Massive Copepod Population Explossion

Liquid360 · Feb 22, 2016

Just wanted to share here since my family/friends remain unimpressed and a bit confused about my excitement. Awoke this morning and thought something was wrong till a closer inspection revealed what was going on. I've never seen a population boom like this.

ReeferReefer · Feb 22, 2016

Can you tell us about the experiment? How did you get so many?

jakub · Feb 22, 2016

That's good ground to do a mandarin harem tank![emoji38]

Liquid360 · Feb 22, 2016

I purchased cultures of various pod strains along with "reef soup", a product of aquaculturenurseryfarms.com. Mine is around a 130g system and I used a gallon of the soup along with a couple quarts of pods over the course of a month. I was a bit concerned as they seemed to vanish without a sign as quick as I added them. I'm aware that most are too small to see, but usually some attach to the glass. I was seriously concerned it was all for not until this morning. I only have one Mandarin and one Ruby Red Dragonet, but I'm a big believer in live food for coral and fish so I really wanted a strong population, but this is far more than I expected! Couldn't be happier!

Liquid360 · Feb 22, 2016

Oh and I use these products for food on a daily basis, once at morning and once at night...

Xtc_link · Feb 22, 2016

Awesome!

What strains of pods did you go with?

Liquid360 · Feb 22, 2016

I used Tigriopus and Tisbe, but I believe a few others are included in the reef soup. I'll likely stop adding now, but will refresh every few months or so. I've also added cultures of rottifers and isopods, but haven't seen much of them yet.

Xtc_link · Feb 23, 2016

I seeded my tank with the same two. Now 2 years later they are still all over the glass. I throw out hundreds everytime I clean my Fuge

Xtc_link · Feb 23, 2016

I feed them phytofeast. I'm going to pick up some oyster feast and give it a try

Wh00pS32 · Feb 24, 2016

I've had this happen a few times in my tank, probably because i add a small bag of pods (90ml) daily for my mandarin. Every couple of months i seem to get a pod explosion like the OP but within a day or 2 the mandarin brings them back under control.

RMS18 · Feb 24, 2016

Very jealous.. I have spent so much money on pods and I can not get them to populate. And I don't have fish that eat them, and I put them in my fuge.

Boom · Feb 24, 2016

Awesome and inspiring! Liquid360, what does your filtration system consist of?

Liquid360 · Feb 24, 2016

Thanks! Nothing special really. A sump with live rock and a skimmer. When adding the pods I shut down the current and the skimmer. To have a self sustaining food supply was important to me so I spent a lot. Over the course of a couple weeks I added LOTS of pods and was careful to keep them well fed. It took two weeks after I stopped adding for this pod bloom to occur. I think lots of us add pods and think that's the end of it. They'll consume whatever food is around, but won't thrive and reproduce en mass without a steady diet of phyto. At least this has been my experience. From here on out I'll continue to feed phyto a few times a week at night and add pods every three months. I'm hoping this will be enough to keep a very healthy population fat n happy.