DIY Culturing your own Copepods

[santeeeyyy]

I have these growing outside in two plastic containers in the UK, I tried the whole pump in a container but no success in my attempts, my outside containers have been consistently providing, some small yields and some large, I have successfully kept a mandarin for nearly 5 years now (I do all this for him )

I used to order and pay for monthly copepods but my tubs are producing enough :)

In regards to sieves, you want a sieve that can capture the adults, at the moment I'm using a 250micron but I'm looking for a bigger/i would also advise on bigger, maybe 300-350

I suggest this as at the moment as feel 250 is too small and catching medium sized.. so not fully grown adults

Iif anything I hope this helps, but this is solely for my mandarin care and not retail, :) :)

whole reason why I chose to not go for a mandarin at first was cause of the copepod feeding, How often do you seed or harvest them? and if I do clean the jugs do I just harvest it at first, then dump them in the same container after Im done? Take a small batch of the harvest through the sieves and then redump?

 

[santeeeyyy]

Update: I am currently looking for mesh strainers to harvest as well, these are my options that I am thinking of.
Sets of 100,200,400 mesh
3 pc 50 micron mesh
Multiple Mesh sizes
The 50 micron mesh is cheap, I could just multiple multple sets and overlap the holes, and the set of 100,200, and 400 mesh are strainers that I have multiple sizes for, so I can harvest the big boys to feed, and reuse or redump the smaller guys when I repeat my harvesting process with new water, and the multiple has different sizes that I would like assistance with as I would like to reuse my culture rather than rebuy copepods everytime I restart my colony

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Update: I am currently looking for mesh strainers to harvest as well, these are my options that I am thinking of.
Sets of 100,200,400 mesh
3 pc 50 micron mesh
Multiple Mesh sizes
The 50 micron mesh is cheap, I could just multiple multple sets and overlap the holes, and the set of 100,200, and 400 mesh are strainers that I have multiple sizes for, so I can harvest the big boys to feed, and reuse or redump the smaller guys when I repeat my harvesting process with new water, and the multiple has different sizes that I would like assistance with as I would like to reuse my culture rather than rebuy copepods everytime I restart my colony

Personally I use 50 micron for tisbe and apocyclops. Its important to catch them young (I think its called nauplius). The adults stop reproducing at a certain point and then can live for months longer, which is useless to us, we want them to reproduce in the tank, so we need the babies. Even at 50 micron, I still miss lots of them, they can still pass through the sieve

 

[santeeeyyy]

Personally I use 50 micron for tisbe and apocyclops. Its important to catch them young (I think its called nauplius). The adults stop reproducing at a certain point and then can live for months longer, which is useless to us, we want them to reproduce in the tank, so we need the babies. Even at 50 micron, I still miss lots of them, they can still pass through the sieve

and those I want for my mandrin and other benefits of the tank right? So I wanna get a 50 micron or smaller? Is there any downside to overseeding my tank?

 

[PotatoPig]

So would tisbe pods be a better asset than tigger's?

In my experience - Tisbe pods will/should colonize your tank. Unless you’re way overstocking you shouldn’t need to culture these.

 

[santeeeyyy]

Personally I use 50 micron for tisbe and apocyclops. Its important to catch them young (I think its called nauplius). The adults stop reproducing at a certain point and then can live for months longer, which is useless to us, we want them to reproduce in the tank, so we need the babies. Even at 50 micron, I still miss lots of them, they can still pass through the sieve

So would this chart be helpful?

 

[atoll]

My ways



And

 

[santeeeyyy]

My ways



And

Ty. What’s up with everyone putting their cope pods outside?

 

[slingfox]

Ty. What’s up with everyone putting their cope pods outside?

Copepods don't need heat or air from a bubbler. Cultures will survive outside even with freezing temperatures. They only thing the culture needs to keep running is top off water, some light to fuel a bit of algae growth, and a small amount of organic material (eg, banana peel, small piece of filter media from the aquarium, dry old leaf, etc). There isn't much point to putting the culture inside other than accessibility.

For the water just use old tank water.

 

[pmcmahon]

Personally I use 50 micron for tisbe and apocyclops. Its important to catch them young (I think its called nauplius). The adults stop reproducing at a certain point and then can live for months longer, which is useless to us, we want them to reproduce in the tank, so we need the babies. Even at 50 micron, I still miss lots of them, they can still pass through the sieve

I'll add a word of warning. The mesh is stainless but it can still rust if saltwater if left on it. Especially the fine mesh. I just rinse them off and dry the mesh with a towel after I use them. To be fair I also use starsan to clean some of my containers and I believe it's mildly acidic so that could have also been a contributing factor. Not sure. Picture of part of my set up just for fun. I'm culturing all three species listed on the thread along with two kinds of phyto, Tetra and Iso.

 

[bshonesy]

They can- look up the micron size of the holes. You’ll want varying sizes… google copepod sieves for the idea (I used Mercer). You do want weight behind the sieve because as you sieve water thru and the level raises in the surrounding bucket you want the sieves to stay stationary

Cool. If anyone wants to try this. Take a tube of some kind, sounds like a short piece of PVC would be good to give some weight as DJF suggests. Stretch a piece over the pipe, wrap a rubber band around to hold in place and you can adjust how tight you want the hose (thus adjusting the size of the holes) then once you get it how you want it, put a bead of super glue around the edge on top of the hose where it’s stretched. Then after it dries just cut excess and remove rubber band. We used to make something similar in the lab for a totally unrelated purpose, but I could picture this working well.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

and I take out the poopy stuff that gets on the bottom right? to keep reusing the same culture?

You will want to try and keep that part un disturbed it's called mulm and where the majority of your nupuli will come from . Also I would try to culture another species Tigs are more of a direct food source and likely will not colonize your system

 

[santeeeyyy]

I have decided to go for 50 macron size

 

[santeeeyyy]

Soon I am going to the petstore, I have bought another canister, and this one is more like one of those drink dispenser types of canisters, so i might give this one a shot so I can just empty it out through the nozzle and refill it lol. I still need to grab the pods that I want, Since I have two containers, I am going to harvest tigger pods and tisbe pods, Or I might try and culture tisbe pods and their food as well. Or i might just go buy their food and harvest two pods at the same time.

 

[Amstar]

I just purchased this, this morning.

https://www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com/sieves-plankton-collectors/sieve-stackable-pro-4/

 

[santeeeyyy]

I just purchased this, this morning.

https://www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com/sieves-plankton-collectors/sieve-stackable-pro-4/

Nice. I’m planning on buying this I think. My pet stores only have tigger pods
https://www.podyourreef.com/products/tisbe-biminiensis-reef-copepods

 

[Reefrats]

Please elaborate on how you harvest and do water changes. How often? What percent water changes? How do you restart your culture? Thanks

 

[santeeeyyy]

Please elaborate on how you harvest and do water changes. How often? What percent water changes? How do you restart your culture? Thanks

It’s 50/50 when I restarted my culture. I’ll harvest every week or two. But they’re very hardy and their poop is where their pulpae is

 

[Reefrats]

Please elaborate on how you harvest and do water changes. How often? What percent water changes? How do you restart your culture? Thanks

It’s 50/50 when I restarted my culture. I’ll harvest every week or two. But they’re very hardy and their poop is where their pulpae is

I was harvesting about every 10 days about 50% and after almost a year decided to test PO4 and NO3. It was 0.9/28.2. Prior to that I was doing water changes with the sieves but would end up killing my culture. I guess one extreme to the other.