Culturing copepods

[hollback]

I have had the same copepod cultures going continuously since 2004. I had them collected from the Caribbean and keep them at 1.025 salinity. It take a long time to figure out the right balance of phyto, nutrient export and harvesting.

The type of phyto you feed should match the species. Based on your photo, I'd guess a tigriopus species and I would suggest culturing nannochloropsis or Nannochloris Oculata. I culture in 2ltrs and gallon carboys. I set container to be harvested in 7 days and 11 days based on amount of phyto I'm restarting the culture with. This allows me to feed my cultures 2x per week. Don't worry about the phyto settling or going yellow. Tigriopus copepods are benthic and will crawl on the bottom of the culture container and eat the settled phyto.

This is basically how I have my cultures setup: https://reefs.com/magazine/the-breeder-s-net-a-simple-how-to-on-home-culture-of-copepods/

You don't need to light the copepod cultures. In fact, I've had better luck not lighting them. I've also had better luck with minimal to no air flow and none of my cultures have any flow. Just clean tanks, fresh saltwater, live phyto and copepods. You don't want anything else in the culture system for them to cling to or hide in.

Tigriopus take about 8 weeks to reach maturity so give your cultures 6-8 weeks before you start harvesting. Also when you first start your cultures, the adults will usually mostly die off after a week or two and people think the culture crashed. The nauplii (babies) are microscopic so you have tons in there, you just can't see them but they will start being large enough to see after 3-4 weeks.

Over the years, my most common cause of crashes is from ciliates being introduced and out competing the copepod nauplii. Also, I only restart my cultures about every 6-8 months. Outside of that, I harvest weekly which becomes my mini water change, topoff with freshwater to keep salinity stable, and siphon detritus every 2 months or so.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

 

[kilnakorr]

Thanks for all the info.

The type of phyto you feed should match the species. Based on your photo, I'd guess a tigriopus species and I would suggest culturing nannochloropsis or Nannochloris Oculata.

The phyto I'm culturing and feeding with is 'Nannochloropsis Oculata'-at least that is what the bottle says.

Also when you first start your cultures, the adults will usually mostly die off after a week or two and people think the culture crashed.

Won't a lot of dead pods contaminate the culture? Should they be siphoned out?

Tigriopus take about 8 weeks to reach maturity so give your cultures 6-8 weeks before you start harvesting

I thought they multiplied much faster, but guess I've been misinformed.


I did add more phyto, to get a more green looking water:

I added som white paper to block the light a bit.

Hopefully, I can keep this one from crashing but guess I need to keep it alive till xmas before I see new pods.

 

[hollback]

The phyto I'm culturing and feeding with is 'Nannochloropsis Oculata'-at least that is what the bottle says.

That is fine. The nanno family has a very small cell size which works well for this species.

Won't a lot of dead pods contaminate the culture? Should they be siphoned out?

Nope, the detritus actually help. They thrive in dirty conditions. Actually removing too much detritus too fast has shown to be more of a potential to stunt or crash the culture.

I thought they multiplied much faster, but guess I've been misinformed.

Technically they can reproduce at 21 days but the initial start of a culture takes longer, especially depending on the ratio of culture volume to number of pods.

I added som white paper to block the light a bit.

You want the phyto to be in full light but the cultures to be in the dark.

 

[kilnakorr]

That is fine. The nanno family has a very small cell size which works well for this species.


Nope, the detritus actually help. They thrive in dirty conditions. Actually removing too much detritus too fast has shown to be more of a potential to stunt or crash the culture.


Technically they can reproduce at 21 days but the initial start of a culture takes longer, especially depending on the ratio of culture volume to number of pods.


You want the phyto to be in full light but the cultures to be in the dark.

So in short:
Leave everything as it is, but move the pod culture down, to minimize the amount of light.
Add more phyto to pods, once water starts to look less green?

Just wondering why my previous attempts has failed. But could very well be to little phyto, as I've been scared of 'overfeeding' and chrashing the culture.

 

[kilnakorr]

@hollback

Thanks for all the info so far.
Currently, it seems algae is growing in both cultures. There is still living pods in both, but hard to tell if there are more or less then when I started.

Should I do something about this, or just leave it?
I believe I will have a hard time harvest any pods without trapping lots of algae too.

 

[hollback]

You should siphon the copepods out so you leave all the detritus.

 

[kilnakorr]

You should siphon the copepods out so you leave all the detritus.

Ok. I'll try.
I'm not sure how easy it will be, as lots of the pods are sitting around the sides. Will be hard to get them out, without siphoning the algae and detritus along with them.

 

[kilnakorr]

You should siphon the copepods out so you leave all the detritus.

Just did a 'clean up'.
There are still alot of live pods in there, but pretty sure less than when I started.

Could this isdue be because of too much light?
If I have to change container every 2 weeks, I'm probably losing a lot of small baby pods.

