Copepods culture, I'm trying but failing

Rick's Reviews · Jun 7, 2022

I think it's a brilliant idea, I have got mine brewing today

, for what it is and what it costs £2... Definitely worth trying, I found an unused pram cover that I will use as cover to minimise contaminants
Thanks everyone for the share and all help

Rick's Reviews · Jun 7, 2022

From all the great information provided I have setup an exterior culture box which is plastic tub and small rain cover I found in garage, added banana skin, my internal current setup I discarded all living copepods to external setup, and cleaned out, new crude culture station now on my windowsill, I now have more worktop in kitchen for cooking but can not avoid constant humm of of air pump lol

Cleaned out sweet tubs, added salt water mix to both tubs salinity 1025, room temp today just above 20c , acclimated copepods as they was in fridge ,
(Left) sweet tub I added 3 X wet cocktail sticks of spirulina powder to turn slightly green
(Right) tub I added 2ml of seachem reef phytoplankton

1 bag of copepods in each windowsill tubs, 2 bags in my aquriam today for my mandarin and flame scooter

I think this a great start and appreciate all your feedback and messages, excited to see external method which I will try and throw in some pods once algae starts to grow

ying yang · Jun 7, 2022

Rick's Reviews said:
I think it's a brilliant idea, I have got mine brewing today , for what it is and what it costs £2... Definitely worth trying, I found an unused pram cover that I will use as cover to minimise contaminants
Thanks everyone for the share and all help

Good luck and hope you get many months of basically free pods on your outside batch until winter comes and freezes over,but then without doing anything ,your copepod culture kicks back into action next spring/summer ha ha.
I know bags of copepods I see in your pictures cost me £1 so seems a really easy and really cheap way to produce live food,especially if any finnicky eating fish or fish that only eat pods like mandarins/red scooter blennies etc,its a great cheap way indeed.

And not knocking any sellers off pods but see often I think its $20 dollars upwards that people say is price for adding pods to tank if not enough pods to feed say a mandarin/red scooter blennie,maybe alot of that price is the shipping of the pods and not the actual price of the pods or maybe price of pods in america are much more expensive, but could also be type of pods for sale or quantity of pods in each bottle, as I said earlier them bags in your pictures are £ 1 in my lfs so the copepods I buy really are next to nothing in price.
I know I've read alot of threads and searched myself for where to buy tisbe pods and couldn't find anywhere advertising them ( just says copepods is all) maybe they are tisbe pods or maybe not I don't know.

I really want to start my own culture outside this cheap way but paranoid the water get contaminated in some way as live in small 3 storey high block of flats and 9 flats share a communal garden and one of neighbours kids ( about 12) has some kind of learning difficulties and is quite destructive and causes some damage to stuff on occasion,so would be scared incase he poured paint or oli or something in and then I added copepods that been eating something toxic or some toxic water got in my tank or some mad stuff like this ha ha but want pair of red scooter blennies so adding free pods to my tank would surely help as when at lfs,always get told they not eating prepared/frozen foods at all,my tank 15 months old and has 8 different kinds of pods so probably ok anyway but worry just incase not,especially as want a pair and read they can eat a pod every 6 seconds and can decimate a pod population in a tank in no time but we shall see ^_^

Rick's Reviews · Jun 9, 2022

Yes for me these bags also come listed as copepods, £17 for 10 bags delivered, they are nothing similar to the amphipods or other inhabitants that was scurrying around my aquarium after 8months of cycling, (if your new to my post, I purposely cycled this amount of time), however for the cost I am happy to use them to test out copepod culture kits at home, my mandarin and flame scooter are happy, my flame scooter has seemed more fuller (better showing stomach) since I first introduced, both mandarin and scooter both eat frozen bloodworms.

I have tried to culture, copepods but as post says, it was more like keeping them alive.
With the information shared here I have reset and adjusted to see if I can get £1-£2 bags of copepods whatever species to breed, then if I can, I will look into different species of copepods to cultivate in the future, I will still be getting my delivery of copepods in the mean time.
In regards to cultivating your own pods and your neighbors kid... maybe set up one for them to experiment with, I found culture kits online for £45... Avoid this to start, I got air pump for £10 Amazon and my containers are from local newsagents (plastic sweet tubs), they are more then happy to give to me for free... you could set one up for your neighbors kid with or without air pump and this will maybe keep entertainment on Thiers instead of yours, (just suggestions as I'm unsure of circumstances)
For me, if I'm successful in breeding £1- £2 copepods in the next few months and my mandarin and flame scooter are still enjoying these as a snack then I will look at different breeds and will purchase and breed even a bag or two different spieces for £20

ying yang · Jun 9, 2022

Yeah good idea about getting one for neighbours kid to call his own.
If they spoke English would be better but the mum is Romanian I believe and doesn't speak word of English ( well hello and stuff like this) and dont think I ever heard him say 1 word in the 2 years they lived in my block of flats,he just literally grunts or screams ha ha.
It's a communal garden and the mum won't let her kid go out on his own and have got a back/side bit of garden where keeps kids slide/trampoline and he not wrecked any of that that I'm aware off and it's directly under living room window ( I'm on second floor) and me and obe the other neighbours made a DIY fence/gate to this part so maybe I put clear plastic box there and start one off and as would only be scooping them out with a net,won't be any water going in actual tank or very little so risks are lowered I guess.

Just seems like such a brilliant ,not so much work and so cheap ( basically free) way of getting pods,it's hard to resist the urge to do it.

Would have to scoop them out with a net and put In a small container of saltwater to bring upstairs as would take quite a few minutes walking around and up the stairs,will post back here if ever get around to doing it ^_^