culturing copepods?

[Kyleben]

has anyone does this? how hard is it? how many does it produce?

I need to feed mandarines and I am thinking of growing pods in a different tank or bottle system.

I realize Im going to need to culture phytoplancton too, because this is the way to feed the pods.

wouldn't it be easier to just get some macro alge and do a separate tank fuge and just drain some of the water and pods out of it to feed the dt. this way there is no way of the return pump killing the pods. also you could seed the rock at night with a large amount of pods so they dont get eaten right away? I don;t know it just seams possible.....

[HanoverFist]

Microfood culture: phytoplanktons, Rotifers, ciliates, Artemia, and copepods (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135137)

[badvegan]

I have done it, it sucks. you will find it to be far less work to train it using the mandarin dinner method.

I think your idea of the fuge is best. btw you could always put the fuge on top of your DT if you are that concerned with the return pump killing your pods, iv done it and really liked it better. I just run the return line from sump up to the fuge and have it overflow to DT and then DT overflow to sump.

[Kyleben]

if i could set that style fuge up i would....i still think you only get a limited number of pods that way because the overflow only skims the ones off the top....if i did a 1/3 volume water change per week and syphoned the water from the bottom of the tank i think i would get a good amount of pods....Im on the way to get a bunch of cheto and a 10 gallon tank....lets see what happens

[Kyleben]

So hear me out, I took a 5 gallon bucked and filled it with about 3 gallons of tank water, I added cheto to the water (from my fuge) and a SMALL powerhead, I washed all my filter floss in this mixture and left a little in there because it was PACKED with pods because my fuge is overloaded with pods :-)

now I put this infront of a window with a small florescent light and im hoping for the best.....its kinda like a separate fuge....I plan on adding more saltwater to the mix and in a week for so draing about 1.5 to 2 gallons out of the bucked and into my DT (at night with lights and pump off) to re seed some pods for the mandarins...

think it will work?

[HanoverFist]

Can swap the powerhead for an airstone. And feed them a pinch of food regularly.

[Kyleben]

Can swap the powerhead for an airstone. And feed them a pinch of food regularly.

I thought about using an airstone....just norma flake food ground up really small right? How quickly will they reporduce

[Kyleben]

I'm also thinking about culturing phyto to feed the pods....seams easy and they have phyto and fertalizer at my lfs....