Copepods...

[ArowanaLover1902]

I recently bought a mandarin and he has been doing great in the tank, though I haven't seen him eat any of the fish food i give and my tank isn't old enough to be giving him a ton of copepods. For this reason I am setting up a copepod tank. I have a spare 2.5 gallon bowfront that I will be using
- Filtration: air stone
- lighting: sunlight
- Food: ???
- In the tank: A piece of live rock and some macroalgae

I am new to copepods, so any help would be appreciated. My biggest problem is what to feed them?

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Also, should i use sand in the tank?

 

[whatchamacallit]

Do an order of pods and phyto from algae barn

 

[SteveSTL]

Unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money constantly buying pods, you should return him. Your tank isn't big enough to support the amount of pods he'll need to survive and you'll have trouble raising the amount he needs and getting them to him.

 

[whatchamacallit]

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/diy-target-feeder-mandarinfish-pipefish-2804/

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I am very prepared to spend lots of money on this fish. Easily my favorite in the tank and probably one of the coolest saltwater fish. I think that (for now) I am going to raise the copepods, I want some experience doing this. Should I have sand in the aquarium, or no substrate at all?

 

[Waboss]

I have a mandarin in my Reefer 170 (about 34 Gal Display) and had him in a BC29 before that. As long as you keep your culture up and feed the tank regularly (I do it about every other day.......after the first 10 day period of course) he/she should be pretty well fed. You can also add a "mandarin" feeder and keep it loaded with newly born brine shrimp to supplement. Mine finally fell apart, so I'm going to make a new one.

Based on what you listed, I have the following comments:
-You don't really need an air stone unless you just want it. I have a piece of rigid airline in my culture pumping out about 1-2 bubble per second.....that's it.
-I feed mine DT's phytoplankton but you can use other brands...the stuff from Aquabarn is pretty good too. You can do it on the cheap with phytoplankton paste if you want as well.
-If you use LR or chaeto, that'll make it easier to "feed your tank" assuming you're not worried about cross contaminating between your culture and tank (I do it all the time, and have never had an issue). Just take a piece of the rock or a clump of chaeto out of the culture and dip/shake it in the display tank (not very scientific, but it works).

Anyway, seems you're on the right track! Good luck!

 

[Waboss]

I am very prepared to spend lots of money on this fish. Easily my favorite in the tank and probably one of the coolest saltwater fish. I think that (for now) I am going to raise the copepods, I want some experience doing this. Should I have sand in the aquarium, or no substrate at all?

The culture I'm running is bare bottom......"refreshing" the culture would be a pain if I tried to put substrate in it.

Incidentally, you could just make a phytoplankton culture too if you wanted to.......I'm just not that ambitious.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

No worries of cross contamination, I like the idea of shaking off the algae too. I thought that sand would be a pain, but i didn't know if it was preferred or not. So the tank will have algae, live rock, airline tubing with light bubbles, and pods/phytoplankton from AlgaeBarn. I will order the pods and phtyo tonight and get the live rock and algae tomorrow. This mandarin is a pain but well worth it.

 

[Velcro]

If you are prepared to spend money, set up a refugium. You'll have to benefit of nutrient export with chaeto and your pod population will explode.

 

[jent]

I highly recommend giving this a listen:
http://podbay.fm/show/78383725/e/1157079700

I hate audio or video for information transfer, but she knows her stuff, and does touch on copepod production. She also can provide starter cultures.

I think the only reasonable way to produce copepods is to also to culture phyto (and as she describes several species to provide proper nutrition). She mentions a few strains which provide the best nutrition for them (Nannochloropsis being one of the worst, despite it being one of the most frequently cultured).

 

[ReeferReefer]

You should start some phyto cultures in plastic jugs to feed the copes too.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I purchased some phyto and copepods from algaebarn, a 16 ounce thing of each. I'll culture the phyto in a jug next to the copepods, this is fun. I am enjoying setting this all up, tomorrow I go to my LFS to buy some macroalgae (depends on what types they have) and maybe two small pieces of live rock.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I highly recommend giving this a listen:
http://podbay.fm/show/78383725/e/1157079700

I hate audio or video for information transfer, but she knows her stuff, and does touch on copepod production. She also can provide starter cultures.

I think the only reasonable way to produce copepods is to also to culture phyto (and as she describes several species to provide proper nutrition). She mentions a few strains which provide the best nutrition for them (Nannochloropsis being one of the worst, despite it being one of the most frequently cultured).

Listening to the podcast now, agreed that audio is a bad way to transfer data, i much prefer reading, still this podcast is really cool.

 

[rumen]

I raise copepods pm me i can show u the ropes

 

[jent]

You likely wont want to use the phyto purchased to start a culture. Because it likely will have multiple species of phyto in it, once you start culturing it, the more dominant will take over and you will end up with a mono-culture. Not necessarily a culture of the best one, just the most advantageous one. You should really get a few culture disks, and have two or three running in parallel (but separate)

 

[Velcro]

Is there really an advantage of going through all of the trouble of setting up a second propagation tank for pods? A refugium is autopilot....

 

[jent]

Very few refugiums would be able to produce enough pods to support a dragonet. You really need to be actively and directly feeding and producing these suckers to get quantities such that you can support them (at least in small aquariums like the OP's where the natural pod productions in general will be very little).

In many ways cultivating pods is easier than having a 100+ gal fuge to support a 14gal aquarium.

 

[rumen]

This is my pod operation i have going ... i supply pods for my lfs to support this expensive hobby

 

[Velcro]

Very few refugiums would be able to produce enough pods to support a dragonet. You really need to be actively and directly feeding and producing these suckers to get quantities such that you can support them (at least in small aquariums like the OP's where the natural pod productions in general will be very little).

In many ways cultivating pods is easier than having a 100+ gal fuge to support a 14gal aquarium.

Um, are you sure about that? I have a 5 gallon fuge on my 75 gallon display and my mandarin gets "hits" every few seconds while he's grazing.