Culturing Tisbe pods

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! I sure do ask a lot of questions about culturing the 'bugs of the sea' Anyhow, I am still doing research on culturing copepods and have some questions on Tisbe pods;

1 - How long do these copepods live? I was originally thinking of setting the culture up with nauplii and new seawater, waiting a week, then harvesting nauplii daily for the next two weeks (and then doing a 100% water change and restarting with some of the harvested nauplii); I have since been considering doubling to 2 weeks and 4 weeks respectively after getting some feedback from other hobbyists.
2 - Will they eat dry foods (spirulina powder, chlorella powder, fry powder, etc) or do they need live algae or algae paste?
3 - What can I expect for nauplii production for these guys? And how many adults should I be shooting for to get optimal nauplii production? I've heard they can be sustained at colonies of 40,000 pods per liter, but they do not seem to have been selectively harvesting nauplii.
4 - Speaking of nauplii, will the adults eat them? And what mesh size should I use to keep the adults and copepodites out while gathering the nauplii?
5 - Would there be any benefit of adding more surface area for the adult Tisbe pods, perhaps via a few chunks of lava rock?
6 - Anything else I should know?

Thanks

 

[PeterLL]

Brilliant questions and look forward to the answers as I'm looking to culture them too

 

[ichthyogeek]

I said this in your Tigriopus thread, I'll say it on this thread too: look at Google Scholar. You're doing yourself a disservice by not using it to find the relevant papers. Here're some examples of just searching for "Tisbe biminiensis" (the Tisbe that we typically get when buying a culture):

Development and population dynamics of Tisbe biminiensis (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) reared on different diets

The harpacticoid copepod Tisbe biminiensis was reared under controlled laboratory conditions. In order to study the effects of food on larval developm…

www.sciencedirect.com

Mass culture and offspring production of marine harpacticoid copepod Tisbe biminiensis

The aim of the present study was to develop mass culture techniques for the copepod Tisbe biminiensis Volkmann-Rocco, 1973. Copepod culture was carrie…

www.sciencedirect.com

Error - Cookies Turned Off

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I'll get back to this thread with more thorough answers later.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

I said this in your Tigriopus thread, I'll say it on this thread too: look at Google Scholar. You're doing yourself a disservice by not using it to find the relevant papers. Here're some examples of just searching for "Tisbe biminiensis" (the Tisbe that we typically get when buying a culture):

Development and population dynamics of Tisbe biminiensis (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) reared on different diets

The harpacticoid copepod Tisbe biminiensis was reared under controlled laboratory conditions. In order to study the effects of food on larval developm…

www.sciencedirect.com

Mass culture and offspring production of marine harpacticoid copepod Tisbe biminiensis

The aim of the present study was to develop mass culture techniques for the copepod Tisbe biminiensis Volkmann-Rocco, 1973. Copepod culture was carrie…

www.sciencedirect.com

Error - Cookies Turned Off

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I'll get back to this thread with more thorough answers later.

(Facepalm)...yeah, you DID tell me that. I'll make sure to use it next time.

In the meantime, Sustainable aquatics sent me some articles on the subject after I emailed them about culturing Tisbe. Here are the articles;

 

[csb123]

So, based on the articles, I could harvest Tsibe daily, and paradoxically boost production. First a 200 micron sieve to catch the adults, and return them to the culture. Secondly, a 50 micron sieve to capture the naupalii and add them to the reef...

I wonder how often harvesting in this way for Tiggers, would work.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

So, based on the articles, I could harvest Tsibe daily, and paradoxically boost production. First a 200 micron sieve to catch the adults, and return them to the culture. Secondly, a 50 micron sieve to capture the naupalii and add them to the reef...

I wonder how often harvesting in this way for Tiggers, would work.

Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Tisbe also care much more strongly about the tank's surface area than its volume, so a long, wide, shallow culture seems to work best. I've even read that surface area can be added through small plastic balls or other objects (lava rock maybe?) placed in the culture (see here; https://www.uanl.mx/utilerias/nutricion_acuicola/VIII/archivos/5Stottrup.pdf - on page 12). Tigriopus also prefer surface area to volume (for the same reason...they are benthic copepods), but I have no clue whether they would take issue with having the whole culture passed through a sieve daily (I know Apocyclops panamensis will stop reproducing for several days from stress if you try doing that with them).

 

[LordJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! After reading the above sources and doing further research, I came up with a regime for culturing Tisbe that could produce - on average - over 100,000 nauplii a day...how does this sound?

CONTAINER; 18 by 12 inch container with 2 liters of sea water, daily 100% WC's,.
EQUIPMENT; A taller container filled with water will be kept in the middle of the culture and house the heater, set to the low 80's fahrenheit. The culture will also have a weak airline (and perhaps a tiny homemade filter attached to it) and a light for 8 hours a day.
FEEDING; Either Phaeodactylum tricornutum diatoms (cultured by me) or a plankton feed from Sachs systems aquaculture. Either way, enough will be fed after the water change to achieve a noticeable tint to the water.
MAINTENANCE; Daily 100% water changes if I want a lot of nauplii (may go down to every other day if not requiring a large number of nauplii). Culture will be started with 14,000 nauplii, allowed to age for 2 weeks (long enough for the Tisbe to reach maturity and start reproducing), then will have nauplii harvested daily during water changes for 6 more weeks. Following this the culture will be restarted as above. Not sure how I will start this from a starter culture (which will almost certainly NOT contain that many pods, nor consist entirely of nauplii).

Thanks for your input

 

[ichthyogeek]

I don't think having a tall container filled with tater is going to be conducive to heat transfer...maybe potato soup? Or if you like your taters super gloopy? But definitely not taters. lol

The Sachs plankton feed is okay. I used it to jump start a daphnia culture in my old lab, but the particle size isn't very desirable due to having really large chunks (this was after following mixing instructions). A snail in the culture took care of it, but I would prefer a reconstituted algae paste (take a little bit of algae paste and suspend it in water) for saltwater culture. And aside from the one professional phyto bank, I'm not sure where you'd get Phaeodactylum of any kind, much less P. tricornutum....

You'll probably just need to either 1) buy multiple starter cultures, or 2) grow out your starter culture until it gets big enough.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

I don't think having a tall container filled with tater is going to be conducive to heat transfer...maybe potato soup? Or if you like your taters super gloopy? But definitely not taters. lol

The Sachs plankton feed is okay. I used it to jump start a daphnia culture in my old lab, but the particle size isn't very desirable due to having really large chunks (this was after following mixing instructions). A snail in the culture took care of it, but I would prefer a reconstituted algae paste (take a little bit of algae paste and suspend it in water) for saltwater culture. And aside from the one professional phyto bank, I'm not sure where you'd get Phaeodactylum of any kind, much less P. tricornutum....

You'll probably just need to either 1) buy multiple starter cultures, or 2) grow out your starter culture until it gets big enough.

Yeah, taters would not be particularly useful anywhere in a Tisbe culture...

Tisbe are detritivores, so the adults at least should have no problem eating the plankton feed (though I could imagine the nauplii having trouble with it if it doesn't stay suspended very well). Sustainable aquatics carries Phaeodactylum cultures, among others; https://www.coralreeftn.com/shop.php

Of course, I can do either of those things...either buy several starter cultures or just grow one out.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

I came up with a BRILLIANT idea to reduce costs on a tisbe culture (or Apocyclops culture, for that matter)...algae paste! Granted, that's far from a revolutionary idea...but with billions of cells per ml, even a small bottle of algae paste would be far cheaper than culturing the algae myself so long as the copepod willingly eats it (definitely the case for Tisbe and Apocyclops, as well as rotifers). I would simply store the algae I would not use by the refrigerated expiration date by mixing it with 0-TDS water, adding an oxygen scavenger, and stuffing that sealed container in the freezer, only pulling it out to thaw when it is ready. Would I need glycerin to do this, or will the algae still be useable when it thaws?

