Tigger & Tisbe Pods

[40B Knasty]

I have been noticing more and more people talking about pods. Whether it be for a certain fish or just a CUC (clean up crew). I HIGHLY recommend getting the Tisbe pods in your tank after it is cycled. They can live in a home aquarium best from what I read or heard by word of mouth along the way of starting my colonies. Here is a 4 minute video to help you be successful and maybe answer any questions that you had about doing a colony. Maybe you can help answer my question in the video about the algae or phytoplankton growth in the tisbe pod tank. Hope you enjoy. There is also another video on my channel that is from 2 weeks prior to this update.

 

[40B Knasty]

Last night I was getting some tigger pods ready for the DT. I came to notice the tigger pods in the net were green. When they are in the bottle at the LFS they are orange. So I am guessing they are being gut loaded with the spirulina powder that I have been using. Which is great to see, because I heard of maybe 1 or 2 people using the spirulina powder. So it has been always a question sitting in the back of mind "Is this stuff really working?" The spirulina powder is the only thing since day one for the past 5 weeks that has been put in the 5g tank besides a chunk of LR, ball of cheato, bottle of Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods, and water.

 

[iwishihadgills]

Thanks for the video! I too shall be culturing pods soon too! Hopefully I can keep my phyto cultures strong enough for them!

 

[40B Knasty]

Thanks for the video! I too shall be culturing pods soon too! Hopefully I can keep my phyto cultures strong enough for them!

I do not use phytoplankton. I use spirulina powder. So they are gut loaded with a high nutritional value. Feed them everyday a small pinch in some new saltwater of 1.025 to match the sanity of their tank. Whip it with a plastic fork and pour it in all over. Then tank has seen nothing, but the spirulina powder.

 

[iwishihadgills]

Are they reproducing steadily on a diet of spirulina only?

 

[40B Knasty]

Are they reproducing steadily on a diet of spirulina only?

Yes, I just talked to the guy chad from Reef Nutrition. He says there is about 2k in a bottle. I have about 40k-60k easy in 5 weeks.
I was collecting them in the net the other day wondering does this stuff really work or am I just coloring up the water. Tisbe pods are orange. Mine are orange heads with green bodies. I do believe they are only as good as their last meal. I need to figure out when I need to gut load them before putting them in the DT. Probably 2 hrs after I feed them. Then 30 minutes in a bottle to float in the DT to bring them up to room temp so they do not go into temperature shock, because they will. Thinking this might be the optimal way to do it.
I will do a quick video when my tablet is charged more and tag you

 

[DSC reef]

Awesome video, thanks for sharing. Looks like I'm grabbing spirulina powder this weekend.

 

[40B Knasty]

@iwishihadgills

 

[Reef Nutrition]

@iwishihadgills

Is there any way you can change your video title? It says "Reef Nutrition Tisbe Pods" We don't culture that animal. Ours are Tigriopus californicus (Tigger-Pods). Nice chatting with you today. BTW, I feed my Tigger-Pods a blend of phytoplankton and they do great. Spirulina powder is perfectly fine and you probably have some good bacteria in there for them. They look good either way!

Just a note about your video. The green coloration you are seeing on them is actually the egg mass on the female. That was a female on your finger with a nice red cephalosome and a green egg mass attached to the genital segment on the urosome. They can carry up to 30 embryos at a time! I have been working with them for 9 years now and it's so cool to see others working with them.

Here is a picture of a gravid female: she is red from the carotenoids that she gets from the phytoplankton. The carotenoids are passed from the female to her progeny. Pretty cool. If the eggs are green in color, it just means that they are getting green pigments from the algae.

Cheers,
Chad

 

[40B Knasty]

Is there any way you can change your video title? It says "Reef Nutrition Tisbe Pods" We don't culture that animal. Ours are Tigriopus californicus (Tigger-Pods). Nice chatting with you today. BTW, I feed my Tigger-Pods a blend of phytoplankton and they do great. Spirulina powder is perfectly fine and you probably have some good bacteria in there for them. They look good either way!

