What is the easiest and most successful way to propagate Copepods ?

[Finatik]

I'm about to stand up two 120 gallon tanks.
One will be a full reef, the other will be FOWLR. One of the fish I want to have in both tanks (after about 6 months) is a Manderin. Based on past experience, I know that I need to provide Manderins with a vast supply of Copepods. In the past, I have spent countless amounts of money buying Copepods to put in the tank, but this time, I'd like to try propogating my own supply so that I don't have to buy them. I would like to get a head start, and get a good population of Copepods going about 3 months prior to introducing the Manderins to the tank. So I'm looking for suggestions on the best and most successful way to do this.

PRIMARY ENVIRONMENT:

• 120 Gallon (48 X 24 X 25) Marineland Tank
• CLF-2 Signature Series LifeReef Sump System (37 X 14 X 14) including Reactors, Dosers, ect.
  
• 24 X 14 X 18 LifeReef Reefugiums
  
• 42" Reef Breeders Photon V2
  
• Pukani Rock

Thanks in advance for your suggestions...

 

[NS Mike D]

@40B Knasty has a good thread on this. @Reef Nutrition has been contributing. take a read, my separate culture has been going for three weeks now with Reef Nutrition's tiggers and my HOB sump has kicked up production since starting dosing their live phyto in addition to the culture.

I too spend a lot in pods, a LFS shop carries the reef nutrition pods and that has drastically cut my cost when factoring the shipping with algae barn. plus i can inspect the jar for life before buying.

while i ramp up pod production, I started to feed the mandarin Reef Nutritions R.O.E. - holy smokes does that stuff perk up a tank. i turn off the pumps for 20 minutes during the feeding and the mandarin has a chance to eat while the other tanks frenzy feed above him/her


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tigger-tisbe-pods.339906/

 

[theMeat]

If you have a fuge area, away from feeding mouths, they will breed.
It’s important to add some new every year or so to introduce new dna, so your population doesn’t stop being able to reproduce

 

[pdisner]

Hi, I saw your post and thought I would chime in. Definitely do your research when it comes to copepods. My research has led me to the belief that Tigriopus Californicus is probably the winner when it comes to these guys. You can’t beat their nutritional profile, their ease to breed, their hardiness I could go on. I am preferential to these guys. I breed these guys along with my other first foods for larval feeding of marine ornamentals. That’s my hobby. I feed their nauplii to my fish and some shrimp in larval stages then increase to adults as the fishes mouth gets bigger. Notice the fat egg sacks on the females in this video I shot. So fascinating. They reproduce sexually... males are much smaller.
If you need any help with setting up a culture or have questions let me know. I’ve been a fan of copepods for awhile. I’ve compiled a lot of pier reviewed information. Plus I love to talk about them and help people grow their successful cultures. It’s not rocket science. It’s all about keeping the animal [emoji4] Also have more pics and video on my Facebook page @PaulsPodsAZ
I’m also looking for breeders of any kind of marine ornamental for a FB group for those interested. A place to post questions and support breeders. (Especially pod breeders!)

 

[pdisner]

By the way, Chad Clayton from Reed nutrition helped get my tigger pod colonies thriving. The RG complete from Reed is great all in one feed for your pods and rotifers too. It has several species of algae plus other nutritional enrichments making them “superpods”. Whatever fish eats that is getting a great meal. It also decreases larval mortality. They have dry feeds for breeders and hobbyists who breed like myself. Helping the transition when weaning off live foods.

 

[cpschult]

Any fish in the tank? If not add tisbe pods and dose phyto every day. They will multiply like gang busters.

If there are fish in the tank you can do the same thing will just go slower. Having lots of liverock/rock will give your pods space to multiply. I’ve currently got a bucket of cycled rubble from BRS that I added some pods to. I dose phyto. No heater, no wavemaker just a rigid airline providing a bubble every 1-3 seconds. When I add it to my main tank it will give my pod population a huge boost!

I’ve also got a 10 gallon tank with tigger pods that I dose phyto, and a 5 gallon bucket I have more tisbe pods, just rigid airlines in both. Dosing phyto is fairly necessary to get successful reproduction/completed life cycle to begin. They live on detritus so once you have a good population size you can stop dosing phyto. I bought sieves from US plastics for around $5 a piece to harvest 100micron-600micron. Think it was 24$-$28 shipped for four 5 gallon bucket sieves.

I started with algaebarn pods and phyto. I used their phyto up so now I’m using reef nutrition.

Hope this helps!

 

[Finatik]

Cool !!! Thanks for the suggestions everyone !

 

[pdisner]

Make an educated decisions. I have a cheat sheet that I send out with my pods with all of the minimum as well as maximum output. In cases where you are running out of phytoplankton or RG complete. You will know where else that you can get food in. Hurry if u run out. It will happen eventually. Just keep them happen. Follow the min care and go for. There to see show that works. The basics, then u can do experimental when you have copepods. care/setup guide.

