Help culturing copepods

[BuddyBonButt]

Happy thanksgiving, I was just wondering. To those of you who culture copepods, what pods do you culture and what do you feed these cultures? Right now I'm only feeding tetraselmis phytoplankton and I'd like to increase my yield every week. I read that other types of foods can help.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Happy thanksgiving, I was just wondering. To those of you who culture copepods, what pods do you culture and what do you feed these cultures? Right now I'm only feeding tetraselmis phytoplankton and I'd like to increase my yield every week. I read that other types of foods can help.

I start with @Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods and feed powdered spirulina with bit of banana skin/peel for potassium. It's a lazy and easy method:
https://forum.dfwmas.org/index.php?...-tiny-2-5g-tank-experimental-culture-2.43819/
Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[BuddyBonButt]

I start with @Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods and feed powdered spirulina with bit of banana skin/peel for potassium. It's a lazy and easy method:
https://forum.dfwmas.org/index.php?...-tiny-2-5g-tank-experimental-culture-2.43819/
Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you so much. Spurlina powder. Awesome. I'll check that out. May your Thanksgiving be awesome, the politics low and the turkey juicy.

 

[BuddyBonButt]

I start with @Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods and feed powdered spirulina with bit of banana skin/peel for potassium. It's a lazy and easy method:
https://forum.dfwmas.org/index.php?...-tiny-2-5g-tank-experimental-culture-2.43819/
Happy Thanksgiving!

Really quick, when you say you leave banana peels in there, do you leave them in there indefinitely or do you take them out after a while?

 

[BuddyBonButt]

Thank you so much. Spurlina powder. Awesome. I'll check that out. May your Thanksgiving be awesome, the politics low and the turkey juicy.

Actually, I'm seeing quite a bit of conflicting statements. Do they do better when left outside?

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Actually, I'm seeing quite a bit of conflicting statements. Do they do better when left outside?

Information isn't conflicting when you get to the heart of it - temperature and salinity controls.

Tig Pods also tolerate widest temperature ranges and they don't go cannibalistic when densities get high.

I'm in Texas, without any decent shade in my yard. They don't do well with extreme heat, and our recent cold snap I've heard Hans successful outdoor culture has stopped. Advantage to outdoors is you can go big bins. Advantage to indoors, indoors is already temperature controlled so I've got pods all year long... though in tiny cultures (but I only have 2 tanks I supplement) so I'm only raising about a bottle of pods a day worth of feeding capacity. If Texas homes had basements... well I'd probably have gone with a bin on the floor lol.

'Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can." - Arthur Ashe, tennis player

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I culture tiggers and apocyclops, I just feed them home brewed nannochloropsis,

You can't really increase the yield by feeding more or different, they can only reproduce so fast. If you want more, then start more cultures.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Really quick, when you say you leave banana peels in there, do you leave them in there indefinitely or do you take them out after a while?

Indefinately - it turns black, begins to look like woven fibers (rather interesting) and IF I can catch that to pull it out then I might but if pods are sticking on it then I usually just toss it back into the culture... and when it looks like fabric is when I throw another bit of banana peel/skin into the culture for its potassium. I only do it because someone said to - I've not tried doing it without banana peel/skin/leaf (in UK they call it leaf lol)

 

[BuddyBonButt]

Indefinately - it turns black, begins to look like woven fibers (rather interesting) and IF I can catch that to pull it out then I might but if pods are sticking on it then I usually just toss it back into the culture... and when it looks like fabric is when I throw another bit of banana peel/skin into the culture for its potassium. I only do it because someone said to - I've not tried doing it without banana peel/skin/leaf (in UK they call it leaf lol)

Yeah them brits are weird with their biscuits... and teeth... but awesome. Thank you for the insight. I've grown three different strands of phyto, tetra, nano, and iso, for the last 4 months and I've been selling it. I've made quite a bit more than I expected I would and now my entire walk in closet is turned into a culture room. I wanted to increase my Endeavors with pods. I want to have three of the major pods going. I also want Mandarin dragonettes so it's pretty much Essential to have pods

 

[BuddyBonButt]

I culture tiggers and apocyclops, I just feed them home brewed nannochloropsis,

You can't really increase the yield by feeding more or different, they can only reproduce so fast. If you want more, then start more cultures.

I tried, I hear people harvesting every other day and I'm barely making it 2 week with a harvest.

 

[BuddyBonButt]

Indefinately - it turns black, begins to look like woven fibers (rather interesting) and IF I can catch that to pull it out then I might but if pods are sticking on it then I usually just toss it back into the culture... and when it looks like fabric is when I throw another bit of banana peel/skin into the culture for its potassium. I only do it because someone said to - I've not tried doing it without banana peel/skin/leaf (in UK they call it leaf lol)

What spurlina do you use? I'll order it now

 

[Fish Think Pink]

any powdered spirulina - go cheap.

I can harvest 2-3x day each tank IF I'm keeping my salinity low (around 1.020). For me, evaporation continues to be my biggest challenge.

If you want to harvest pods for sale, Hans uses my method but big bins outside and in his garage... but I refer to this method as 'dirty' because you'll catch spirulina in your nets when you catch pods... I learned he lets them settle and does a recatch or something so he can then sell pods locally using the spirulina method. He also cultures phyto. I think pods enjoy phyto but I'm too lazy. My pods only get phyto as an occasional treat.

 

[BuddyBonButt]

any powdered spirulina - go cheap.

I can harvest 2-3x day each tank IF I'm keeping my salinity low (around 1.020). For me, evaporation continues to be my biggest challenge.

If you want to harvest pods for sale, Hans uses my method but big bins outside and in his garage... but I refer to this method as 'dirty' because you'll catch spirulina in your nets when you catch pods... I learned he lets them settle and does a recatch or something so he can then sell pods locally using the spirulina method. He also cultures phyto. I think pods enjoy phyto but I'm too lazy. My pods only get phyto as an occasional treat.

What do you mean by catch spurlina? Isnt it just a powder?

 

[Fish Think Pink]

What do you mean by catch spurlina? Isnt it just a powder?

yes... its a powder

and when you put the net into the culture and swish net back and forth to catch pods, the powder rises off the bottom and also gets caught.

I use lights to draw them up and if I remember to turn on the lights in advance of catching that greatly helps as the tig pods will come off the bottom (food) towards the light.

 

[BuddyBonButt]

yes... its a powder

and when you put the net into the culture and swish net back and forth to catch pods, the powder rises off the bottom and also gets caught.

I use lights to draw them up and if I remember to turn on the lights in advance of catching that greatly helps as the tig pods will come off the bottom (food) towards the light.

Oh I see. Like mlum from phyto. Sorry, very stupid question lol. I'll use a light method when harvesting. Thank you. I'm going to order this, cheapest per ounce. https://a.co/d/gmsPDu7

 

[MadreeferNJ]

Indefinately - it turns black, begins to look like woven fibers (rather interesting) and IF I can catch that to pull it out then I might but if pods are sticking on it then I usually just toss it back into the culture... and when it looks like fabric is when I throw another bit of banana peel/skin into the culture for its potassium. I only do it because someone said to - I've not tried doing it without banana peel/skin/leaf (in UK they call it leaf lol)

Do you run airline or just leave it alone? Looking into culturing these as brine shrimp flopped on me. Think the eggs were to old.