Tigger Pod Culture

DiloHunter · May 16, 2022

I've been culturing tigger pods for my Psychedelic Mandarin. It's been about 2 weeks now, and my Mandarin looks healthy. My question here is about the pods. When in the bottle, the pods are a bright reddish orange. But within a day of putting them in my 2.5 gallon culture tank, they lose color. Is this normal? Does Reef Nutrition feed something funky to the pods? I've been feeding my pods Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast.

Woodyman · May 16, 2022

How about it @Reef Nutrition any secrets!?

I use the Apex pods for culturing myself, I've dumped the tigger pods into tanks, but never cultured that variety.

trevorhiller · May 17, 2022

Another member on here, @hollback sent me a PM regarding the tig pods I ordered from him today. Read this:

Bottles contain all sizes of the copepod life cycle, from microscopic babies through egg-carrying adults. You will see the additional orange dot behind them which are their egg sacks and will hatch in the next week. Some will drop egg sacks during shipping. There are many juveniles which can barely be seen with the naked eye and lots that require a microscope in a larval stage. The bottles also contain phytoplankton as a food source during transit so the water might be tinted a little green.

I had tig pods before that were not reddish/orange like I always see in pictures, I'm wondering if they had dropped the eggs sacks.

Not sure if this is what you are referring to, but I'm a copepod newbie. Don't know much about them, but I am going to try to culture them again soon.

DiloHunter · May 17, 2022

Well thank you for your feedback. At least now I'm pretty sure that my copepods are not malnutritioned. I use Tiggerpods mainly because they're easier to get my hands on. The good thing is that my Mandarin is healthy and my pods are breeding sufficiently.

DiloHunter · May 17, 2022

I just don't want to feed the mandarin something that is lacking in nutrition.

hollback · May 17, 2022

Their orange color comes from their diet. When being cultured, they are in a heavy concentration of nutrients. This level of nutrients isn't present in our reef systems so they lose their color.

On the bioconversion of dietary carotenoids to astaxanthin in the marine copepod, Tigriopus californicus

Abstract. Red carotenoid-based coloration is widely distributed across marine and terrestrial animals and has taken a prominent role in studies of how phen

academic.oup.com

Reef Nutrition · May 17, 2022

Woodyman said:
How about it @Reef Nutrition any secrets!?

I use the Apex pods for culturing myself, I've dumped the tigger pods into tanks, but never cultured that variety.

Lots and lots of algae.

undermind · May 17, 2022

hollback said:
Their orange color comes from their diet. When being cultured, they are in a heavy concentration of nutrients. This level of nutrients isn't present in our reef systems so they lose their color.

But @DiloHunter was referring to them losing color when putting them into their culture tank, not their reef tank.

When I look at the brand new bottle of Tigger pods, they do look orange. But they're in totally clear water and I'm usually standing in front of the refrigerator they're stored in at the store, with crisp white light. I culture them too, and in the lighting near my culture, and in the color of the water tinted with phyto, the pods will never look as orange as they do in the conditions that make them look so orange in the bottle. In other words, I think it may be a difference in lighting / conditions that make them LOOK different.

If you're feeding Reef Nutrition phyto feast, then I imagine your Tiggers are just as nutritious as the ones you buy in the bottle. As I understand it, phyto feast is exactly what Reef Nutrition feeds too.

I'm curious about your pod culture setup. Can you tell me about it?

DaJMasta · May 17, 2022

Also worth noting that only the fully grown adults will have much of an orange look, so if can take some time for that to come in on a new culture. So long as you are getting production from the culture it should keep maturing with time.

I'd also mention that tigriopus seem to do better with a bit of a mulm collected at the bottom of the vessel, so it will probably help to just keep renewing the same culture when harvested rather than starting a new one every time.

Jay'sReefBugs · May 18, 2022

From my experience lighting in the culture plays a part in this as well . The orange coloration act's as a sun block when they are in tide pools . So I took a culture and put them under some UV instead of just my standard culture light . And to my suprise the UV lighted culture did possess more orange coloration. Both cultures feed the same species of phyto just different coloration on final results. Doesn't mean one is less nutritional then the other . I believe Chad from reef nutrition has touched on this topic before as their Tigs are grown in green houses .

DiloHunter · May 18, 2022

undermind said:
But @DiloHunter was referring to them losing color when putting them into their culture tank, not their reef tank.

When I look at the brand new bottle of Tigger pods, they do look orange. But they're in totally clear water and I'm usually standing in front of the refrigerator they're stored in at the store, with crisp white light. I culture them too, and in the lighting near my culture, and in the color of the water tinted with phyto, the pods will never look as orange as they do in the conditions that make them look so orange in the bottle. In other words, I think it may be a difference in lighting / conditions that make them LOOK different.

If you're feeding Reef Nutrition phyto feast, then I imagine your Tiggers are just as nutritious as the ones you buy in the bottle. As I understand it, phyto feast is exactly what Reef Nutrition feeds too.

I'm curious about your pod culture setup. Can you tell me about it?

Thank you for this information. I've been busy this week so I haven't had that much time to respond.

My setup is a 2.5 gallon tank with an air stone and a light. I use a cheap brine shrimp net to put the pods in my tank. And I have a bunch of chaeto in the culture because I'm going try to turn that into a more easily accessible refugium. I'm going on vacation fairly soon so I'm trying to set it up ASAP.

Jay'sReefBugs · May 19, 2022

DiloHunter said:
Thank you for this information. I've been busy this week so I haven't had that much time to respond.

My setup is a 2.5 gallon tank with an air stone and a light. I use a cheap brine shrimp net to put the pods in my tank. And I have a bunch of chaeto in the culture because I'm going try to turn that into a more easily accessible refugium. I'm going on vacation fairly soon so I'm trying to set it up ASAP.

Chaeto in the culture will not work . It needs certain elements your culture can't provide. I tried before lol it just starts to turn into mush

DiloHunter · May 19, 2022

Ok. Well I'll stick the chaeto in the main tank until I can turn my culture into a refugium.

undermind · May 19, 2022

DiloHunter said:
Thank you for this information. I've been busy this week so I haven't had that much time to respond.

My setup is a 2.5 gallon tank with an air stone and a light. I use a cheap brine shrimp net to put the pods in my tank. And I have a bunch of chaeto in the culture because I'm going try to turn that into a more easily accessible refugium. I'm going on vacation fairly soon so I'm trying to set it up ASAP.

So you've already begun harvesting? Do you try to catch all of the free swimming adults you can when you harvest? Or what is your method there? Thanks

DiloHunter · May 19, 2022

I have not began harvesting because I started this culture very recently.

DiloHunter · May 22, 2022

Quick Update: I have ordered pods from @hollback and am thinking about some sdaquarist instead of phytofeast but I'm not sure if it's necessary. for feeding the pods. Thank you for all the responses.

DiloHunter · May 23, 2022

I have also ordered nannochloropsis from @hollback

Reef Nutrition · May 23, 2022

DiloHunter said:
Quick Update: I have ordered pods from @hollback and am thinking about some sdaquarist instead of phytofeast but I'm not sure if it's necessary. for feeding the pods. Thank you for all the responses.

Our Phyto-Feast will work fine for them. This product contains the same algal species that we feed to our cultures at our facility. The SDaquarist is more for bivalves like clams, etc.

Best,
Chad

DiloHunter · May 23, 2022

Reef Nutrition said:
Our Phyto-Feast will work fine for them. This product contains the same algal species that we feed to our cultures at our facility. The SDaquarist is more for bivalves like clams, etc.

Best,
Chad

Got it.