Copepod culture maintenance.

[Rick's Reviews]

Following,

 

[TWYOUNG]

This matches my experience. Takes a few weeks for babies to reach adulthood, although you can sieve/keep adults and just feed the nauplii in shorter timeframes.

Using live phyto basically eliminates the ammonia problem. But with dead phyto it's a big concern, have to carefully monitor feed amount since overfeeding can cause ammonia spike.

Does my color look about right?

 

[TWYOUNG]

Does my color look about right? What do you sieve with? Since Nannochloropsis is non motile how do you distinguish live from dead organisms under the scope?

 

[fryman]

Does my color look about right?

The color looks ok, but you have organics in the right tank. This happens to me often growing cultures and you need to keep an eye on it. The organics aren't live phyto and if they build up too much I have issues. Safest thing is to sieve out adults and do a water change but I usually just gradually add live phyto to make sure food is available.

I use 120micron sieve to retain adult tisbe and apocyclops adults, and 250micron for tigriopus. 53 micron retains the nauplii. But full discosure I have been getting rotifer contamination lately and they have taken over a couple cultures. 120micron retains rotifers. 250micron doesn't but they still stay around somehow. I've cultured rotifers tho so probably I introduced them myself. Maybe this won't be a problem if you never culture rotifers.

I'm not certain about the live/dead nanno under the scope question but I think if the cell wall is intact it's either alive or very recently dead. So if you see alot of healthy looking cells things should be ok. When I see a lot of debris or bacterial mats I get worried. But I'm not so sure, I'm no biologist.

Good luck!

 

[TWYOUNG]

The color looks ok, but you have organics in the right tank. This happens to me often growing cultures and you need to keep an eye on it. The organics aren't live phyto and if they build up too much I have issues. Safest thing is to sieve out adults and do a water change but I usually just gradually add live phyto to make sure food is available.

I use 120micron sieve to retain adult tisbe and apocyclops adults, and 250micron for tigriopus. 53 micron retains the nauplii. But full discosure I have been getting rotifer contamination lately and they have taken over a couple cultures. 120micron retains rotifers. 250micron doesn't but they still stay around somehow. I've cultured rotifers tho so probably I introduced them myself. Maybe this won't be a problem if you never culture rotifers.

I'm not certain about the live/dead nanno under the scope question but I think if the cell wall is intact it's either alive or very recently dead. So if you see alot of healthy looking cells things should be ok. When I see a lot of debris or bacterial mats I get worried. But I'm not so sure, I'm no biologist.

Good luck!

Thank you so much I really appreciate it. If you could tell me what you use for sieves and how you transfer the pods/eggs/larvae etc without adding weeks worth of waste to the new culture? I'm guessing you discard the "sludge" in the bottom and don't worry about eggs. I've been looking at the item pictured but it seems pricy for a sieve!

 

[TokenReefer]

Right! They are crazy expensive for what there are and buying individual size netting to make my own was just as bad I found. If I was going big I'd diy but I'm not. Used these with Tigger pods successfully and the price is right...covered the suggested micron sizes enough I believe... Not sure what yours are...
Combination Sieve Set (4 Stackable Sieves) L M https://a.co/d/a7BWU1R

 

[fryman]

Thank you so much I really appreciate it. If you could tell me what you use for sieves and how you transfer the pods/eggs/larvae etc without adding weeks worth of waste to the new culture? I'm guessing you discard the "sludge" in the bottom and don't worry about eggs. I've been looking at the item pictured but it seems pricy for a sieve!

I have mercer sieves that look like that. They have SS mesh screens and could be pricey, I don't remember the cost honestly. I also have sieves from florida aqua farms that work about the same just with synthetic mesh. You can diy the sieves I'm sure.

When I sieve I just pour through appropriate size sieve(s). I avoid the bottom of the culture which has alot of copepod poop and shells. I've heard many people keep this "mulm" and claim it has some benefits. In my experience, keeping the mulm leads to more "dirty-looking" cultures. I have not detected any benefit personally but since alot of people claim it does take that with a grain of salt.

 

[TWYOUNG]

I have mercer sieves that look like that. They have SS mesh screens and could be pricey, I don't remember the cost honestly. I also have sieves from florida aqua farms that work about the same just with synthetic mesh. You can diy the sieves I'm sure.

When I sieve I just pour through appropriate size sieve(s). I avoid the bottom of the culture which has alot of copepod poop and shells. I've heard many people keep this "mulm" and claim it has some benefits. In my experience, keeping the mulm leads to more "dirty-looking" cultures. I have not detected any benefit personally but since alot of people claim it does take that with a grain of salt.

Right now I've been struggling to get my nutrients above 0.0 so perhaps I'll just dump that "mulm" in my sump! Just kidding, or maybe not .

 

[fryman]

Right now I've been struggling to get my nutrients above 0.0 so perhaps I'll just dump that "mulm" in my sump! Just kidding, or maybe not .

I do that all the time. It doesn't affect my parameters significantly.

 

[TWYOUNG]

I do that all the time. It doesn't affect my parameters significantly.

Okay then, doesn't sound like there's a downside to it and possibly something in that sludge may find a home for itself.