 

[hollback]

You shouldn't be doing any water changes for at least 2 months. Just add phyto occasionally to tint the water green and top off. Light isn't the issue, you need to build up the population first which will take 6-8 weeks.

 

[kilnakorr]

You shouldn't be doing any water changes for at least 2 months. Just add phyto occasionally to tint the water green and top off. Light isn't the issue, you need to build up the population first which will take 6-8 weeks.

I know. However, you just told me this:

You should siphon the copepods out so you leave all the detritus.

In short, this would be a partial waterchange.
I cant really target the pods when siphoning, so I must leave some behind mixed with all the detritus.

I guess my entire thread is about this issue. Without waterchanges, the culture will crash an die.

 

[hollback]

Sorry for the confusion. The comment about siphoning out the pods and leaving the detritus was about how to separate the pods from the waste.

You don't need to worry about the waste building up at the beginning. When restarting my cultures from scratch (cleaning the culture tanks and adding new saltwater) I add copepods, new saltwater, and live phytoplankton. I then top off once a week to account for evaporation. I don't touch the culture for at least 8 weeks but I do add more phyto at about the 4 week point.

Cultures crash due to contamination or lack of a food source. You only have to worry about the ladder once the culture is dense and burning through phytoquickly. I mentioned this before but when you first start your cultures, the adults will usually mostly die off after a week or two and people think the culture crashed. The nauplii (babies) are microscopic so you have tons in there, you just can't see them.

To summarize, dont worry about water changes for the first two months. Your culture won't crash.

 

[GARRIGA]

@hollback

Thanks for all the info so far.
Currently, it seems algae is growing in both cultures. There is still living pods in both, but hard to tell if there are more or less then when I started.

Should I do something about this, or just leave it?
I believe I will have a hard time harvest any pods without trapping lots of algae too.

Brine shrimp net might capture the right size yet algae goes through it.

 

[kilnakorr]

Brine shrimp net might capture the right size yet algae goes through it.

I do have some pod sieves 100 to 200 microns.
I cannot capture pods without capturing gunk and lumps of algae.

I do expect the 'new' culture to do exactly the same in a week or two, but time will tell.

 

[kilnakorr]

An update for anyone who cares.

My cultures crashed after 2 weeks time as before. I didn't restart as I needed som time to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Just be chance, I got my hands on a phyto/pod tank. One room for phyto culturing, and one for the pods. Phyto slowly drips into the 'pod-room' and waste should feed the phyto.
Not sure if it works, but a fun project.

Phyto in the big room. Didn't have much phyto on hand, but just started a new culture also, to make sure I don't run on.

Pod room. Phyto drips from the top tube and micro mesh keeps pods from entering the phyto room.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I know. However, you just told me this:

In short, this would be a partial waterchange.
I cant really target the pods when siphoning, so I must leave some behind mixed with all the detritus.

I guess my entire thread is about this issue. Without waterchanges, the culture will crash an die.

there are no water changes with pods. Just pods, saltwater, and phyto, and in about 4-5 weeks you drain the water entirely through a sieve, catch all pods, clean the water container, and start all over. (80% of pods to your main tank, and 20% to start the new culture)

Your culture crashes in 2 weeks probably because you add too much phtyo, and the ammonia builds too fast and kills the pods.

Its almost impossible to kill the pods, they are almost indestructible. I've let the salinity increase to .032, I've let the water temp go down to 67, and all the way up to 85, I've had my water go brown a couple of times, but there are always some pods alive. I just empty the water entirely, catch the surviving pods in a sieve, and start all over again. (no water changes - completely empty the tank, clean it, and start again.)

I hate to see anyone fail at this, cause its to easy. I think you must be overthinking it. After all, its just fish food, you are culturing them to die.

 

[kilnakorr]

there are no water changes with pods. Just pods, saltwater, and phyto, and in about 4-5 weeks you drain the water entirely through a sieve, catch all pods, clean the water container, and start all over. (80% of pods to your main tank, and 20% to start the new culture)

Your culture crashes in 2 weeks probably because you add too much phtyo, and the ammonia builds too fast and kills the pods.

Its almost impossible to kill the pods, they are almost indestructible. I've let the salinity increase to .032, I've let the water temp go down to 67, and all the way up to 85, I've had my water go brown a couple of times, but there are always some pods alive. I just empty the water entirely, catch the surviving pods in a sieve, and start all over again. (no water changes - completely empty the tank, clean it, and start again.)

I hate to see anyone fail at this, cause its to easy. I think you must be overthinking it. After all, its just fish food, you are culturing them to die.

Exactly what I hate about it. It should be very easy, but I'm doing something wrong. It could be overfeeding, but I've seen plenty of videos and images with much greener water than I have had.
Obviously, something dies in there and crashes everything.

