Cons of a pico copepod farm with corals?

DiscoMush

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I'm planning on starting a pico tank with some easy corals like zoas/mushrooms and maybe a RFA later (once I've mastered maintaining stability in this tank though), but I'd also like to start a copepod culture so I can maybe look into getting a dragonet for my other reef tank.

Theres a ton of videos out there showing how to do copepod cultures with water bottles/jugs, but I haven't seen many that use tanks that contain corals as well.

Is there a downside to this other than the water turning green after feeding phyto? Would lighting be an issue for the copepods?
I'm planning on doing large weekly water changes in this pico tank with a HOB filter & heater.

Thanks in advance!
 

Llyod276

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Copepods are scavengers that eat detritus/ zooplankton. If you're gonna feed phytoplankton, then yes the water may turn green till its gets scrubbed.

The problems freqeuntly mentioned with small tanks and copepods they have no/less place(s) to reproduce in the numbers required to sustain your dragonette leading to starvation. Usually they say established tanks are best and even then.

Try it. Its a lot of work.
 

Jmp998

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Maintaining copepod cultures long term in numbers sufficient for an adult mandarin will be either expensive or a lot of work-get a biota mandarin and feed it pellets. When I feed my other fish their frozen food, I also use a long tube to squirt some tiny pellets (TDO etc) into a low flow area just behind my rock work and then Mando chows down. Works well as long as you don't have any strong competitors for tiny sinking pellets-and if you do, they would probably outcompete for the copepods as well.
 
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DiscoMush

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Copepods are scavengers that eat detritus/ zooplankton. If you're gonna feed phytoplankton, then yes the water may turn green till its gets scrubbed.

The problems freqeuntly mentioned with small tanks and copepods they have no/less place(s) to reproduce in the numbers required to sustain your dragonette leading to starvation. Usually they say established tanks are best and even then.

Try it. Its a lot of work.
Thanks for the reply! I forgot to clarify that I'm looking into putting a dragonet into my 20 gallon and having the pico being dedicated to just copepods and corals. In this case, do you think it's possible and/or less difficult? I'm definitely going to do more research first but thought I'd get some input about copepod farms in a tank
 
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DiscoMush

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Maintaining copepod cultures long term in numbers sufficient for an adult mandarin will be either expensive or a lot of work-get a biota mandarin and feed it pellets. When I feed my other fish their frozen food, I also use a long tube to squirt some tiny pellets (TDO etc) into a low flow area just behind my rock work and then Mando chows down. Works well as long as you don't have any strong competitors for tiny sinking pellets-and if you do, they would probably outcompete for the copepods as well.
Thanks for the insight! In the case where I do go through with this, I do plan on getting a biota mandarin just as a plan B in case. Would you say that the difficulty in maintaining the pods is more attributable to the fact that you need a separate pod tank/container? Or just in general.
 

Llyod276

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That depends on conditions and competion. If its dragonette and copepods maybe. Its hard to say. 20g? Best ive ever seen copepods growth/bloom(?) Is in the intial stages of cycling. There was a time when i had millions of these wankers crawling around. And same happened to dude who cycled a tank. But then as soon as 1 fish shows up the pop drops and i rarely see the pods. If i want to see pods i head to the sump, which again is fishless.

Can't give you concrete advice other than if possible have a supply of pods if your population tanks, heh. Or try one thatll accept other foods.
 

Jmp998

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Thanks for the insight! In the case where I do go through with this, I do plan on getting a biota mandarin just as a plan B in case. Would you say that the difficulty in maintaining the pods is more attributable to the fact that you need a separate pod tank/container? Or just in general.
I tried raising pods for a while-not really hard, just another (simple) tank to maintain. However if your mandarin is dependent on them, you need significantly sized backup cultures etc in case your culture crashes, gets contaminated, etc-or need to be ready to spend a lot on buying pods when that happens. Maintaining a jar of pods is pretty easy short term, but maintaining backup cultures etc long term is more of a headache than I have the time and energy for. I think with a combined pod/coral pico, you would have to either keep the phyto level high (unsightly cloudy water) or have very slow pod reproduction rates that would not be sufficient to feed a mandarin. You could certainly try it though and see if you could get the right balance.
 
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DiscoMush

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That depends on conditions and competion. If its dragonette and copepods maybe. Its hard to say. 20g? Best ive ever seen copepods growth/bloom(?) Is in the intial stages of cycling. There was a time when i had millions of these wankers crawling around. And same happened to dude who cycled a tank. But then as soon as 1 fish shows up the pop drops and i rarely see the pods. If i want to see pods i head to the sump, which again is fishless.

Can't give you concrete advice other than if possible have a supply of pods if your population tanks, heh. Or try one thatll accept other foods.
I see! I'm probably gonna wait a little longer and admire from afar then lol. Wish I had a bigger tank that could sustain a pod population without too much of a hassle :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:
 
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DiscoMush

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I tried raising pods for a while-not really hard, just another (simple) tank to maintain. However if your mandarin is dependent on them, you need significantly sized backup cultures etc in case your culture crashes, gets contaminated, etc-or need to be ready to spend a lot on buying pods when that happens. Maintaining a jar of pods is pretty easy short term, but maintaining backup cultures etc long term is more of a headache than I have the time and energy for. I think with a combined pod/coral pico, you would have to either keep the phyto level high (unsightly cloudy water) or have very slow pod reproduction rates that would not be sufficient to feed a mandarin. You could certainly try it though and see if you could get the right balance.
Oh right I didn't really think about risks of contamination/backup cultures. I'll probably just wait a little longer until I have a bigger tank that's only corals & one mandarin. Thank you for the advice it's much appreciated :D
 

homer1475

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Maintaining copepod cultures long term in numbers sufficient for an adult mandarin will be either expensive or a lot of work-get a biota mandarin and feed it pellets. When I feed my other fish their frozen food, I also use a long tube to squirt some tiny pellets (TDO etc) into a low flow area just behind my rock work and then Mando chows down. Works well as long as you don't have any strong competitors for tiny sinking pellets-and if you do, they would probably outcompete for the copepods as well.
Just a small FWIW....

Just because it's captive bread and will eat pellets from the breeder, does not mean it will eat anything in your tank given a decent pod population.

My biota mandy started on pellets and frozen. Several months in my tank later, and she eats nothing but pods. Won't even look twice at pellets or frozen anymore.

My speculation, if given the opportunity they will revert back to just pods if the pod population can sustain them. It's just natural instinct for them.

I would never count on a captive bred to eat prepared foods.
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

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If you want to culture copepods, then get a dedicated copepod tank, it wont work if you try to do copepods together with corals.

You dont even need a tank for copepods, I use plastic tupperwares from the dollar store. Add an airline, and phyto and pods and thats it.
 

Rick's Reviews

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If you want to culture copepods, then get a dedicated copepod tank, it wont work if you try to do copepods together with corals.

You dont even need a tank for copepods, I use plastic tupperwares from the dollar store. Add an airline, and phyto and pods and thats it.
What do you feed and how many pods to add to start culture please
 

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