 

[pdisner]

Any fish in the tank? If not add tisbe pods and dose phyto every day. They will multiply like gang busters.

If there are fish in the tank you can do the same thing will just go slower. Having lots of liverock/rock will give your pods space to multiply. I’ve currently got a bucket of cycled rubble from BRS that I added some pods to. I dose phyto. No heater, no wavemaker just a rigid airline providing a bubble every 1-3 seconds. When I add it to my main tank it will give my pod population a huge boost!

I’ve also got a 10 gallon tank with tigger pods that I dose phyto, and a 5 gallon bucket I have more tisbe pods, just rigid airlines in both. Dosing phyto is fairly necessary to get successful reproduction/completed life cycle to begin. They live on detritus so once you have a good population size you can stop dosing phyto. I bought sieves from US plastics for around $5 a piece to harvest 100micron-600micron. Think it was 24$-$28 shipped for four 5 gallon bucket sieves.

I started with algaebarn pods and phyto. I used their phyto up so now I’m using reef nutrition.

Hope this helps!

 

[pdisner]

Sorry bout that. I just wanted to add to above info, as we could all use a great pod population in our tanks!
It’s interesting and imperative as well that we all become good at culturing live food for our tanks. The amazing results that I’ve seen culturing my own Phyto, pods, mysids, ciliates, rotifers and even baby brine shrimp have made my tank bloom with colors. There’s a lot of really neat books, some really easy to read all the way to college level and beyond if you look and want to know more.
One book that I think everyone should at least take a look at. “The Plankton Culuture Manual” 6th edition. It’s written by Frank Hoff & Terry Snell. Frank Hoff is of the forefathers in bringing the field of Aquaculture to a hobbyist level. I can’t emphasize enough the importance in reading the above book to start and before buying copepods. They’re expensive.
I started doing this at home a about couple years ago with the above book. I couldn’t help being interested in it and shortly wanting to do myself. It sucked me in, I even found and bought a microscope eventually on eBay, all on a minor budget: Book 25$, microscope 90$(optional but I say a must), microalgae fertilizer (“f/2”) 15$ per liter(using only 1-3ml each time time want to grow a gallon of Phyto. The source culture for microalgae (Phyto) 8-12$ for a petri dish each species, more than just a one time use and even has a shelf life In frig. I personally prefer this method versus ordering fluids. Usually less postage. 5$Hardware store buckets, cheap flourescent lights 5$, or even used from Craigs list or bum off of a buddy. Clean Saltwater and airline tubing/pumps. Also a a dedicated room or corner of the house, garage, basement etc.You’ll need a few buckets depending on how much you want to start with. You can always adjust the volumes of any of these cultures to whatever containers you need to use. I’d recommend food-safe if u can. Did I forget anything?
I then started to dose my tank with each species of Phytoplankton as I learned about them. As I was doing that I also ordered some Tigger Pods and Rotifers from Reed Mariculture and started culturing them as well. Food source is good clean Phyto for everything. How easy is that? It loads them up with all kinds of ESSENTIAL nutrients they need. I would also recommend looking buying a back-up algae source for supplementation these nutrients from the several species of “preserved” In a nice thick green concentrate. Fishy. But stores well, good product and world renown company in the Aquaculture industry. My point to all that, This was the most expensive part of my little project. 55$ for the food plus 2 day fed ex (cooled) The results were very dramatic. I say that because in just under a year, my tank went from dead to very much alive and vibrant in just under a few months. So much so that even the fish began to spawn! Me. In my Living Room. With not a lot of money, special expensive equipment, latest special blend foods. Wow. Now, a year and a half to two years of learning, building, practicing, I’m breeding both shrimp and fish. So far I’ve successfully bred 4 species of marine ornamental shrimp and fish. Very very cool!
This should be of interest to all us, so as to conserve wild marine life populations and ecosystems, take care of or oceans. It’s our future. Not only that, but a blast to at least try. You don’t have to be a marine biologist to have all the fun. Anyone can do it if I did.
If I have forgotten anything above forgive me. I wanted to get out a lot of info without rambling about this or that and just have some good straightforward, and accurate info out there with the sources. There are also some really smart biologists at these places like Reed Mariculture that love to share their knowledge. You can also send me a PM if anybody needs more info than that, has questions or needs help. I love to talk about that stuff a lot too, lol.

