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jeremy K
06/08/2010, 10:44 AM
I have been culturing copepods in a 10g tank for several months now to keep my mandarin fed, and the pods have been multiplying well so far. But I have a few questions for those in the know:

1) I recently noticed hydroids, amphipods, and a few mysid shrimp swimming around in my culture tank (must have hitched on the chaeto). Can these safely stay, or should I somehow try to remove them? The hydroids in particular seem to be multiplying rapidly.

2) Must I feed live phyto for the pods? Gets expensive after a while (and I'd rather not culture my own). Can I get away with pulverizing some fish food flakes and feeding that?

3) Am I best off leaving the culture tank dark, or introducing an 8 hour photoperiod?

BloodyWelsh
06/08/2010, 05:25 PM
Remove the hydroids, they will eat a lot of the pods and can multiply very quickly with all that food. Live phyto would be best but if you pulverize an algae based food that should work, you run the risk of fouling your culture water and killing your culture. I would recommend having a normal light cycle to help induce breeding and what not.
Hope that helps