Who makes and feeds phytoplankton

[sde1500]

Right now I don't feed any. Before the crash I was just splashing some in every so often. Far from exact in my measurements. Most of it goes to feeding my copepod cultures.

 

[Dr Blue Thumb]

I see, i was up to 1 cup on my 20g daily. It had a culture of mini clean up crew, while my water was crystal clear. Going to do 5 cups daily on my 100G.

I am thinking of seting up a calonoid copepods culture but will need a motile micro algae because calonoids are not benthic but palargic.

 

[sde1500]

Oh wow, that is a lot of phyto to feed. Interesting. So Nanno or Tetraselmis wouldn't be good for calonoid pods? I'm curious, why not?

 

[Dr Blue Thumb]

Nanno is nonmotile and tetraselmis is motile. They will feed on tetra but not nanno because of this.

Calanoid pods are palargic and swim in the water coloumn while harpacticoids are benthic for the most part and crawl along the surface.

Tigriospus californicus will eat your rotifer's. I would like to culture Iso pytoplankton but may try tetra and would like to know forsure. there isn't alot of info on the web.

I would lke to know sorsure and could be wrong. Going to search the web now and hope someone can chime in?

 

[Reef Nutrition]

You can culture calanoid copepods on Isochrysis. I run my Parvocalanus cultures on nothing but Isochrysis. Tetraselmis is a good one to incorporate into the diet, but Isochrysis should be the base feed.

 

[Dr Blue Thumb]

Thanks, can a person use nanno phyto for calonoids?

I hope to culture tigerpods for keeping mandarins in breeding condition.

Will the tiger pods jump into the water column and consume iso?

Do tiger pods ever have a life stage were the young are in the water column?

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I have tried just Nannochloropsis on my Parvocalanus. They eat it but do not reproduce on it.

Tigriopus copepodites and adults tend to swim in the water column as well as cling to substrates, at least in culture.

With enough current, you can get the nauplii off the bottom, but they tend to mill around in the mulm and not swim around like the copepodites and adults.

 

[Dr Blue Thumb]

Parvocalanus I am hoping to see if they will feed a very young mandarins. Not sure I can get my hands on them in Canada. If not I heard A.tonsa may have a life stage that swim in the water column. I hoping to get by with culturing iso and nanno phyto. Along with tigerpods and either Parvocalanus or A.tonsa

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Parvocalanus I am hoping to see if they will feed a very young mandarins. Not sure I can get my hands on them in Canada. If not I heard A.tonsa may have a life stage that swim in the water column. I hoping to get by with culturing iso and nanno phyto. Along with tigerpods and either Parvocalanus or A.tonsa

A. tonsa nauplii will work just fine for Synchiropus spp. larvae.

 

[Dr Blue Thumb]

Cool thanks. Will tigerpods do fine with ground up fish pellets, nanno phyto? My tank in done cycling. But I would like to add tigerpods to it for as long as it takes to get a culture going all over the glass before I add the pair of mandarins. Was thinking of adding a teaspoon of powdered fish food daily then lightly green the water with phyto, Then add more phyto when the tank is clear. Does this sound like it will work in preparation of the Mandarin s. This will be in a 90g. I thinking of having a pair of dwarf angels too, will this be fine with the mandarins or should they have their own tank? I would really love a pair of flame angels and a pair of maroon clowns.
Too?

 

[sde1500]

I've heard Iso is harder to culture so haven't tried that myself yet. I've had partial crashes of both my Nanno and Tetraselmis and rescued them so not ready yet to try a harder one. But the only pods I have are I believe Apocalypse and Tisbe. It was a mix that supposedly included Tigers but I don't see any that resemble them.

From what I read people use fish flake successfully with pods. Not sure if it's as good as phyto though.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I've heard Iso is harder to culture so haven't tried that myself yet. I've had partial crashes of both my Nanno and Tetraselmis and rescued them so not ready yet to try a harder one. But the only pods I have are I believe Apocalypse and Tisbe. It was a mix that supposedly included Tigers but I don't see any that resemble them.

From what I read people use fish flake successfully with pods. Not sure if it's as good as phyto though.

You can culture Apocyclops panamensis and Tisbe biminiensis on Nannochloropsis spp. and Tetraselmis spp.; no need to culture Isochrysis for these two species. You can also culture them on diatoms like Thalassiosira spp. and Phaeodactylum spp.

Harpacticoid copepods will eat flake food. I have fed it to my Tigriopus californicus in the past, but I was also feeding them algae at the time as well. I don't know if you can sustain a population of Apocyclops panamensis on flake food; never tried it.

 

[mcarroll]

From what I read people use fish flake successfully with pods. Not sure if it's as good as phyto though.

Fatty acid quality of the pods would be different/inferior.

 

[Dr Blue Thumb]

Nanno is high in EPA and low in DHA. While Iso Is higher then Nanno in DHA. The two put together make a balanced diet of HUFA which is impotant for health and development of living organismns.

This is the reason why I am culturing two types of phyto.

Nanno is complete for copepods and accepted by most/all copepod, but to have more of a survivabilty rate with baby fish Iso or another phyto is recommended.

I heard that maybe the culture of copepods are more dense too when fed both phytoplankton.

 

[Dr Blue Thumb]

A. tonsa nauplii will work just fine for Synchiropus spp. larvae.

What about nauplii tiger pods or Tisbe? are these at all used for fish larvae right aftet hatching and consuming the yolk.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

What about nauplii tiger pods or Tisbe? are these at all used for fish larvae right aftet hatching and consuming the yolk.

Some clownfish breeders use Tigriopus californicus nauplii for their exogenous feeding larvae.

 

[Dr Blue Thumb]

I'm going to have one of each tisbe and tigerpods I will have them in separate culture tanks and see what happens, this is why I am culturing phyto. 1) reason is to feed my tank large amounts of micro to replace macro algae and to 2) use as a feed for my harps cultures.

 

[daniel90]

Nice setup!

 

[sde1500]

Just redid my set up last night . Went from a couple bottles in front of a propped up light to this. Way more light output, more airflow control, and hopefully more phyto.

 

[drtrash]

Will copapodas be predation by amphipods? Wondering on balance of both in same system