Had any luck with copepods in your fuge?

[aquaphilic]

If you have copepods in your refugium, I need your advice.

I have never been able to establish a population of copepods in mine.

My tank is 2 years old and there were lots of copepods in the main tank early on before I got fish. It seems reasonable not to have lots of pods in the main tank, but despite my best efforts I can't seem to get a self-supporting population of them in the fuge.

In fact I don't see any and I am very confident that I can identify them if they are there. There are lots of tiny brittle stars in there though.

I have tried stocking the fuge with purchased bottles of trigger pods. Of course they flowed right up to the main tank where I'm sure my mandarin feasted on them.

I even once created a "fuge within a fuge" by isolating the pods in a net breeder. The netting on the breeder allowed them to escape, so I got some 100 micron mesh from a biologist friend and sewed a new net and added more. This mesh was too fine for adults at least to escape.

Still, all gone within days. It is a mystery.

What could be going wrong?

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x284/aquaphilic/Refugium.jpg

[zacharytrimble]

Honestly...I can only ever actually see the tiny buggers when they're on the glass...they're just about impossible to see in the sand and on rocks...and I'm talking about the ...uh, If I can use this term..."regular" copepods (not the tiger pods, with the easily identifiable red in them). See I got tiger pots too, and they vanished so quickly...but all along, the kinda whitish clear ones...some other breed of copepod has always been growing in population. I notice your tank wall is pretty clean...that may be why you can't see them...try actually letting some algae form on the front glass...and you may just see them yet!

[aquaphilic]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I'm sure there are some in there, but seriously, I scrutinize every surface with a magnifying glass and they are rare to nonexistant.

Melev's "Pods-a-buzzin" video is my refugium dream! Trying to figure out how to get that going in mine.

[stevelkaneval]

its probobly your manderin, i had tons of pods then i put the manderin in there and poof they were gone. i traded him a couple of months ago and i can finnaly start to see the pods again.

[stevelkaneval]

i used to put those bottles in my tank too, it gets way expensive way fast. i would recomend starting your own culture of pods or find someone who has cultures going and get them from him. also you can try tradeing some of your cheato for someone elses that is full of pods then just keep tradeing out.

[aquaphilic]

I'm sure the mandarin gets all the ones in the main tank.

In your tank did it seem to affect the fuge pod population as well?

I thought the idea was that the refugium was to serve as a "refuge" from predators. A safe place for things like pods to thrive.

[mokeyz]

Lots of creatures come and go and come again depending on the nutrient levels in your tank and other factors. Make sure that the flow in the refugium part of of the sump is low so not as many go into the main tank fast. Also, make sure that you really don't have predators in the "fuge" as anything there that eats pods will cut them down very quickly.

[aquaphilic]

I have wondered about predators in the fuge. There is not much in there. One small red leg hermit and two turbo snails. Lots of tiny brittle stars.

I don't think those tiny brittle stars eat pods, do they?

Also, flow is fairly brisk. That may be a factor, but they have cheato and live rock to hide in.

[stevelkaneval]

if you do a search on the manderin most sites say, AT LEAST 75 gallon w/100 lbs of lr WITH a fuge. so yea i think that the mandy can desimate your pop. of pods in the fuge and dt. i had o pods when i had the manderin, both in fuge and dt. your manderin is a pod killing machine thats what he was built for he can eat the pods faster than they can mature and copulate. i can 80% garantee that you take the mandy out and you get pods again.

[shootist]

While reading your post the first thing I thought of was your flow. You said all the trigger pods went right into your display so it does sound like you have too much flow going through your fuge. On the other hand if you have been keeping a mandarin for any length of time you must have a good popolation of pods,unless you have it eating prepared foods. If you are really that concerned about it add some more rubble to your fuge as well as cutting up a couple of pieces of 1/4' pvc pipe and laying it down in the bottom under the rubble. Pods live for the darkness and if they dont have a lot of good places to hide and breed and hangout then you arent going to have a giant population of them,good luck.

[stevelkaneval]

also does your sump return to the dt by pump or syphon. if its the pump probly 90% of the pods end up as mulch for your corals.

[aquaphilic]

My mandarin gobbles up frozen mini mysis or brine shrimp everyday, but he also picks at the rock constantly and I'm sure no pod escapes his attention.

I'm not looking to get rid of it though, he is one of the reasons I want more pods.

Darkness. That is an interesting point. My fuge light is on 20 hours a day.

[stevelkaneval]

im not telling you to get rid of the mandy. i wish i still had mine, mine ate mysis shrimp but theres really not a lot of nutrition in it the brine,mysis,and other small frozen food is kinda like a snack for him, even peaple that feed their mandy frozen it still slowly starves to death. in the wild these fish live for 10+ years so 2 or 3 years in a closed system is not that great.

[aquaphilic]

Return is by pump.

It does seem logical that this would destroy at least some of the tiny things that get sucked in.

But as to why they don't populate the refugium in the first place...maybe it is a flow issue.

The return is a Quiet One 3000, about 800 gallons per hour.

If you have pods in your fuge, what is the flow like?

[virginiadiver69]

Do you feed phyto? I know some sneer at it's use but I can only keep pods going when I add it a few times a week.
Unfortunately I took advice that phyto was useless and stopped using it and my population disappeared. May be coincidence but I feed regularly now.

[stevelkaneval]

if i remember what i read correctly a fuge should have around 10-15x turnover and a sump should have 20x turnover. thats if i remember correctly.

[aquaphilic]

I bought phyto when I bought the pods, but quit using it when they disappeared in just a few days.

Maybe I should just add it to the tank. I'll try that and see if it helps the pod population jump up.

[Tajjo]

I have a ton of copes and some kind of shrimp like mysis or brine at least they look that small, but i have an infestation

[aquaphilic]

Tajjo can you tell me a little about your refugium conditions. Flow, lighting, tank predators, feeding etc.

Trying to learn from others.

[gsxunv04]

anyone ever seen an inch long amphipod, hes the mack daddy