Just a note about your video. The green coloration you are seeing on them is actually the egg mass on the female. That was a female on your finger with a nice red cephalosome and red egg mass attached to the genital segment on the urosome They can carry up to 30 embryos at a time! I have been working with them for 9 years now and it's so cool to see others working with them.

Here is a picture of a gravid female: She is red from the carotenoids that she gets from the phytoplankton. The carotenoids are passed from the female to her progeny. Pretty cool. If the eggs are green in color, it just means that they are getting green pigments from the algae.

Cheers,
Chad

Good looking out. I do have Tisbe Pods in the other tank. From Algagen. I will say I like the Tigger pods better for now. The tank maintenance by far being the most important part. Chad, what kind of netting/method do you use to collect them? I feel like mine could be better, but I am just working with what I had kicking around the house.
So if the pigmentation is turning green. That means they are eating it. You heard it hear first folks. Straight from the horse's mouth.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Good looking out. I do have Tisbe Pods in the other tank. From Algagen. I will say I like the Tigger pods better for now. The tank maintenance by far being the most important part. Chad, what kind of netting/method do you use to collect them? I feel like mine could be better, but I am just working with what I had kicking around the house.
So if the pigmentation is turning green. That means they are eating it. You heard it hear first folks. Straight from the horse's mouth.

I run my cultures via the batch method. After 60 - 80 days, we harvest the entire tank. We set up a gravity siphon that runs through a 300 micron painters screen that fits in a 5 gallon bucket and then that bucket drains into another with a 100 micron screen. The 300 captures all the adults and some copepodites while the 100 catches all the nauplii and some early stage copepodites. The screens are E-Z Strainers and we buy them here: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=24071&catid=685. Since they don't make a 300, I had to buy a 100 micron sieve, remove the screen and then glued on the 300 micron.

Our Tigger-Pod tanks are 200 gallons, so we usually harvest roughly 2 - 3 million copepods per tank. I always harvest 3 tanks a week so you can imagine the biomass that I'm generating. It's all highly productive and large-scale, so some of it might not be applicable.

Here is me holding one of the sieves with roughly 700 grams of Tigger-Pods:

Chad

 

[40B Knasty]

I run my cultures via the batch method. After 60 - 80 days, we harvest the entire tank. We set up a gravity siphon that runs through a 300 micron painters screen that fits in a 5 gallon bucket and then that bucket drains into another with a 100 micron screen. The 300 captures all the adults and some copepodites while the 100 catches all the nauplii and some early stage copepodites. The screens are E-Z Strainers and we buy them here: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=24071&catid=685. Since they don't make a 300, I had to buy a 100 micron sieve, remove the screen and then glued on the 300 micron.

Our Tigger-Pod tanks are 200 gallons, so we usually harvest roughly 2 - 3 million copepods per tank. I always harvest 3 tanks a week so you can imagine the biomass that I'm generating. It's all highly productive and large-scale, so some of it might not be applicable.

Here is me holding one of the sieves with roughly 700 grams of Tigger.

Chad

Would you say in my small scale level I am doing everything right? Trust me I would rather hear the truth and put it out there that way. I am not looking to go into business. Unless you want to expand in the New England area. I do have a cousin who is a business investor

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Would you say in my small scale level I am doing everything right? Trust me I would rather hear the truth and put it out there that way. I am not looking to go into business. Unless you want to expand in the New England area. I do have a cousin who is a business investor

Don't tempt me to expand! Our east coast customers would rejoice over the cheaper shipping!

So, I'm willing to bet that the Tisbe sp. culture has Nannochloropsis sp. or some other green algae in it, because AlgaGen does indeed send their Tisbe sp. copepods with microalgae (it says it on the bottle).

The Tigger-Pod culture is looking great. If you have a microscope, you could pull a sample of the mulm and check out the nauplii. They are really cool under a scope. Since the cultures are right next to each other, the chance of one contaminating the other is high, so keep that in mind. Also, don't allow the Tigger-Pod culture to exceed 60 days. At or before 60 days, harvest the entire tank, retaining some of the mulm and a 1/2 gallon of tank water. Refill the tank with new saltwater, add the 1/2 gallon of old culture water and the mulm. The old culture water will have beneficial bacteria and the mulm will have that as well as the nauplii, which you don't want to lose. Toss all the animals back in and you are all set for another 60 days.

