Copepod Video

[sillycupid]

Good morning everyone!

This is my procrastination post of the day. For once in many months I had a day to myself so I set up my mini aquaculture! YAY! I can usually keep my cultures alive with a pulse, but recently I have not had time to make them flourish. I thought I would post a video and a picture so all of you can see how I do it.

In optimal conditions it takes me a week to produce a thick green soup of phytoplankton and two weeks for a giant swarm of copepods. There are Tigriopus californicus (250-1700 microns) copepods in the 16 ounce plastic cups. These cultures were recently split so it will take another two weeks before I have a swarm. The one plastic bottle is a tisbe copepod culture I recently split. Those ones are more difficult to maintain due to their need for meaty foods. I use rotifers to feed them, but if I do not keep up on the water changes the water gets murky due to bacteria. Tisbe copepods are also clear/white so they are less visible than the bright orange T. californicus.

Ask any questions below and I will do my best to respond promptly, depending on my level of procrastination today while I study.

Copepod Video

Floor Setup

Edit: If anyone could recommend an App to make the video more steady that would be lovely. It was quickly shot on my phone with my nerves of steel (shaky hands).

 

[Scout]

Plan on selling any pods? I'll buy a culture from you.

 

[sillycupid]

Yeah, I plan on selling this batch in a few weeks once they are a beautiful swarm. I will post a for sale thread then. I will sell them $20 shipped for 16 ounces. No live arrival guarantee, but the T. californicus are routinely refrigerated to slow metabolism, so temperature is not an issue with them. It is the Tisbe copepods that are delicate to ship. It took me two shipments to get my first starting culture because they consistently arrived DOA. Then again, they were shipping from Florida, so that was a lot of temperature fluctuation. I will also meet in Mission Viejo area for pick up, same price. The bottles come with or without phytoplankton. If you are purchasing to start your own bottle cultures I would recommend with phytoplankton. If you are going to dump it into your aquarium as a starter culture I would recommend without phytoplankton (way too many nutrients and would cause a parameter spike).

 

[Scout]

Thanks for the information PM sent.

 

[seanM]

I just purchased a culture of T. Californicus Cope-pods and I want to start my own small culture. What are you using to feed them?

 

[sillycupid]

I use live phytoplankton. The strain I use is Nannochropolis oculata (Google phyto nanno). I have not had success using dead phytoplankton cells. Live phytoplankton are capable of staying suspended in the water column after being shaken for at least 4 hours. I use nanno because of it's well rounded nutrition profile and easily cultured using F/2 fertilizer. This is base line nutrition for the copepods. In a perfect world you would feed a combination of different strains of phytoplankton such as T. Isocrysis. I don't because it is too difficult to balance more than one culture and keep it pure. Phytoplankton is easily purchased from eBay, but the concentration varies.

 

[seanM]

Thank you,

I apologize for the delayed response, I have been out of town for about a week.

. A friend of mine gave be a bottle of Reef Nutrition's "Phyto Feast Live", do you think that will work? According to Reef Nutrition's website it will work to feed Tigriopus Californicus Cope Pods (which I am attempting to culture), but I haven't herd of anyone using it before.