Can copepods (Tisbe and Acartia tonsa) eat macroalgae (live or ground up with a blender)?

Levinson

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I've ordered some Tisbe and Acartia tonsa copepods and they are on their way.
I could only find one place selling them locally and they were quite expensive so I only ordered a little to try them out.
While I plan to seed them in my tank, I thought maybe I could spare some and try culturing them in a separate container. The problem is, I don't have access to any live phyto here and if I were to order them from abroad (if it could be done), it would take quite a while and be quite expensive too.
What I do have access to, are
- live algae from my algae scrubber.
- Ulva. and a number of other fresh marine macroalgae sold locally for human consumption (might or might not be dead, I got some Ulva from a local supermarket and manage to grow it so at least some of it was still alive).
- spirulina powder.
- chlorella powder (don't have it with me but can buy them here, not cheap though).
- Formula 1 (meaty) & 2 (green) flakes

I was wondering if various macroalgae from my algae scrubber can be used as a food source for the pods, as is, or I could grind them up in a blender.
Could any of the options above be used to feed and sustain Tisbe and/or Acartia tonsa pods?
From what I've read, the Tisbe pods seem to be able to live off pretty much anything so my guess is it would be doable (correct me if I'm wrong) but I couldn't find any info about A.tonsa regarding the matter.

Since I'm posting, I've got another question about Tisbe pods.
I have a pseudo kressiel tank for shrimp larvae. I know the tisbe pods are benthic and all but does anyone know if the free floating larvae will be able to feed on at least some of them or their offsprings?

Cheers!
 

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Lets see if someone knows
 
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Levinson

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So the pods have arrived today. It turns out, they weren't expensive cuz they sent me a ton of them. I seeded my tank plenty, put each of them in pet bottles and still have a lot of them left. I don't know what to do with them.
I put little bit of spirulina powder in each pet culture bottles and aerated them, about 1~2 bubbles a sec. Will see how they go.
I wanted to aerate what's left but don't have an air pump to spare. Hope they make it till I get one.

I also put some pods in the saltwater pseudo eco sphere jar (not aerated or sealed) I left by the window. I don't really expect much from it but it would be nice if they can survive in there
 
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Levinson

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The bamboo plant makes a good air pump hanger.
I've only added very little spirulina, worried it might pollute the water. Also, I might have too many pods in each bottle.
If I had more pet bottle and air pump, I would have tried another culture bottle to test if they feed on ground-up macroalgae. Too bad I don't have any and 3 spilt won't work with my weak butt air pump.
Please feel free to comment or make suggestions.
IMG_20201229_200732.jpg
 
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Levinson

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An update.
Initially I had the pods in
1. The main tank: Tisbe and A. Tonsa together
2. Cut up plastic bottles by the window (aerated, shown in the pic above): Tisbe and A. Tonsa placed in separate bottles.
3. A small glass jar that I had sitting by the window with some macroalgae (aerated): Tisbe, A. Tonsa and baby brine shrimp together
4. Kreisel tank inside the main tank: Tisbe and A. Tonsa together
IMG_20210113_104047.jpg

IMG_20210113_104042.jpg


A. Tonsa
The A. Tonsa pods pretty much died in all settings except inside the kreisel tank.
My guess is that their death in 2 and 3 might've been due to poor water quality or temp swing (the swing was pretty big since the bottles were in unheated room by the window during cold winter). Mass die off in the plastic bottle over night.
As for the A. Tonsa in the main tank (1), I'm guessing they all got sucked up into the overflow. I noticed the A. Tonsa are attracted and that might've lead them to the overflow. It didn't take long for them to disappear, like only 1~2 days.
There's a few that are still alive in the kreisel tank. There were more but their number had decreased slowly over time. I think they died of old age. I don't expect to see them multiply since their babies would just slip through the mesh into the main tank or just get eaten by the others.