 

[Bow69]

Sorry bout that. I just wanted to add to above info, as we could all use a great pod population in our tanks!
It’s interesting and imperative as well that we all become good at culturing live food for our tanks. The amazing results that I’ve seen culturing my own Phyto, pods, mysids, ciliates, rotifers and even baby brine shrimp have made my tank bloom with colors. There’s a lot of really neat books, some really easy to read all the way to college level and beyond if you look and want to know more.
One book that I think everyone should at least take a look at. “The Plankton Culuture Manual” 6th edition. It’s written by Frank Hoff & Terry Snell. Frank Hoff is of the forefathers in bringing the field of Aquaculture to a hobbyist level. I can’t emphasize enough the importance in reading the above book to start and before buying copepods. They’re expensive.
I started doing this at home a about couple years ago with the above book. I couldn’t help being interested in it and shortly wanting to do myself. It sucked me in, I even found and bought a microscope eventually on eBay, all on a minor budget: Book 25$, microscope 90$(optional but I say a must), microalgae fertilizer (“f/2”) 15$ per liter(using only 1-3ml each time time want to grow a gallon of Phyto. The source culture for microalgae (Phyto) 8-12$ for a petri dish each species, more than just a one time use and even has a shelf life In frig. I personally prefer this method versus ordering fluids. Usually less postage. 5$Hardware store buckets, cheap flourescent lights 5$, or even used from Craigs list or bum off of a buddy. Clean Saltwater and airline tubing/pumps. Also a a dedicated room or corner of the house, garage, basement etc.You’ll need a few buckets depending on how much you want to start with. You can always adjust the volumes of any of these cultures to whatever containers you need to use. I’d recommend food-safe if u can. Did I forget anything?
I then started to dose my tank with each species of Phytoplankton as I learned about them. As I was doing that I also ordered some Tigger Pods and Rotifers from Reed Mariculture and started culturing them as well. Food source is good clean Phyto for everything. How easy is that? It loads them up with all kinds of ESSENTIAL nutrients they need. I would also recommend looking buying a back-up algae source for supplementation these nutrients from the several species of “preserved” In a nice thick green concentrate. Fishy. But stores well, good product and world renown company in the Aquaculture industry. My point to all that, This was the most expensive part of my little project. 55$ for the food plus 2 day fed ex (cooled) The results were very dramatic. I say that because in just under a year, my tank went from dead to very much alive and vibrant in just under a few months. So much so that even the fish began to spawn! Me. In my Living Room. With not a lot of money, special expensive equipment, latest special blend foods. Wow. Now, a year and a half to two years of learning, building, practicing, I’m breeding both shrimp and fish. So far I’ve successfully bred 4 species of marine ornamental shrimp and fish. Very very cool!
This should be of interest to all us, so as to conserve wild marine life populations and ecosystems, take care of or oceans. It’s our future. Not only that, but a blast to at least try. You don’t have to be a marine biologist to have all the fun. Anyone can do it if I did.
If I have forgotten anything above forgive me. I wanted to get out a lot of info without rambling about this or that and just have some good straightforward, and accurate info out there with the sources. There are also some really smart biologists at these places like Reed Mariculture that love to share their knowledge. You can also send me a PM if anybody needs more info than that, has questions or needs help. I love to talk about that stuff a lot too, lol.

I would love to be able to grow my own food for my tank, but as always time is a valuable commodity. Just keeping the reef tank up and maintenanced takes a great deal already. Can you estimate what kind of time per week you spend on your pod system? I just don’t know if I can dedicate that much more time to the hobby. As I have a couple other hobbies that take up a great deal of time also. Ty in advance for your input.

 

[Cory]

For me its been not cleaning the glass. They eat the microalgae and grow a lot.

 

[Thecaptains_steaz]

I'm about to stand up two 120 gallon tanks.
One will be a full reef, the other will be FOWLR. One of the fish I want to have in both tanks (after about 6 months) is a Manderin. Based on past experience, I know that I need to provide Manderins with a vast supply of Copepods. In the past, I have spent countless amounts of money buying Copepods to put in the tank, but this time, I'd like to try propogating my own supply so that I don't have to buy them. I would like to get a head start, and get a good population of Copepods going about 3 months prior to introducing the Manderins to the tank. So I'm looking for suggestions on the best and most successful way to do this.

PRIMARY ENVIRONMENT:

• 120 Gallon (48 X 24 X 25) Marineland Tank
• CLF-2 Signature Series LifeReef Sump System (37 X 14 X 14) including Reactors, Dosers, ect.
• 24 X 14 X 18 LifeReef Reefugiums
• 42" Reef Breeders Photon V2
• Pukani Rock

Thanks in advance for your suggestions...

Hey there. I just wanted to chime in in regards to getting a mandarin after 6 months. I really don’t recommend that for the fish’s sake. At the VERY least you should introduce a mandarin after a year and a half. They need a REALLY established tank. I have not seen any success when adding them any sooner. They’re very difficult and fussy eaters and they eat about 3500 pods A DAY. They’re just constantly eating. You can train them to eat mysis and other meaty foods but it is not common or easy. They slowly starve to death if the tank isn’t well established. It’s hard to watch. They become emaciated. I also suggest hatching brine shrimp for them on a regular basis and feeding that to the tank after their first hatch. However that will only last 24 hours so you will need to do this every night or day for them to prepare for the next day assuming they have ate your entire copepod population in a few days. It’s tough! But with a lot of studying and research and an older tank it’s for sure doable ! But please be patient and don’t get one after a few months of starting a tank. It’ll almost certainly die from a few weeks of slow starvation.