Increasing surface area for Apocyclops production?

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! Here's another copepod question (and this time one that I tried to look up on google scholar first! ). Apocyclops panamensis adults are benthic while the nauplii are pelagic - a lot like Tisbe pods. With Tisbe pods, production goes up, not with volume, but with surface area - both from long and wide tanks and from being kept on something other than a flat tank bottom (one study I heard of used small plastic balls...sand is apparently too small to do the job and makes harvesting and maintenance more difficult). The end result is that a 24 by 16 inch Tisbe culture with only 3 liters (a little over 3 quarts) of water was able to produce 300-500,000 nauplii each day with 100% water changes and daily harvesting, and sustained that rate for 2 months straight. Of course, Tisbe is a harpacticoid while Apocyclops is a cyclopoid, but since Apocyclops is also benthic as adults could a similar increase in production be achieved by increasing surface area in their culture - perhaps by using a long, wide culture and/or by incorporating structures such as lava rock, chaetomorpha, or spawning mops to increase the surface area in which the adults reside? Thanks

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Hi everyone! Here's another copepod question (and this time one that I tried to look up on google scholar first! ). Apocyclops panamensis adults are benthic while the nauplii are pelagic - a lot like Tisbe pods. With Tisbe pods, production goes up, not with volume, but with surface area - both from long and wide tanks and from being kept on something other than a flat tank bottom (one study I heard of used small plastic balls...sand is apparently too small to do the job and makes harvesting and maintenance more difficult). The end result is that a 24 by 16 inch Tisbe culture with only 3 liters (a little over 3 quarts) of water was able to produce 300-500,000 nauplii each day with 100% water changes and daily harvesting, and sustained that rate for 2 months straight. Of course, Tisbe is a harpacticoid while Apocyclops is a cyclopoid, but since Apocyclops is also benthic as adults could a similar increase in production be achieved by increasing surface area in their culture - perhaps by using a long, wide culture and/or by incorporating structures such as lava rock, chaetomorpha, or spawning mops to increase the surface area in which the adults reside? Thanks

Have you tried lots of cheap frag plugs? ~Shaun K.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Looks like you still have some things to learn about sifting through scientific papers .

Mass culture and offspring production of marine harpacticoid copepod Tisbe biminiensis , contains a table referencing Apocyclops panamensis production, which used this paper on Red Snapper larvae + copepod production . I'll assume you did your due diligence (yay!) so here's the TL;DR: 40L bags stocked with 5120 individuals/Liter, produced at maximum 4453 nauplii/Liter . Said bags only had Isochrysis and the copepods in them.

I can't find any super relevant papers on cannibalism though...but just in case @Reef Nutrition ?

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Have you tried lots of cheap frag plugs? ~Shaun K.

Hadn't thought of that...would probably depend on the frag plug, though. Porous frag plugs or ones that otherwise have a very rough surface would probably work best. Spawning mops would be very cheap to produce in adequate quantities, and chaeto would have the advantage of helping to keep water quality under control.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Looks like you still have some things to learn about sifting through scientific papers .

Mass culture and offspring production of marine harpacticoid copepod Tisbe biminiensis , contains a table referencing Apocyclops panamensis production, which used this paper on Red Snapper larvae + copepod production . I'll assume you did your due diligence (yay!) so here's the TL;DR: 40L bags stocked with 5120 individuals/Liter, produced at maximum 4453 nauplii/Liter . Said bags only had Isochrysis and the copepods in them.

I can't find any super relevant papers on cannibalism though...but just in case @Reef Nutrition ?

I did see that article referenced while reading the aforementioned article on the Tisbe, but did not read it further. I did not find anything directly discussing surface area and Apocyclops, alas.

 

[ichthyogeek]

As for surface area, if you can't find the data, make it! It would probably be best to work with inert glass beads or so, since they only function to increase surface area and don't rot (spawning mops), or overly influence water quality (Frag plugs release calcium, Chaeto takes up nutrients) for a side by side experiment.

 

[MabuyaQ]

Cut up some PVC pipe into (half)rings if you need surface area. Cheap, easy to clean and reefsafe.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

As for surface area, if you can't find the data, make it! It would probably be best to work with inert glass beads or so, since they only function to increase surface area and don't rot (spawning mops), or overly influence water quality (Frag plugs release calcium, Chaeto takes up nutrients) for a side by side experiment.

Good idea. I use acryllic yarn, which shouldn't rot.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Hi everyone! Here's another copepod question (and this time one that I tried to look up on google scholar first! ). Apocyclops panamensis adults are benthic while the nauplii are pelagic - a lot like Tisbe pods. With Tisbe pods, production goes up, not with volume, but with surface area - both from long and wide tanks and from being kept on something other than a flat tank bottom (one study I heard of used small plastic balls...sand is apparently too small to do the job and makes harvesting and maintenance more difficult). The end result is that a 24 by 16 inch Tisbe culture with only 3 liters (a little over 3 quarts) of water was able to produce 300-500,000 nauplii each day with 100% water changes and daily harvesting, and sustained that rate for 2 months straight. Of course, Tisbe is a harpacticoid while Apocyclops is a cyclopoid, but since Apocyclops is also benthic as adults could a similar increase in production be achieved by increasing surface area in their culture - perhaps by using a long, wide culture and/or by incorporating structures such as lava rock, chaetomorpha, or spawning mops to increase the surface area in which the adults reside? Thanks

I don't add any substrate or habitat to my A. panamensis cultures.

Surface area of the culture water surface is more important to Tigriopus than it is to Apocyclops. I aerate much more on my Apocyclops than Tigriopus. Aeration is important to not only oxygenate, but to keep the nauplii suspended in the water column along with the algae. Tigriopus don't like aeration or much current, so we put them in tanks that have more surface area to facilitate more oxygen diffusion.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Looks like you still have some things to learn about sifting through scientific papers .

Mass culture and offspring production of marine harpacticoid copepod Tisbe biminiensis , contains a table referencing Apocyclops panamensis production, which used this paper on Red Snapper larvae + copepod production . I'll assume you did your due diligence (yay!) so here's the TL;DR: 40L bags stocked with 5120 individuals/Liter, produced at maximum 4453 nauplii/Liter . Said bags only had Isochrysis and the copepods in them.

I can't find any super relevant papers on cannibalism though...but just in case @Reef Nutrition ?

I don't have any cannibalism papers on these specific species, but there are plenty to choose from for many other species of copepod. The majority of copepods are cannibalistic, if that helps.