 

[ichthyogeek]

I came up with a BRILLIANT idea to reduce costs on a tisbe culture (or Apocyclops culture, for that matter)...algae paste! Granted, that's far from a revolutionary idea...but with billions of cells per ml, even a small bottle of algae paste would be far cheaper than culturing the algae myself so long as the copepod willingly eats it (definitely the case for Tisbe and Apocyclops, as well as rotifers). I would simply store the algae I would not use by the refrigerated expiration date by mixing it with 0-TDS water, adding an oxygen scavenger, and stuffing that sealed container in the freezer, only pulling it out to thaw when it is ready. Would I need glycerin to do this, or will the algae still be useable when it thaws?

Wooooow, truly a brilliant idea from an amazing mind. Where ever in the world did your inspiration for this absolutely brilliant idea come from?

Your best bet is to buy a bottle of Nannochloropsis algae paste, and freeze it into ice cubes using a spare ice cube tray (I like these mini silicon ones). If I remember correctly, many of the commercial algae pastes already use glycerin. You would not have to bother mixing the straight algae paste with water or any oxygen scavengers. Just freeze it, then vacuum pack it if you must (and yes, you can just use your mouth to form a vacuum in a ziploc bag).

Keep in mind that some algae pastes do not freeze well, and many explicitly say not to freeze them. You could certainly experiment with figuring out how to freeze it and keep the cells intact if you're working with other types of microalgae (dry ice seems to work quite well to prevent cell lysing, as does liquid nitrogen). Glycerin also works, but you might want to look into how and why it works before deciding you need to do so.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

The oxygen scavenger would be to minimize oxidation of the fatty acids and other nutrients in the algae during the (potentially lengthy) storage in the freezer...after all, oxygen is still a gas in all but the coldest freezers, and while chemical reactions are slowed they still occur. Brine shrimp direct sells several algae types as concentrates - Nannochloropsis, T-Iso, Pavlova, Tetraselmis, and a 'Tahitian reef blend' (most of these at an impressive 60 billion cells per ml...the reef blend is 45 billion) - and while they sell most of these (except the reef blend) without glycerol normally, all have the option to call the company and ask for glycerol. I will definitely research how it works to preserve cells...I would assume it has to do with the fact that glycerol sharply reduces water's freezing point at sufficient concentrations (a solution with 30% glycerol by mass, for example, would not freeze until 14.9 degrees fahrenheit; a 50% solution freezes at -7.6 fahrenheit)

 

[csb123]

The folks who make the products already did the work for you.

 

[ichthyogeek]

The oxygen scavenger would be to minimize oxidation of the fatty acids and other nutrients in the algae during the (potentially lengthy) storage in the freezer...after all, oxygen is still a gas in all but the coldest freezers, and while chemical reactions are slowed they still occur. Brine shrimp direct sells several algae types as concentrates - Nannochloropsis, T-Iso, Pavlova, Tetraselmis, and a 'Tahitian reef blend' (most of these at an impressive 60 billion cells per ml...the reef blend is 45 billion) - and while they sell most of these (except the reef blend) without glycerol normally, all have the option to call the company and ask for glycerol. I will definitely research how it works to preserve cells...I would assume it has to do with the fact that glycerol sharply reduces water's freezing point at sufficient concentrations (a solution with 30% glycerol by mass, for example, would not freeze until 14.9 degrees fahrenheit; a 50% solution freezes at -7.6 fahrenheit)

I think you'd be better off vacuum packing the algae cubes (potentially in conjunction with a scavenger), rather than just using a scavenger. Once you have the cubes frozen, you can pull a pretty good vacuum using just your mouth, I do it all the time to keep things like cream wafers from going stale. It does a pretty good job of reducing the amount of total air (and therefore oxygen) in the packaging.