Breeding copepods

Administrator

Jeff, I am going to look for a reef related club in my area and ask about live rock there. Thanks for the advice.

Rotifer, thank you for the information. I was trying to culture them in an in tank refugium where they had no predators, so I'm not sure why they all disappeared. As far as feeding them, I had read that copepods eat cheato so I put a bunch of it in there with them. Was I misinformed? In any event, I'd of expected to see dead tigger pods somewhere in the in tank refugium if they'd all died. I can only assume they're all dead, but it seems more like they disappeared.

There is some rock, some cheato, and no predators in the in tank refugium. Other than ensuring my water parameters are perfect, what do you think I can do differently the next time I attempt this so that it works out?

wake49

That was Jon that offered that advice, but I definitely agree...

rotifer

The main value to copepods of having macroalgae in your refugium is to break up water currents so they don't get washed away (into the display tank). Their primary food will be microalgae, detritus, and bacteria. When copepods die they disentegrate very quickly, that's part of why they are so valuable to first-feeding larval marine fish which only have a rudimentary digestive tract. Even alive they are very hard to see in the water column. Tigger-Pods are a very large species of copepods, but still very small in a reef tank :)

I would suggest culturing them in a 9x13 cake pan and see how that goes. Add a bit of microalgae every 2-3 days and do a 10% water change every month. This will create the tide-pool environment that they are used to. Once you have a good population going, use that as your starter culture for your refugium.

Administrator

Oops - I hereby retract any appreciation that was extended your way, Jeff, and offer it to John. Seriously, though, thanks John.

Thanks again, Rotifer. Is any filtration, current, heating, air, etc. required in the cake pan, or can it just be left to sit in a room that is room temperature by day and air conditioned in the evening? Also, is it safe to assume there is nothing special about the container being a cake pan and that a plastic Tupperware would work just as well? Is there a particular type or brand of microalgae that you would recommend I try to purchase?

rotifer

If you use a cake pan you don't need any heating or cooling (assuming a 50-85 range), filtration, or even air. You are trying to re-create a tide pool and there are lots of swings in that environment. Adding some macroalgae will increase O2 and they will enjoy that. Plastic or glass would be best - I would not go with Teflon. We culture them on our own Phyto-Feast product which is a mixture of 5 algae species. Any microalgae product that is not heavy in Nannochloropsis will work well. Nanno is a great algae for rotifers and brine shrimp but difficult for almost all other filter feeders to consume.