Copepods

[Dcole12]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to start introducing my copepods to my tank. I have a 20 gallon WB. What is the best way to introduce them into the tank as well as maintain a health population of pods? I want to start dosing phyto as well.

Any input is great where to get copepods, how to dose, etc.

Same with phyto.. Any additional information will be much appreciated.

 

[Brady4000]

I am sure others will have a lot more detailed experience than me. But my pods are thriving, I do dose phyto, and have a place for them to hide in the refug. I am guessing my cheato I have is the reason I am successful with my pods. Big thing is having a place for them to hide.

As for introducing them, I just dumped them in and that worked. I turned off the wave makers and did it at night so as many as possible found hiding spots, before getting eaten.

 

[Simsung]

I am sure others will have a lot more detailed experience than me. But my pods are thriving, I do dose phyto, and have a place for them to hide in the refug. I am guessing my cheato I have is the reason I am successful with my pods. Big thing is having a place for them to hide.

As for introducing them, I just dumped them in and that worked. I turned off the wave makers and did it at night so as many as possible found hiding spots, before getting eaten.

Do you know what species have you got? To me it seems that my pods hold a competition who gets eaten first. They rush to the surface and are swimming free in the water column instead of hiding.

 

[JosephM]

Tisbe pods are my go to for establishing a population. They breed fast, they’re small, and hide from predators. As stated earlier having a good hiding spot and dosing Phyto will do wonders. Introducing them I’d do it at night with all powerheads and returns off along with the skimmer. If you have a refuge dump most in there and some in your DT. They should be self sustaining for the most part. If you have any heavy pod eaters you’re going to want to introduce more every so often though

 

[mdb_talon]

Wavemakers and lights off seems to be concensus i have seen on adding them.

For phyto my recommendation is start slowly, but in my experience you can eventually add very large doses....so i started culturing my own.

For pods i have tisbe and tig pods that i have added. I bought both reef nutrition and algae barn pods. My first order with algae barn were all dead. To their credit they sent brand new shipment no hassle. The second order was good, but at least to the naked eye there was a whole lot more activity in the reef nutrition bottles.

 

[Brady4000]

Do you know what species have you got? To me it seems that my pods hold a competition who gets eaten first. They rush to the surface and are swimming free in the water column instead of hiding.

Tigger pods

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to start introducing my copepods to my tank. I have a 20 gallon WB. What is the best way to introduce them into the tank as well as maintain a health population of pods? I want to start dosing phyto as well.

Any input is great where to get copepods, how to dose, etc.

Same with phyto.. Any additional information will be much appreciated.

No real scientific method. Warm them to tank temperature (floating container will accomplish this). I personally add pipettes of tank water to their container prior to release.

 

[Pistondog]

Just ordered from Tommy's phyto for 1st time.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

I breed pods and make my own Phytoplankton. Message me if interested or look me up on ebay . Jay's Reef Bugs

 

[AltitudeAquarium]

Salty410,
I tried looking you up on Ebay with no luck. I will private message you.
OP, I got my pods from Algae Barn, Reef Nutrition, Aquanursery farms and my LFS. For me it was the cost and the convenience of the purchase that affected my decision. Take a look and see what works best for your situation.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

Sounds good I'm the 1st nonsponserd one on ebay 5th one down when you search copepods

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

*

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Wavemakers and lights off seems to be concensus i have seen on adding them.

For phyto my recommendation is start slowly, but in my experience you can eventually add very large doses....so i started culturing my own.

For pods i have tisbe and tig pods that i have added. I bought both reef nutrition and algae barn pods. My first order with algae barn were all dead. To their credit they sent brand new shipment no hassle. The second order was good, but at least to the naked eye there was a whole lot more activity in the reef nutrition bottles.

Thanks for the comments regarding our live copepods. We take great pride in packing em' in!

-Chad

 

[adittam]

I have a relatively young sumpless 46 gallon tank (see build thread for details) currently with 1 week of fallow time remaining. If I get a bottle of live pods and dump them in now, before there are fish in there, any chance they start to breed on their own and become self-sustaining without a sump/refugium to hide in?

 

[mdb_talon]

Yes for sure...if they have food.

 

[adittam]

Yes for sure...if they have food.

What type of pods would you pick for a young tank that doesn't have any fish yet? I'm planning on keeping clowns, a goby, a blenny, a chromis and a wrasse or two. I've got lots of green algae, some diatoms, and some hair algae starting on my rocks. Do I need to add additional food for them?

 

[Reef.]

I have a 14g, added pods around 6 months ago, never feed them thought I didn’t have any but over the last couple of weeks I’ve seen loads, I did acclimatise them, not sure if that helped.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Another potential vector for pods to get in your tank is purchasing a small piece of live rock. Yes, there is the potential for invasive hitchhikers, but it's a great way to introduce all sorts of beneficial biodiversity. I have heard Tisbe are great also, as they are detritovores and aren't carnivorous on your microbiome.

 

[mdb_talon]

What type of pods would you pick for a young tank that doesn't have any fish yet? I'm planning on keeping clowns, a goby, a blenny, a chromis and a wrasse or two. I've got lots of green algae, some diatoms, and some hair algae starting on my rocks. Do I need to add additional food for them?

Tisbe/tigger/apocyclops are ones I like. Should not necessarily need to feed them as they should do ok in all but the newest/sterile tanks. Having said that I dose phyto daily (in part to help the pod population grow). In my opinion just cant have too many pods if you have the fish that will eat(just about any medium or small fish) them they keep the population from growing crazy and gives them a nice food they can hunt. .