How possible is it to keep brine shrimp with copepods?

[leonardomanzano]

I have a 4-gallon tank with copepods in it, I am feeding them live phytoplankton/crushed pellets at the moment.
I recently started thinking about starting a small brine shrimp culture where I can let them live out their whole life span rather than feeding them after a few days of being hatched.

I am thinking of hatching the brine shrimp separately and then placing the live brine shrimp in the culture.
Is this a viable option?
From my understanding, they will eat live phytoplankton so I beleive I am good on the feeding part, but I am not sure how the baby pods will fare against the brine shrimp or if the shrimp will be eaten by the pods.

Do you have a similar setup? What would you suggest?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I don't have an answer to your question but do know that brine shrimp are basically void of nutrition once they loose the yolk sack, unless they are gut loaded with something... Are you wanting sea monkeys (i.e. do you want to grow the brine shrimp out just for kicks)?

 

[PeterErc]

Try on a smaller scale in a jar or something, add an airline for oxygen and circulation. Introduce some of each and see what happens. Worst that I see happening is a stinky jar. You won’t lose the copepod culture

 

[Rjramos]

If the brine shrimp eat the phyto, aren’t they nutritionally valuable ( gut loaded) with HUFA’s? EPA’s and DHA’s passed down the food chain? Same applies to a rotifer, if it’s not gut loaded with phyto, it is of little value to the larvae that feed on them.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

If the brine shrimp eat the phyto, aren’t they nutritionally valuable ( gut loaded) with HUFA’s?

Depends on how much phyto and how quickly they are then fed to the tank

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Depends on how much phyto and how quickly they are then fed to the tank

I'm just curious about the OP's reason for wanting the brine to "live out their whole life span" when they are most nutritious right after hatching and having to maintain them and gut load before feeding the tank would be more work.

 

[Reef By Steele]

I have a 4-gallon tank with copepods in it, I am feeding them live phytoplankton/crushed pellets at the moment.
I recently started thinking about starting a small brine shrimp culture where I can let them live out their whole life span rather than feeding them after a few days of being hatched.

I am thinking of hatching the brine shrimp separately and then placing the live brine shrimp in the culture.
Is this a viable option?
From my understanding, they will eat live phytoplankton so I beleive I am good on the feeding part, but I am not sure how the baby pods will fare against the brine shrimp or if the shrimp will be eaten by the pods.

Do you have a similar setup? What would you suggest?

One question is why you’re raising the brine shrimp. I am, and about to offer them for sale, as an alternative for people to get a finicky fish to eat. However freshly hatched brine are extremely nutritious but adults have very little nutritional value and need to be soaked in selcon or similar prior to feeding (I will be shipping mine in selcon induced bottles).

And I would be concerned that the brine shrimp would decimate your pod population. They are opportunistic feeders and will eat anything small enough, so they could remove a lot of the nauplii and juvenile copepods.

To answer others on this thread, yes they must be guy loaded, but basically like 10-20 minutes before feeding. Just normal phyto dosing like in a copepod culture will
Sustain them but not gut load. They need to go into full strength phyto and or a supplement such as Selcon.

 

[Bruttall]

I hatch brine to add directly to my DT, my corals and fish absolutely love the infusion of Food that doesn't rot into ammonia.

Yeah, hatching Live Brine as a food source is extremely healthy for your DT, they stay in the water column, eating algae etc, till they get eaten, without ever causing you to worry about spiking ammonia due to uneaten food!!

My mandarin loves brine also.

 

[leonardomanzano]

I'm just curious about the OP's reason for wanting the brine to "live out their whole life span" when they are most nutritious right after hatching and having to maintain them and gut load before feeding the tank would be more work.

I am mainly going after some live food for my banggai cardinal to chase down.
Unfortunately, she is a very picky eater.
I was hoping I would be able to combine these two cultures and save a bit on time and space, but I won't be this anymore instead I'll just keep the white worm culture I have going and feed those

 

[Reef By Steele]

I am mainly going after some live food for my banggai cardinal to chase down.
Unfortunately, she is a very picky eater.
I was hoping I would be able to combine these two cultures and save a bit on time and space, but I won't be this anymore instead I'll just keep the white worm culture I have going and feed those

Have you thought about amphipods? I know they make a great free range food source. If your interested PM me for details.

 

[leonardomanzano]

Have you thought about amphipods? I know they make a great free range food source. If your interested PM me for details.

This is the first time I have heard of them, Unfortunately though I don't have much more space to work.
If I ever decide to start an amphipod culture I'll be sure to send you a pm though!

 

[Reef By Steele]

This is the first time I have heard of them, Unfortunately though I don't have much more space to work.
If I ever decide to start an amphipod culture I'll be sure to send you a pm though!

I’m not sure the size of your DT, you mention a 4 gallon tank for culturing your pods. But as for amphipods, I sell them, and vs starting a culture you really only need to add them maybe once a month for two to three months or hit them heavy. They are a tremendous member of the clean up crew and if you have a refugium it works great but even without, if you add them at night after lights out, they will eventually develops their own colony in your tank. Culturing them is really necessary if you are direct feeding something or growing them to sell. That is why I thought they might be good for you as they aren’t the work that trying to hatch and feed brine frequently.

 

[caddnima]

Leonardo, how's your brine shrimp culture going?

 

[leonardomanzano]

I’m not sure the size of your DT, you mention a 4 gallon tank for culturing your pods. But as for amphipods, I sell them, and vs starting a culture you really only need to add them maybe once a month for two to three months or hit them heavy. They are a tremendous member of the clean up crew and if you have a refugium it works great but even without, if you add them at night after lights out, they will eventually develops their own colony in your tank. Culturing them is really necessary if you are direct feeding something or growing them to sell. That is why I thought they might be good for you as they aren’t the work that trying to hatch and feed brine frequently.

Sorry for the late response, for some reason gmail decided to combine this response with your initial comment so I didn't see this.
As of right now I have taken out my original sump tank and placed a 20 gallon tank in its place.
I have been slowly introducing corals to the bottom tank to help reduce pH swings and it has been doing this pretty well.
ignore that massive swing lol I redid all my cable management and accidentally connected my ORP probe to the pH port.
With this I need to add to my clean up crew for the bottom tank so I am in the market for some amphipods!
if you're still selling!

 

[leonardomanzano]

Leonardo, how's your brine shrimp culture going?

Not too well, I am not sure if the copepods are eating the brine shrimp or if the shrimp are unable to compete with the pods for food.
I have been focusing more on work, my studies, and my main tank so I have not been able to give a lot of attention to my pods or the phytoplankton culture to feed them.
As of right now, the culture has gone back to being mainly pods.

 

[Debramb]

I’m not sure the size of your DT, you mention a 4 gallon tank for culturing your pods. But as for amphipods, I sell them, and vs starting a culture you really only need to add them maybe once a month for two to three months or hit them heavy. They are a tremendous member of the clean up crew and if you have a refugium it works great but even without, if you add them at night after lights out, they will eventually develops their own colony in your tank. Culturing them is really necessary if you are direct feeding something or growing them to sell. That is why I thought they might be good for you as they aren’t the work that trying to hatch and feed brine frequently.

Ditto, yours are doing very well in my DT and my LR and substrate are clean!
Debra,happy customer of Reef by Steele