 

[Karen00]

there are no water changes with pods. Just pods, saltwater, and phyto, and in about 4-5 weeks you drain the water entirely through a sieve, catch all pods, clean the water container, and start all over. (80% of pods to your main tank, and 20% to start the new culture)

Your culture crashes in 2 weeks probably because you add too much phtyo, and the ammonia builds too fast and kills the pods.

Its almost impossible to kill the pods, they are almost indestructible. I've let the salinity increase to .032, I've let the water temp go down to 67, and all the way up to 85, I've had my water go brown a couple of times, but there are always some pods alive. I just empty the water entirely, catch the surviving pods in a sieve, and start all over again. (no water changes - completely empty the tank, clean it, and start again.)

I hate to see anyone fail at this, cause its to easy. I think you must be overthinking it. After all, its just fish food, you are culturing them to die.

Thank you for posting this! I've been following along. I have been failing as well but that could be because I'm trying to treat the bucket like a tank by doing water changes, etc. I am ordering sieves to do the filtering as you said to change out the water. I'm using a bucket with airstone and some chaeto and regular light. Does this sound sufficient? I'm trying to culture the smaller apex pods. I read a post by Chad from reef nutrition that these are the hardiest for salinity and temp. I let the bucket sit at room temp which ranges from 70 to 75 deg. What type of pods do you culture because it also sounds like you sometimes let the conditions swing. I would also like to culture the tigger pods but thought Chad mentioned these aren't as hardy to swings in parameters.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Thank you for posting this! I've been following along. I have been failing as well but that could be because I'm trying to treat the bucket like a tank by doing water changes, etc. I am ordering sieves to do the filtering as you said to change out the water. I'm using a bucket with airstone and some chaeto and regular light. Does this sound sufficient? I'm trying to culture the smaller apex pods. I read a post by Chad from reef nutrition that these are the hardiest for salinity and temp. I let the bucket sit at room temp which ranges from 70 to 75 deg. What type of pods do you culture because it also sounds like you sometimes let the conditions swing. I would also like to culture the tigger pods but thought Chad mentioned these aren't as hardy to swings in parameters.

Hi, I dont use a heater or light or chaeto. Less is better. I culture tisbe, tiggers, and apocyclops, my three little tanks have been going for 1.5 years. Airstone is ok but on very low, they dont like the bubbles. Just water, live phyto and pods, thats it, all at room temp (unless you live in extreme climate)

If your having trouble, fill up your container half way, then fill it all the way up about 2 weeks later. Ammonia always builds up because of dead pods, dead phyto, pods egg shells, pod poo, etc, so it slowly builds up over time.. so by adding more saltwater a couple weeks later, it dilutes the building ammonia. You have to harvest the pods before the ammonia builds up to much and kills them. water change is pointless because it still leaves ammonia, it needs to be 100% change

After a while, you get the timing and amount of food down pretty good. Live phyto makes a lot of difference as well compared to bottled stuff. Hope this helps, good luck

 

[Karen00]

Hi, I dont use a heater or light or chaeto. Less is better. I culture tisbe, tiggers, and apocyclops, my three little tanks have been going for 1.5 years. Airstone is ok but on very low, they dont like the bubbles. Just water, live phyto and pods, thats it, all at room temp (unless you live in extreme climate)

If your having trouble, fill up your container half way, then fill it all the way up about 2 weeks later. Ammonia always builds up because of dead pods, dead phyto, pods egg shells, pod poo, etc, so it slowly builds up over time.. so by adding more saltwater a couple weeks later, it dilutes the building ammonia. You have to harvest the pods before the ammonia builds up to much and kills them. water change is pointless because it still leaves ammonia, it needs to be 100% change

After a while, you get the timing and amount of food down pretty good. Live phyto makes a lot of difference as well compared to bottled stuff. Hope this helps, good luck

Thank you so much!!!! In reading your reply I already see a number of things I'm doing that could be causing failure. Firstly an airstone on too high. I like your suggestion of filling halfway and then fill the remainder a couple weeks later to dilute ammonia. Great tips here!! Funny thing, I have no problems with culturing freshwater daphnia for my FW tanks. If these guys survived longer in saltwater I could use them. LOL

 

[GARRIGA]

If phyto is single cell algae then that needs nutrients and CO2 to flourish. F/2 is the industry standard formula for giving single cell algae what it needs to grow. Can be sourced from Amazon and Ebay. There are also predators that contaminate the solution and consume the algae. Unavoidable in a hobby setup and why best to keep a source refrigerated for eventual crashes.

Two seperate systems to maintain. Only way I've found to keep single cell algae alive is with lots of nutrients and CO2. Absent of CO2 it will take carbon from your hardness and crash your alkalinity causing PH drops.

I'm old and still trying to adjust to the new terminology. We just called it green water.