Lets talk culturing copepods

[Jesmann]

I have some tisbe and apex pods id like to culture in a 5 gallon tank .

A few question i have are

Do they need light or is a blacked out dark tank better to culture in?

What salinity is best to culture them at?

Do they need heat or will 68 deg ambient temp work fine?

How often should i add phyto and how much should i add to 4 gallons of water?

How often should i water change and how often can i harvest these?

 

[Peach02]

Following

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Also following. I dont have any answers, but I would think you should mimic the conditions in a reef tank since they seem to thrive in one.

 

[Larry L]

@Reef Nutrition has a link on their web site to some really good instructions for culturing Apocyclops: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9249q0g7yuedmnt/product_apocyclops_panamensis_2017.pdf?raw=1

 

[reef lover]

Heres a good link...and i like to have 2 going just in case one crashes.

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geKLpgabddFLMAKRxx.9w4;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1572329952/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.themandaringarden.com%2fhow-to-culture-copepods.html/RK=2/RS=ObRoJalXS9xoVKQr.R0eYhYOetc-

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

I was looking into it as well. Following and will add what I’ve found in a few just got home from work.

 

[Jesmann]

Thank you!

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

I completely forgot hahah sorry!

Good morning! I have been researching the idea of culturing pods for 2 reasons

1)I’m dealing with algae problems and I need to add biodiversity.
2)My dream is to have a mandarin dragonet.

So one of the first conclusions I made is you need to culture your own phytoplankton if you want to culture pod because you will need a healthy supply of it. The rule of thump is fill a container half way with saltwater, add pods, add phyto to make all that water lime color. When the water turns clear again then your pods ate all the phyto and are likely to be harvested.

I should be starting my cultures next month.

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

Pode can live in Temp. From 60° to 89° but the recommended temperature for culturing is 73-77°. Light wise is important to have a schedule 16hrs of light + 8hrs of total darkness

 

[Larry L]

So one of the first conclusions I made is you need to culture your own phytoplankton if you want to culture pod because you will need a healthy supply of it.

Not necessarily, it depends on the type of copepod. E.g. you can culture Apocyclops on preserved products like Phytofeast, RG Complete, RotiGrow Plus, etc.

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

Not necessarily, it depends on the type of copepod. E.g. you can culture Apocyclops on preserved products like Phytofeast, RG Complete, RotiGrow Plus, etc.

You can culture most pods on store bought plankton but the reason I came to the conclusion that you should culture your own phyto is the cost of buying plankton on a regular basis to keep a healthy pod population.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I have some tisbe and apex pods id like to culture in a 5 gallon tank .

A few question i have are

Do they need light or is a blacked out dark tank better to culture in?

What salinity is best to culture them at?

Do they need heat or will 68 deg ambient temp work fine?

How often should i add phyto and how much should i add to 4 gallons of water?

How often should i water change and how often can i harvest these?

I can only speak for Apocyclops panamensis (aka, Apex-Pods).

• Ambient light is fine. I culture mine in 60L black, round tubs. Do not grow them in complete darkness.
• This species is euryhaline (tolerates a wide range of salinities from 40ppt to 15ppt), so whatever your salt is mixed at will work just fine.
• A heater is ideal if you want to speed up reproduction. I keep my cultures at 74F, but they will do fine at higher temps.
• You should always feed a culture small amounts of algae at least twice a day. Apex-Pods don't require live algae, so using a blend like our Phyto-Feast is totally acceptable. You want to add enough algae to keep the culture tinted green. This species can tolerate dirty water, but it's best to inoculate with bacteria, like Brightwell Aquatic's - Microbacter7. This is what I use to get beneficial bacteria into my cultures. Basically cycling them quickly like hobbyists do with new tanks.
• You can run a culture for 40 days without a water change, but you do need to top off for freshwater evaporation.
• Harvesting them can be done with a gravity siphon into a sieve (41 microns is a good size to catch all stages of development). You can use a 100 micron screen to separate adults and juveniles from all naupliar stages. I harvest the nauplii with a passive harvester that I built. Got the idea here: University of Florida IFAS Extension - Using Airlifts to Collect and Concentrate Copepod Nauplii1 Eric Cassiano, Matthew DiMaggio, Cortney Ohs, and John Marcellus2 http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa188
  

Hope this information helps.

Best,
Chad

 

[hollback]

I have had the same culture of copepods breeding since 2004! My cultures are set up like this:

The Breeder’s Net: A Simple How-to On Home Culture Of Copepods

In my opinion, copepod cultivation may make an important contribution in home aquaculture, when fish fry are too diminutive to eat rotifers as a first food.

www.advancedaquarist.com

 

[Jesmann]

thank you so much i have all the info i need...i think lol. im going to give this a try, buying pods has been expensive.

 

[Daniel266jz]

I know this is old but can you culture tigger pods and other pods in the same container???

 

[reef lover]

Different copepods yes but dont mix with amphipods they will eat them.

 

[canadianeh]

I can only speak for Apocyclops panamensis (aka, Apex-Pods).

• Ambient light is fine. I culture mine in 60L black, round tubs. Do not grow them in complete darkness.
• This species is euryhaline (tolerates a wide range of salinities from 40ppt to 15ppt), so whatever your salt is mixed at will work just fine.
• A heater is ideal if you want to speed up reproduction. I keep my cultures at 74F, but they will do fine at higher temps.
• You should always feed a culture small amounts of algae at least twice a day. Apex-Pods don't require live algae, so using a blend like our Phyto-Feast is totally acceptable. You want to add enough algae to keep the culture tinted green. This species can tolerate dirty water, but it's best to inoculate with bacteria, like Brightwell Aquatic's - Microbacter7. This is what I use to get beneficial bacteria into my cultures. Basically cycling them quickly like hobbyists do with new tanks.
• You can run a culture for 40 days without a water change, but you do need to top off for freshwater evaporation.
• Harvesting them can be done with a gravity siphon into a sieve (41 microns is a good size to catch all stages of development). You can use a 100 micron screen to separate adults and juveniles from all naupliar stages. I harvest the nauplii with a passive harvester that I built. Got the idea here: University of Florida IFAS Extension - Using Airlifts to Collect and Concentrate Copepod Nauplii1 Eric Cassiano, Matthew DiMaggio, Cortney Ohs, and John Marcellus2 http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa188

Hope this information helps.

Best,
Chad

so in this case, can I use water from main tank from water change?

 

[canadianeh]

I have had the same culture of copepods breeding since 2004! My cultures are set up like this:

The Breeder’s Net: A Simple How-to On Home Culture Of Copepods

In my opinion, copepod cultivation may make an important contribution in home aquaculture, when fish fry are too diminutive to eat rotifers as a first food.

www.advancedaquarist.com

the link is no longer works

 

[Larry L]

can I use water from main tank from water change?

It's not ideal because you could contaminate your culture with other types of organisms from your tank, some of which might out-compete the Apocyclops for food (or even prey on them).

 

[Reef Nutrition]

so in this case, can I use water from main tank from water change?

We don't recommend using tank water as it may introduce contaminating organisms which can make it very difficult to culture the copepods reliably.