Copepods

[zhewitt04]

How do i get my copepod population to flurish. I want to get them up so i can get a couple of mandarin gobys. What is the best way to populate and feed the pods as well as keep them flourishing with the gobys eating a ton of them a day. I got a refuge / sump. My tank is 150 gallon with a 55 gallon sump. ( not completely full) So I probably have a 190 gallon system. Live rock, I have about 80 pounds. I made my own with the Portland cement rock salt and crushed oysters. It is curing now to get the PH to come down. Then I should have roughly 120 to 150 pounds maybe more, but it could be another 2 or 3 weeks before its ready.

[Tuscaquatics]

The best way is having a fuge to keep a constant population going without anything eating them. Try and get some rock rubble from other reefers to add to the fuge to get them going. You can add a little phytoplankton to help feed the ones that eat it. And just be patient. Don't add the mandarins too soon or you'll have a hard time getting them to build up, and the gobies might starve.

[zhewitt04]

Ok. What about anything else. I also have a 20 gal high with stand sitting in my garage i can get going for only copepods and then add them whenever. How do i get so many of them though. I saw a guy on youtube who had swarms of them for fish food and he would add them as needed. How do i do that?

[aleonn]

Pods find shelter within the LR and chaeto in the refugium. They reproduce relatively quickly if there are no predators in the tank.

[RenoR1]

Your Mandrin's are going to cause a copepod genocide as soon as you add one. I would not add any more than one, as they have a ferocious appetite. You will have to have a very well established population first. What I would do, is create a small little pile of rocks in the corner, and pore a bag of pods into it. Make sure fish don't have access to it (by swimming through caves, etc.) Give this a few months, and you should have a pretty good sized population. Then put a Manderin in, and keep an eye on your population!

[GiZmo88]

Some lfs carry live copepods that you can add to your system to get a "jump" start on them. But as already mentioned you need established live rock as well as a healthy fuge with plenty of macroaglae for them to thrive.

[RyanEG]

I have had fairly good luck making "pod piles" in my system. I simply made a couple of piles of rubble in my display behind the rock stack. I also have a refugium with chaetomorpha and more live rock and lots of rubble. The copepod population skyrocketed with the addition of the chaeto in the fuge though.