Here is a picture of a gravid female (left) and a nauplius (right). Credit: http://burtonlab.weebly.com/research.html

And here is what they look like when they are in the mating configuration. Note the male is on top and has hooked antennae (see image below)
Photo courtesy of http://burtonlab.weebly.com/research.html

Male Tigriopus californicus with hooked antennae:
My image

 

[iwishihadgills]

Don't tempt me to expand! Our east coast customers would rejoice over the cheaper shipping!

So, I'm willing to bet that the Tisbe sp. culture has Nannochloropsis sp. or some other green algae in it, because AlgaGen does indeed send their Tisbe sp. copepods with microalgae (it says it on the bottle).

The Tigger-Pod culture is looking great. If you have a microscope, you could pull a sample of the mulm and check out the nauplii. They are really cool under a scope. Since the cultures are right next to each other, the chance of one contaminating the other is high, so keep that in mind. Also, don't allow the Tigger-Pod culture to exceed 60 days. At or before 60 days, harvest the entire tank, retaining some of the mulm and a 1/2 gallon of tank water. Refill the tank with new saltwater, add the 1/2 gallon of old culture water and the mulm. The old culture water will have beneficial bacteria and the mulm will have that as well as the nauplii, which you don't want to lose. Toss all the animals back in and you are all set for another 60 days.

Here is a picture of a gravid female (left) and a nauplius (right). Credit: http://burtonlab.weebly.com/research.html

And here is what they look like when they are in the mating configuration. Note the male is on top and has hooked antennae (see image below)
Photo courtesy of http://burtonlab.weebly.com/research.html

Male Tigriopus californicus with hooked antennae:
My image

Do you feed them diatoms? In th batch method do you only put the nauplius in the new batch and sell the adults?

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Do you feed them diatoms? In th batch method do you only put the nauplius in the new batch and sell the adults?

They get Thalassiosira pseudonana and Thalassiosira weissflogii as well as other species of marine microalgae all grown at our farm.

We typically put all nauplii harvest into the new culture and add about 30g of adults as well. We bottle or freeze the rest. You can set up a new culture with nauplii and be just fine; it just takes them longer to start reproducing. With adding adults, reproduction doesn't stall.

Chad

 

[iwishihadgills]

Ever try using chaetoceros gracilis? There’s a lot of articles that say certain compounds in some diatoms act as a contraceptive to copepods while others discredit this. What is your opinion on this topic?
Thanks

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Ever try using chaetoceros gracilis? There’s a lot of articles that say certain compounds in some diatoms act as a contraceptive to copepods while others discredit this. What is your opinion on this topic?
Thanks

I wholeheartedly discredit that as well. Diatoms are actually an important part of their diet and I not only feed them to my Tigriopus but also my Apocyclops and Parvocalanus. With that being said, I have never tried other diatom species. I would need to see a peer reviewed paper on this before I believe any rumors.

Chad

 

[iwishihadgills]

I read through a few peer reviewed papers on both sides. I haven’t cultured a single copepod yet but it seems to be that the lower reproduction rates people were seeing was due to other reasons . Probably gonna through a buffet at my pods of Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis galbana, and the chaetoceros. I plan on using a 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub to culture them. Biggest hurdle I foresee is keeping my phyto cultures strong and uncontaminated.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I read through a few peer reviewed papers on both sides. I haven’t cultured a single copepod yet but it seems to be that the lower reproduction rates people were seeing was due to other reasons . Probably gonna through a buffet at my pods of Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis galbana, and the chaetoceros. I plan on using a 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub to culture them. Biggest hurdle I foresee is keeping my phyto cultures strong and uncontaminated.

Well, if you need to supplement with more algae, let me know. We don't have a 1 million gallon phytoplankton farm for nothing.

Chad

 

[40B Knasty]

Tisbe pods blew up overnight. Checkout the update.