How do I know if my Copepods are actually alive?

[altmansmith2]

New reefer here with not much of a reef. 40 gallon breeder with no sump or special equipment. Just two powerheads and a Sicce shark pro 900 for some quite filtration. Only been up a week with two clownfish to start. I added a jar of copepods to get the party started but how do I know if they're doing anything? I keep the light low since there's no corals and the clowns seem happy but I'm a glass half empty kind of guy so hoping they make it. I'm just concentrating on water changes every few days to keep the water in good condition. But really how do I know if the copepods are doing anything or even still alive? What do I look for? Thanks all.

 

[vetteguy53081]

New reefer here with not much of a reef. 40 gallon breeder with no sump or special equipment. Just two powerheads and a Sicce shark pro 900 for some quite filtration. Only been up a week with two clownfish to start. I added a jar of copepods to get the party started but how do I know if they're doing anything? I keep the light low since there's no corals and the clowns seem happy but I'm a glass half empty kind of guy so hoping they make it. I'm just concentrating on water changes every few days to keep the water in good condition. But really how do I know if the copepods are doing anything or even still alive? What do I look for? Thanks all.

After a few minutes with lights out, grab a flashlight and aim at rocks and pores of the rocks and you should/will see some moving

 

[Dmmz]

Welcome to r2r there are a lot of helpful people here like vetteguy that are always willing to help

 

[Reef By Steele]

Vetteguy has a pretty good plan there, but it depends on what pods you got and how good your eyesight is.

Another way is to prop a light like your phone flashlight against the glass for 20-30 minutes after the lights are out. I have a suction cup light I use when capturing clown fish fry. That was the first time I noticed them in the tank. Many copepods are much smaller than a millimeter so can be difficult to see at a distance.

If you have algae build up on the back of the aquarium, you might be able to see them there with the flashlight as well. Focus the beam on an area a watch for movement. They will appear to look like white specks moving around.

 

[CO2TLEY]

 

[shakacuz]

welcome aboard the r2r board. hello from PA!

 

[Reef By Steele]

Altmansmith2 welcome to the reef. I discovered this forum as it seemed to always come up when I googled a question. Finally joined, then chose to become a supporting member and later a partner member to keep the forum available for others to come. My wife @Ocean_Queenie and I started culturing copepods and phytoplankton eventually selling some on here as a hobbyist. Eventually we decided to try to make a career out of it so we are now sponsors as well. I love the Reef2 Reef community here and the wealth of knowledge. Thanks for joining us.

 

[williamCreery]

Mine are always on the glass after lights out, they really do want the algae film more than anything... If you actually don’t see them on your glass at night with a flashlight you may need to repopulate pods, remember you should always add copepods every 4-6 months.
They keep hair algae, algae film in check, even my rock work shine.

 

[Reef By Steele]

Mine are always on the glass after lights out, they really do want the algae film more than anything... If you actually don’t see them on your glass at night with a flashlight you may need to repopulate pods, remember you should always add copepods every 4-6 months.
They keep hair algae, algae film in check, even my rock work shine.

My wife @Ocean_Queenie wipes our glass daily. Had our 3XL900 fallow for about 4 months after an ich outbreak and she doesn’t clean the glass if no fish to look at lol. It got covered in algae and the glass was absolutely covers with them. Now that she keeps it clean, I don’t hardly see any. But since it is a predator tank with a panther grouper and some angels, they might be more shy.

 

[EricR]

Along the lines of post #4, whatever types of copepods are in my system are way too small to see unless on the front glass. (I can see amphipods running on the rocks at night with flashlight but not copepods).

If I lax on scraping my front glass and let some film algae form, I see a ton.
Even then, I almost need a 10x loupe to positively ID copepod form vs flatworm form quickly.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[CMMorgan]

Welcome to the salty side. You said the tank is only a week old? That may be a bit early for the fish. A week old tank would not be cycled yet. Good on you to do those water changes. Monitor your ammonia and nitrates, etc. There are some great threads here on cycling a new tank. I have never introduced pods before the cycle, so I can't speak to how well they would fair.
I wish you the best of luck. We're here to help.

 

[altmansmith2]

Wow you folks are very supportive and responsive. Thanks!

 

[Brisk]

Welcome!

 

[PotatoPig]

What type of copepods?

If you added tigger pods (orange ones you can easily see swimming in the bottle with the naked eye) these are probably long gone by now. Instead of hiding out on the rocks they swim in the water, and are well sized as target food for you clowns. They also don’t seem to breed well in reef tanks even without planktivores, IIRC the temperatures are slightly too high. These should be viewed as “direct feed” only, as your fish will wipe them out every time you add them.

If you added Tisbe pods these should be alive and well, but you’ll never see them on the rocks. They also probably haven’t bred much yet - a week is barely enough for one generation, so you’ll only have a few more than you added to start with. Give it a month or so and then at night turn off your power heads, lights, pumps, etc and wait about 30 mins, then get a flashlight and shine it directly through the glass at a corner to light up the pane on the other side of the corner, lit from the side. You should see tiny dots moving around slowly on the glass, these are your Tisbe pods.

If you add crabs, snails, corals, or wet live rock this will also bring in random pod species that will also typically colonize your tank, again you’ll probably only see them when lit from the side on the glass at night with flow turned off. Also, expect a month or so before there’s enough of them to reliably see them.

 

[PotatoPig]

Double post.

 

[zheka757]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[WalkerLoves_TheOcean]

 

[Reefer Matt]

 

[1112-425XL]