Reef By Steele
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I get asked all the time, “How many copepods should I get? “, or “Can I have too many copepods?”. The simple answer to question one is, “How many can you afford?” For the second questions, the answer is, “No.”
OK that is grossly oversimplified. When we started trying to sell copepods to try to offset some hobby costs, I went out and looked at everything I could find to develop some type of guidance. It is really unclear as to whether any of the recommendations are based on any particular criteria. I think that the question is unfortunately not as easy as everyone would like. Here are my thoughts on how to properly populate an aquarium with copepods.
The first factor is tank maturity. A brand new tank all set up with sterile components (dry rock, bagged dry or live sand, dipped corals, and quarantined livestock) would have the least amount of “naturally occurring” zooplankton, ie. few if any hitchhikers. This setup would likely need more copepods to get a good start than an equal sized tank that received rock from a fellow reefer that stayed wet, bringing not only beneficial bacteria for the biological filter but most likely many other forms of micro fauna as well. An aquarium set up with cultured live rock straight out of the ocean (I believe farmed these days) would bring along an even larger array of live, both good and bad. Maybe a better way is to say desired and unwanted.
The second factor which may be even more important than the first is the livestock list. This includes not only the species of occupants but also the quantity and overall stocking density of the aquarium. A large aquarium with a minimum of fish is not going to need near the initial amount of copepods, and probably much less future additions as well. A different aquarium heavily stocked would benefit from a much larger initial import of copepods, and more frequent replenishment. Even that is a broad statement. Which fish make up the livestock list will play a greater role than just the number of fish. Tanks with Mandarins, Scooter Blennies and Sand Sifting Gobies should be more heavily stocked and more frequently refreshed than tanks without these high impact predators. Likewise tanks with Sand Sleeping Wrasses, Anthias and a selection of other high metabolism energy burning fish should be stocked and replenished even more frequently. However with different species of pods than are generally offered by the most common retailers. These fish target pelagic species (free Swimming) of copepods like the Acartia, Pseudo and Parvo Copepods. The main reason for the increased amounts and frequency, is unlike the benthic pods, pelagic do not colonize in the aquarium as well as they are out in the water column and consumed at much higher rates. The more I read, learn and understand about these mighty micro warriors, the better we have become at developing the best options for each reefers needs. This is why we started offering our pelagic pods as separate mixes, so reefers with the cruisers can replenish those species separately if they know they have populations of the benthic pods already colonizing their tanks. Short of capture and inspection under the microscope, these pods would be evident on a section of glass allowed to develop a little film algae, as the benthic pods would congregate there to feed.
The final factor is the density of pods in the product you purchase, along with their age, and health. We require all of our pods to go through a 10 point physical before we can ship them! (NO THAT IS ONLY A JOKE!!) What this refers to is more about life stage, nutritional profile, and time from packaging to delivery. Other than the bottles you can purchase in a LFS, I personally do not know how long any other vendors package their products prior to shipping. We package and ship the same day, all life stages, and feed the broadest nutritional profile with our 10 strain blend, with the exception of the Parvos which need a specialized blend that does not include the green strains.
Feedback we have received, at least anecdotally suggests that our sizing recommendations are providing anticipated results for the corresponding tank sizes. This is what we recommend.
8 Oz for nanno tanks
16 Oz for 20-40 gallon
32 Oz for 40-75 Gallon
64 Oz ½ gallon for 75-125 gallon
Gallon for 125-270 gallon tanks.
www.reefbysteele.com
OK that is grossly oversimplified. When we started trying to sell copepods to try to offset some hobby costs, I went out and looked at everything I could find to develop some type of guidance. It is really unclear as to whether any of the recommendations are based on any particular criteria. I think that the question is unfortunately not as easy as everyone would like. Here are my thoughts on how to properly populate an aquarium with copepods.
The first factor is tank maturity. A brand new tank all set up with sterile components (dry rock, bagged dry or live sand, dipped corals, and quarantined livestock) would have the least amount of “naturally occurring” zooplankton, ie. few if any hitchhikers. This setup would likely need more copepods to get a good start than an equal sized tank that received rock from a fellow reefer that stayed wet, bringing not only beneficial bacteria for the biological filter but most likely many other forms of micro fauna as well. An aquarium set up with cultured live rock straight out of the ocean (I believe farmed these days) would bring along an even larger array of live, both good and bad. Maybe a better way is to say desired and unwanted.
The second factor which may be even more important than the first is the livestock list. This includes not only the species of occupants but also the quantity and overall stocking density of the aquarium. A large aquarium with a minimum of fish is not going to need near the initial amount of copepods, and probably much less future additions as well. A different aquarium heavily stocked would benefit from a much larger initial import of copepods, and more frequent replenishment. Even that is a broad statement. Which fish make up the livestock list will play a greater role than just the number of fish. Tanks with Mandarins, Scooter Blennies and Sand Sifting Gobies should be more heavily stocked and more frequently refreshed than tanks without these high impact predators. Likewise tanks with Sand Sleeping Wrasses, Anthias and a selection of other high metabolism energy burning fish should be stocked and replenished even more frequently. However with different species of pods than are generally offered by the most common retailers. These fish target pelagic species (free Swimming) of copepods like the Acartia, Pseudo and Parvo Copepods. The main reason for the increased amounts and frequency, is unlike the benthic pods, pelagic do not colonize in the aquarium as well as they are out in the water column and consumed at much higher rates. The more I read, learn and understand about these mighty micro warriors, the better we have become at developing the best options for each reefers needs. This is why we started offering our pelagic pods as separate mixes, so reefers with the cruisers can replenish those species separately if they know they have populations of the benthic pods already colonizing their tanks. Short of capture and inspection under the microscope, these pods would be evident on a section of glass allowed to develop a little film algae, as the benthic pods would congregate there to feed.
The final factor is the density of pods in the product you purchase, along with their age, and health. We require all of our pods to go through a 10 point physical before we can ship them! (NO THAT IS ONLY A JOKE!!) What this refers to is more about life stage, nutritional profile, and time from packaging to delivery. Other than the bottles you can purchase in a LFS, I personally do not know how long any other vendors package their products prior to shipping. We package and ship the same day, all life stages, and feed the broadest nutritional profile with our 10 strain blend, with the exception of the Parvos which need a specialized blend that does not include the green strains.
Feedback we have received, at least anecdotally suggests that our sizing recommendations are providing anticipated results for the corresponding tank sizes. This is what we recommend.
8 Oz for nanno tanks
16 Oz for 20-40 gallon
32 Oz for 40-75 Gallon
64 Oz ½ gallon for 75-125 gallon
Gallon for 125-270 gallon tanks.
www.reefbysteele.com
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