How many copepods for culture

[Nemo1]

I’ve got a 4 litre container and 600ml of Copepods, I’ve added 400ml of the copepods and it seems way too crowded to add anymore?
wanting them to Harvest every few weeks to put in a 60 gallon
Will they still breed if there’s so many already in the container?

 

[lapin]

Maybe start a back up culture in a different container, if you think they are over crowded.

 

[Nemo1]

It’s my first time attempting to culture pods and I don’t really know if there’s such thing as it being too overcrowded, is there a limit?
i have researched about it but haven’t found anywhere about how much you should put in the container

 

[lapin]

Im not sure how you received 600ml of pods as a starter culture. Normally pods are packed in 16 oz jars of water or bags. They can be more concentrated in the jars. You usually get 6000 per jar/bag. I find thats perfect for starting a culturing in a 5 gal bucket with 1 or 2 gallons of water.
I would dump them all in. Feed some to your tank. The more pods in a container will cause you to remove more waste sooner.

 

[Nemo1]

My LFS sells them in these bags, I’m not sure how much water is in them I think 100ml, they had a deal if you bought 6 so that’s what I bought

 

[Nemo1]

Size reference

 

[Nemo1]

Been set up a day now, is this normal? Looks like red fuzzy stuff

 

[Nemo1]

Anyone?

 

[Nemo1]

It’s been 10 days since I started this culture and after adding phyto when the water went clear, there seems to be no more than when I started? Surely they would’ve reproduced by now?