First Try at Culturing Copepods

[BigCitySmallReef]

Just thought I'd share my first attempt at culturing copepods. They're fairly pricey at my LFS and I'm trying to save as much money as possible for coral purchases. After about 3 weeks, I've had some good luck and wanted to share my culturing process for anyone who might want to try.

Materials:

* 6 qt Sterilite container
* Air pump, tubing, air stone, control valve, and check valve (used some old supplies so I don't have the brands)
* Phyto Feast Live
* Atlantic Biotechnology Live Marine Copepods - Tigger Pods
* ARTEMIA nesting sieves, 180 micron-900 micron

Setup:

Drilled 3 holes in the lid of the container. Added enough fresh salt water to fill container half way. Setup air pump, stone and valves through one hole in container. Adjusted control so I get a low, steady stream of bubbles. Floated bottle of pods in the water to acclimate to temp (no heater, just room temp). After about 30 mins, dumped entire bottle of pods into container. Added enough Phyto Feast to give the water a light green color and gently stirred. Popped the lid back on the container, slid it under the kitchen sink, and plugged in air pump.

I fed about 5 drops of Phyto Feast per day and gently stirred. After about 1.5 weeks the population exploded!

Harvest:

On the second week I decided to harvest some of the culture. I stacked the sieves from smallest to largest and siphoned out about a third of the pods from the sides (careful not to get the gunk that accumulates on the bottom) with the water flowing through the sieves and into a clean bowl (this water will be discarded). Dipped them in some water from the aquarium in a clean bowl to clean them off (without emptying the sieve) then completely dipped them in another bowl of aquarium water to remove them from the sieves. Refilled the culture with fresh salt water and slid it back under the sink. Turned off all flow in the tank slowly poured them in. This was done at night to keep the fish from gobbling them up. After about 20 mins, the little buggers were all over the glass and rocks. Turned the pumps and power head back on.

In about another week I'll siphon out as many pods as possible, clean the container and air stone (it gets a little clogged from the Phyto Feast), dump the siphoned pods back in, and start the process over. I haven't really had to add any RO water for evaporation and I'm not using a heater or light. I figure with my 20g tank and 6 qt culture, I can siphon every 2 weeks and clean the culture every 4 weeks.

I'd appreciate any advice from seasoned pod keepers on what I might be doing wrong or could do better! And of course, questions are always welcome

 

[TheEngineer]

Good luck! I'm apparently lousy at culturing them. That said I just left them in a container, no air stone to mix em up

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

Got a huge harvest last night - this was probably about 1/4 of the water siphoned out of the 6 qt. container. I noticed a lot of die off today though (like a thin film of white dots floating on the top of the water). Not sure if it was from replacing the siphoned salt water or not. The salinity and temp matched and they've been well fed. There are still what seems like millions of live ones in there though. I'll probably restart the culture with the live ones I can siphon from the sides tomorrow and start again!

 

[D. Torres]

@BigCitySmallReef curious about your success and if you figured out what caused the die off. I'm trying to start doing this myself. Could you post a video of how you siphon out your pods to place in your DT. Thanks in advance.

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

@BigCitySmallReef curious about your success and if you figured out what caused the die off. I'm trying to start doing this myself. Could you post a video of how you siphon out your pods to place in your DT. Thanks in advance.

Hey D, I'm still not sure what happened. I think it could have been a couple of things I did wrong - the temp under the sink might have actually been warmer than the water I store in the closet, so it could have been temp shock when I replaced the siphoned water. Also, from reading these forums, I might be storing my pre-mixed salt water too long which is why I'm having an issue with maintaining pH - so it could have also been pH shock. Live and learn, right?! I'm still having success with the remaining culture even with the die off. My LFS has switched to Red Sea salt this week, so I may just have to start the culture over. It's been super easy to culture these pods, just took a couple of weeks for the population to really explode after I added the initial bottle of pods. Other than that, it's just a daily feeding with Phyto - possibly twice a day if your culture is large enough. You'll def see the water turn from light green to pretty clear once they consume all the food and from what I've read you want to try to keep that from happening for too long - but my culture is pretty small so I just feed them once per day before I head to bed. I hope that helps and I'll try to get a video of the harvesting process soon!

 

[D. Torres]

@BigCitySmallReef Thanks for sharing. I'll be giving this a shot this weekend. I have everything I need except the strainers. Found some online but they are a little too pricey to just try. I read coffee filters would work too. I'll have to do some more searching.

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

@BigCitySmallReef Thanks for sharing. I'll be giving this a shot this weekend. I have everything I need except the strainers. Found some online but they are a little too pricey to just try. I read coffee filters would work too. I'll have to do some more searching.

The cheapest I found these were here: https://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/sieve-combo-set

I think you can also search for brine shrimp sieve and maybe just buy a single sieve that's in the 180-200 micron size. Anything larger and I think the pods will pass through. I actually tried coffee filters (the cone shaped) when I was hatching brine shrimp once - it was a disaster, lol. The water flows SO slow it was practically a drip. It was super messy too. Once the filter got clogged from shrimp, the water wouldn't even flow anymore. A sieve has several uses, I use the larger micron size to dip coral and they're great for anything that needs a rinse before going in your tank (at least that's how I justified buying them to myself, haha).

 

[D. Torres]

@BigCitySmallReef Thanks for the link. Those seem fairly cheap. The ones I found were over $50, I guess I didn't know what I was searching for. Based on your set up you don't have a heater. The water in my DT stays at 78 with no heater. Is that good for copepods?

