Breeding Copepods question

[Heidivee]

Don't know if this is the right forum, so sorry in advance. I tossed a bottle of copepods into a bucket with air and some phytoplankton. These black clusters are forming, is that waste or eggs. I have all my swimmers too. How long before egg is fully grown.

 

[Woodyman]

Don't know if this is the right forum, so sorry in advance. I tossed a bottle of copepods into a bucket with air and some phytoplankton. These black clusters are forming, is that waste or eggs. I have all my swimmers too. How long before egg is fully grown.

I'd wager detritus.

Copepods carry the eggs on the abdomen of the females, they are not 'laid' in the tradition sense.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

its waste (copepod poo, dead copepods, hatched shells, etc...).

Normally you should be able to harvest every 3-4 weeks.

 

[Heidivee]

its waste (copepod poo, dead copepods, hatched shells, etc...).

Normally you should be able to harvest every 3-4 weeks.

I'm thinking I'll just suction that out to keep the nitrates down

 

[DaJMasta]

As with most creatures, they are not perfectly efficient in their metabolism and don't generally consume everything they and their food produces - the technical term would be detritus.

There are a number of copepod reproduction strategies, but as mentioned a lot of the ones we culture carry their eggs around with them (and this is visible by eye in some species, it makes them look a lot bigger), though there are others that can drop eggs or do either.

Growth rate again depends on the species, but it's common for a copepod to be an adult capable of having its own offspring in just a week or so, and since the copepods you started with are all different ages, you will have constant spawns and constant availability of eggs, nauplii, juveniles, and adults in most modest sized cultures. If you feed them enough (and this also varies between species), you can harvest a portion of the culture very frequently. When my copepod cultures are up and going (and I do the colony approach rather than the batch of nauplii raised up approach), I'm typically harvesting about 10% of the volume of the culture per day, and replacing it with either phytoplankton or phytoplankton and fresh saltwater, and this takes care of waste build up.

 

[Heidivee]

As with most creatures, they are not perfectly efficient in their metabolism and don't generally consume everything they and their food produces - the technical term would be detritus.

There are a number of copepod reproduction strategies, but as mentioned a lot of the ones we culture carry their eggs around with them (and this is visible by eye in some species, it makes them look a lot bigger), though there are others that can drop eggs or do either.

Growth rate again depends on the species, but it's common for a copepod to be an adult capable of having its own offspring in just a week or so, and since the copepods you started with are all different ages, you will have constant spawns and constant availability of eggs, nauplii, juveniles, and adults in most modest sized cultures. If you feed them enough (and this also varies between species), you can harvest a portion of the culture very frequently. When my copepod cultures are up and going (and I do the colony approach rather than the batch of nauplii raised up approach), I'm typically harvesting about 10% of the volume of the culture per day, and replacing it with either phytoplankton or phytoplankton and fresh saltwater, and this takes care of waste build up.

Thank you for posting this.

 

[alan3402]

I don't have the link, but I read (and follow) advice from one of the scientific journals that recommended NOT removing ALL of the detritus. There will be some eggs and critters in there and will be very useful in restarting a crashed culture.

I have been culturing Phyto and pods (tisbe and tiger) for the last 3 years and have found this to be a very practical approach. I try not to over think pod and phyto culturing. They are among natures toughest organisms and do not need any fancy equipment to thrive.

I have literally abandoned the culture for weeks at a time with no feeding, harvesting or other types of H2O swaps or additions. One time there wasn't even any airflow. The culture looked completely trashed with no visible, free-swimming pods. Then I removed all the water but an inch, along with 1/2 of the detritus and added new water and phyto. Within a week, the pods were back.

I have done this multiple times with similar success. Now when I harvest, I suck up 1/2 of the detritus along with the pods. Then I strain and add the pods AND removed detritus to whichever tank I intended the pods to go.

I have tested for nitrates and phosphorous afterwards and the small bit of detritus didn't impact nutrient levels (in my 40g or 15g breeder tanks.

To be fair this is only my experience and another key component is I do culture all of my Phyto as well so all phyto is very fresh.

Also:
1) I let my cultured phyto sit for a few days in the fridge to settle and remove all of the clearer water from the top (~80% usually) and that results in a much more concentrated result than you will get with most live phyto you can purchase. This limits the additional Nitrates and nutrients from the phyto.

2) I culture my pods in a 2 gal glass jar phyto under the same lights and schedule as my phyto. The phyto will continue to thrive in the pod culture, removing the nitrates from the pod culture. IMHO, that significantly reduces my crashes and and facilitates my recovery method.

 

[Heidivee]

I don't have the link, but I read (and follow) advice from one of the scientific journals that recommended NOT removing ALL of the detritus. There will be some eggs and critters in there and will be very useful in restarting a crashed culture.

I have been culturing Phyto and pods (tisbe and tiger) for the last 3 years and have found this to be a very practical approach. I try not to over think pod and phyto culturing. They are among natures toughest organisms and do not need any fancy equipment to thrive.

I have literally abandoned the culture for weeks at a time with no feeding, harvesting or other types of H2O swaps or additions. One time there wasn't even any airflow. The culture looked completely trashed with no visible, free-swimming pods. Then I removed all the water but an inch, along with 1/2 of the detritus and added new water and phyto. Within a week, the pods were back.

I have done this multiple times with similar success. Now when I harvest, I suck up 1/2 of the detritus along with the pods. Then I strain and add the pods AND removed detritus to whichever tank I intended the pods to go.

I have tested for nitrates and phosphorous afterwards and the small bit of detritus didn't impact nutrient levels (in my 40g or 15g breeder tanks.

To be fair this is only my experience and another key component is I do culture all of my Phyto as well so all phyto is very fresh.

Also:
1) I let my cultured phyto sit for a few days in the fridge to settle and remove all of the clearer water from the top (~80% usually) and that results in a much more concentrated result than you will get with most live phyto you can purchase. This limits the additional Nitrates and nutrients from the phyto.

2) I culture my pods in a 2 gal glass jar phyto under the same lights and schedule as my phyto. The phyto will continue to thrive in the pod culture, removing the nitrates from the pod culture. IMHO, that significantly reduces my crashes and and facilitates my recovery method.

Wow, thank you for this.