6 species copepod harvest!!!

[afboundguy]

Harvested my pod cultures today and it was nice and full with 6 different species!!!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Congrats on getting six different species!

 

[afboundguy]

Congrats on getting six different species!

I actually have 8 right now but I just started two this week and they're not at the point I can harvest them just yet...

 

[Kodski]

Could you share your setup and the process you use to culture pods? I'd love to see how its done to set up a culture in the future.

 

[afboundguy]

Could you share your setup and the process you use to culture pods? I'd love to see how its done to set up a culture in the future.

I have 1 gallon glass jars with a small heater in each culture (except T. Californicus as they're colder water species) and have rigid airline tubing with it bubbling 1-2 time per second with some of the free swimming species 2-4 bubbles per second with ambient light.

After about 2 weeks I start taking about 16 oz out every 2 days and top off with fresh phytoplankton and a little bit of RODI every few weeks to keep salinity in check. I have been experimenting with different phytoplankton mixes for different pod species with good results but it's sort of a pain as I have to take out 5-6 different 1/2-1 gallon jars each time I go to feed them!

Here's a video I made of my whole tank and setup for reference and I'm happy to answer any other specific questions but I would suggest getting good at culturing phytoplankton before starting pod cultures as I have had the best results when I feed live phytoplankton!