Tisbe
The Tisbe pods on the other hand, are doing well in most of the settings... I think?
I can find some in the main tank but I don't think they are thriving in there. I suspect the high amphipod population may have something to do with it.
I've put in some live algae bits into the Tisbe only plastic bottle and now I have green hair algae growing in it. It filters the water, generates oxygen and provides habitat for them. Their population in the bottle seem to be increasing but it's not easy to tell.
IMG_20210113_111053.jpg

They are also doing well, if not better, inside the kreisel tank.
The Tisbe pods are doing the best in the old glass jar with organic waste and algae bits. Their population clearly increased by many folds. I also put in some baby brine shrimps in the jar but they didn't last a week.
IMG_20210113_111059.jpg

The plastic bottle for A. Tonsa where there's been the mass die off was just left alone unaerated and to my suprise, some benthic copepods appeared and started to multiply. I think they are the same Tisbe pods that I have in the other bottle but I'm not 100% sure. This is quite interesting cuz these guys still managed to multiply with all the dead decaying A. Tonsa and no flow, filteration, water change or feeding.
IMG_20210113_111103.jpg

(The tag on the bottle says A. Tonsa but they are not A. Tonsa anymore, I was just too lazy to remove it)
Could it be that all that is needed are just a plastic bottle, saltwater, and sunlight?
 
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Levinson

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and no water change so far.
It'd be nice to be able to culture them pods with as little maintenance as possible.
Maybe I could try carbon dosing a culture bottle to both filter the water and use the bacteria or anything else that might grow in carbon rich water as the food source for the pods.
 
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Fed a little bit of sprirullina power at the start, now I'm putting in some bits of slimy algae front ATS maybe like once a week or less (only in tisbe bottles).
The goal was to culture them without having to culture live phyto.
I cannot be certain but it seems to be working so far but it's hard to tell if they are mulitiplying fast or not. I'm not sure I would be able to tell difference even if they've doubled in numbers.
 

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The bamboo plant makes a good air pump hanger.
I've only added very little spirulina, worried it might pollute the water. Also, I might have too many pods in each bottle.
If I had more pet bottle and air pump, I would have tried another culture bottle to test if they feed on ground-up macroalgae. Too bad I don't have any and 3 spilt won't work with my weak butt air pump.
Please feel free to comment or make suggestions.
IMG_20201229_200732.jpg
where did you get that air pump?
 
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Levinson

Levinson

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The copepods in the glass jar (with alot of dead and live algae, and cloudy water) has really taken off. They are muliplying like crazy.
I've put way more tisbe in the other bottle at the start now there are many times more in the glass jar.
So I think culturing tisbe reasonably without phyto is indeed possible.
Now I want to figure out why and how.
I'm guessing it has something to do with the cloudy water (the water in the other bottle is pretty clear). It might be bacterial bloom and, or broken down algae particles. This is all just in my head but maybe it's something the naupulii can feed on?
It's not really a scientific or proper way to experiment but I will try to replicate the setting when I get to divide the culture next time.
 

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It's a usb air pump I got from a local online store. It's something like this (I didn't get it from Amazon btw)


is there a picture i see a link amazon link in the qoute but amazon links don't work
 
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Levinson

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The pod population has gone down significantly (definately less than 30% what it used to be) in the aerated PET bottle where there had been quite the macroalgae growth (mostly ulva like green hair algae).
in contrast, the unaerated bottle with only few patches of macro algae growth had singificant increase in the pod population (many folds).
The visible difference between the two bottles was that the water in the unaerated bottle was tinted light green where the other bottle wasn't. Could it be a type of micro phyto was naturally seeded in the bottle and was not out competed by the macros? There are to many variables to even make a guess in this poorly controlled setup.
Still, this was interesting since I expected the aerated bottle with more macro to do better.
I fed both bottles with macro algae juice (the liquid obtained by sqeezing the ATS macro algae harvest).
 

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Could it be that the aeration is too violent for the pods? Maybe it's injuring them?
 
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Levinson

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Could it be that the aeration is too violent for the pods? Maybe it's injuring them?
Thanks for the input.
I haven't thought of that. It's about 1 bubble per sec. Then again, the pods are doing even better in the other smaller glass jar with quite a bit more aeration so I think it's unlikely.
 

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