How do you grow Pods?
Do be a fraid to grow copepods. They are safe and fun for the whole family. C’mon they can’t be any worse than video games…
For this discussion there are 2 groups of copepods we will be focusing on harpacticoids (benthic living) and calanoids (free swimming).
What do they eat?
Pelagic copepods such as the Tangerine, Acartia, Pseudodiaptomus eat phytoplankton, free swimming phytoplankton. As a general rule of thumb the brown microalgae (T. Isochrysis galbana) are better than the greens (nannochloropsis). You can buy a counting chamber and count out exactly 150-200,000 cells/mL but we prefer to add the phytoplankton until a lite tea color is achieved. Remember it is better to feed litely more often than once heavily. If your pod population is not very dense the algae won’t clear as rapidly but as the population grows the algae will clear very quickly .
Harpacticoids such as Tisbe eat detritus, phytoplankton, fish food, fecal matter. Some species of harpacticoid are carnivorous and will eat other types of copepods. ReefPodTM Tisbe is not and is perfect for the reef.
Salinity:
Most copepods handle salinities from 25-35ppt(1.018-1.025+)
Temperatures:
There are warm and cold water copepods. Tigriopus is a cold water copepod; Tisbe is a warm water-tropical species. The Tisbe copepod (harpacticoid) will do very well at temperatures ranging from 22-27C.
Culturing:
When culturing copepods any type of container will work. We use a clear RubbermaidTM plastic jar; drill a small hole in the lid. We use rigid air tubing attached to a gang valve in order to adjust air flow. Regarding air flow we want 1 bubble per 3 seconds, a very gentle mixing.
Ok, we have the jar with a hole drilled in the lid. We have the rigid air rod attached to a gang valve, attached to an air pump. Mix fresh/clean saltwater and add that to your container, get the air going and adjust it to the proper flow rates. Add the algae(PhycoPureTM CopePod BlendTM) by the cap full until a lite tea color is reached. Let it mix for a few seconds, then add the copepods. Some folks like using light, others like diffuse light if any at all. The copepods will grow; some drop eggs, others release live nauplii (babies).
Water changes:
Every week we recommend changing out the water. Collect the entire culture on a 55 um screen. It is best to place the screen in a container so that the screen is sitting in liquid-which prevents the copepods from drying out on the screen. Clean the container by wiping it with a paper towel and rinsing with freshwater. Refill the container with new saltwater, add algae and then add your pod culture.
Harvest:
When you reach greater than 1/mL begin harvesting. It is possible to keep cultures at greater densities but they will not perform as well if you do. Harvesting can be as simple as scooping the pods out of your container with a cup and adding them directly to your reef tank. Refill what you have taken out with fresh saltwater and algae/phytoplankton if necessary.
Contaminants:
Contaminants happen! Ciliates, rotifers amongst other things. If this happens it may be necessary to start over. Why? Because these contaminants will compete for the available food and will outcompete the copepods. Good luck, we are interested in knowing how it’s going.
