Every so often I’ll drain a culture (2 gallon jar) through a strainer, dump the pods in the tank and then reboot from a starter.

 

[a007grif]

A couple things that I was taught by the guys over at Florida Reef Labs.

-Do not ever use tank water in your pod setups. Too many potential bacteria or other micro life that could harm your cultures long term.
-add phyto daily and keep the water light gree
-try not to allow too much evaporation as then salinity spikes and eventually kills your cultures
-dont over aerate as they will be in a tumble all the time, very slow bubbles.
-allow the mulm to build up, they love it.
-tiggers should get water change (seeve them out to catch) about every 60-90 days, and only put back 10% of the old water, other species seem to not need as much maintenance.

Hope that helps!!!

 

[floridareeflabs]

A couple things that I was taught by the guys over at Florida Reef Labs.

-Do not ever use tank water in your pod setups. Too many potential bacteria or other micro life that could harm your cultures long term.
-add phyto daily and keep the water light gree
-try not to allow too much evaporation as then salinity spikes and eventually kills your cultures
-dont over aerate as they will be in a tumble all the time, very slow bubbles.
-allow the mulm to build up, they love it.
-tiggers should get water change (seeve them out to catch) about every 60-90 days, and only put back 10% of the old water, other species seem to not need as much maintenance.

Hope that helps!!!

Happy to Help and glad our knowledge is being shared!!!

 

[W1thr0w]

Update on my culture method…. Started sieving and adding fresh salt water instead of dividing and adding tank water. Never thought to check salinity and tisbe pods (I believe… I stopped labeling my cultures assuming they were cross contaminate after running about the fact I was adding tank water to the culture that I was putting 2 types of pods into ‍), but the salinity was much higher. I’ve switched to 10 gallon tanks, 1 gallon water jugs & clear 3 gallon beverage dispenser. One pod culture is much denser than the other by far, approx 10x at least thicker, probably need to divide it into 1/4’s and figure out what to do with them. 3 gallon dispenser is overcrowded possibly and 2x 1 gallon jugs close behind. The other type is populating so slow their culture is almost just there to take up space. I stopped using any type of air tubing/bubbling and they all seem to be doing the same, one type better now. Using the air pumps for more flow in the phyto instead. Have been using a brine shrimp net but have the different micron sieves coming in soon. Started new cultures as well since I possibly mixed up the 2 I had. Got brave and added apocyclops to the culture. Wondering if I have enough rooms in my house to separate my cultures so I don’t mix them up. Definitely won’t be adding water to my cultures from my display tanks anymore.

Any suggestions to adjust what I have going on would be great. Is there a certain type of phytoplankton that a certain type of copepod does better with? I’ve read some things about keeping them in the dark but one culture that is going crazy gets the same light as the room it’s in. Other things I’ve read mentioned warmer water.