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

@BigCitySmallReef Thanks for the link. Those seem fairly cheap. The ones I found were over $50, I guess I didn't know what I was searching for. Based on your set up you don't have a heater. The water in my DT stays at 78 with no heater. Is that good for copepods?

Yeah, the stuff I read said that room temp should be OK for the pod culture and I haven't had any issues with that. I just dump my harvest in my DT which is 80 degrees, but it probably wouldn't hurt to get them temp acclimated if you can - maybe if you have some way to float them in your DT like you would acclimate an invert or fish. I check my tank after lights out and the pods seems to be active and thriving in my DT.

 

[D. Torres]

@BigCitySmallReef I'm sure you probably read this already but since it's from the same site you sent me a link to about the sieves but thought I'd post it just in case.
It explains pretty much everything about cultivating copepods.

https://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/about-us/articles/raising-live-rotifers-copepods/

 

[Kirschy17]

I am currently trying my hands on culturing myself but failed twice now. Mind giving me quick advice?

I have containers with an airstone, first time i fed with phyto from a bottle( easy booster) 2nd try i tried with spirulina flakes.
I didnt feed daily since it looked as theres still plenty left. Most pods died off after a week or so.

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

I am currently trying my hands on culturing myself but failed twice now. Mind giving me quick advice?

I have containers with an airstone, first time i fed with phyto from a bottle( easy booster) 2nd try i tried with spirulina flakes.
I didnt feed daily since it looked as theres still plenty left. Most pods died off after a week or so.

That's a good point, my die off could have just been part of the natural life cycle - there were sooo many ponds in there. I might have to change my harvesting to 2-3 times per week. I haven't used spirulina flakes but I think I did read that it was an option. I've been having good luck with the phyto and it's super easy to see when you need to feed again.

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

I am currently trying my hands on culturing myself but failed twice now. Mind giving me quick advice?

I have containers with an airstone, first time i fed with phyto from a bottle( easy booster) 2nd try i tried with spirulina flakes.
I didnt feed daily since it looked as theres still plenty left. Most pods died off after a week or so.

@Kirschy17 do you have more info about your setup? Do you use a heater, high evaporation that needs top off, how long before you clean your culture, etc? I've had amazing results with what I'm currently doing (I'm wondering if the flakes are your issue), but I'm no expert by any means. Maybe we can figure out why your cultures are failing.

 

[Kirschy17]

@Kirschy17 do you have more info about your setup? Do you use a heater, high evaporation that needs top off, how long before you clean your culture, etc? I've had amazing results with what I'm currently doing (I'm wondering if the flakes are your issue), but I'm no expert by any means. Maybe we can figure out why your cultures are failing.

no heater, but room temperature is pretty much perfect at 75-80f i did try feeding with phyto aswell. and for cleaning, i never got to the point where i cleaned the culture since after about a week the culture looked dead. didn't see much moving. i might have given up too early but is that usual to have some die off at the start. btw the containers are small, so only about 2 litres so 1/2 gallon.

 

[D. Torres]

@BigCitySmallReef I started my attempt at this about a week ago. I'm not sure if I have any pods multiplying but I do notice the water getting lighter with me regularly adding phyto. Do you think anything else would cause the change in color or is it being consumed by the pod population?

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

@BigCitySmallReef I started my attempt at this about a week ago. I'm not sure if I have any pods multiplying but I do notice the water getting lighter with me regularly adding phyto. Do you think anything else would cause the change in color or is it being consumed by the pod population?

That's def a sign it's being consumed! You probably won't see the population grow until after the first week and a half to two weeks - but you'll know when it happens, lol trust me. You'll also notice some green gunk building up on the bottom, but you shouldn't have to worry about cleaning your culture for about a month.

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

no heater, but room temperature is pretty much perfect at 75-80f i did try feeding with phyto aswell. and for cleaning, i never got to the point where i cleaned the culture since after about a week the culture looked dead. didn't see much moving. i might have given up too early but is that usual to have some die off at the start. btw the containers are small, so only about 2 litres so 1/2 gallon.

I wouldn't think that the size of the containers matter much, as long as the setup is right. Did you have the containers covered, with holes for air? Having the containers covered greatly reduces evaporation and in turn, the need to top off to keep your salinity stable. Overfeeding phyto can also be an issue - causing the water to foul.

 

[Kirschy17]

I wouldn't think that the size of the containers matter much, as long as the setup is right. Did you have the containers covered, with holes for air? Having the containers covered greatly reduces evaporation and in turn, the need to top off to keep your salinity stable. Overfeeding phyto can also be an issue - causing the water to foul.

It is covered yes setup should be fine. I do have a small amount of pods to begin with. Maybe thats the issue? Ill keep feeding and monitoring.

 

[D. Torres]

@BigCitySmallReef It seems my copepod population is growing now and as expected I see what appears to be some die off floating on the surface. My question to you is should I be concerned about it. Should I remove it? How do I remove it? Or just it be as is. I don't think it will harm anything in my tank of there is some die off mixed with live copepods when I go to harvest them right?

 

[D. Torres]

@BigCitySmallReef I was wondering how your copepod culture has been going. Mine seems to be doing good so far. I only have a couple questions. How do I know when it's time to harvest? And do my water parameters need to match the tank I'm transferring my pods to?