Reef Pods TISBE vs Tigger Pods

[mwilliams62]

Can anyone tell me the difference between Reef Pods TISBE vs Tigger Pods???

Which one is better and why ????

[vikubz]

It is my understanding that the tigger pods are a cold water species that will not live in our reef tanks. The tisbe species should do well in a reef tank and are a good choice for mandarins and the like. In general the harpacticoid species of pods make good fish food.

[Carpet_Surfin]

I use tigger pods in my tank and they seem to do fine and multiply like crazy

[b0bab0ey]

It is my understanding that the tigger pods are a cold water species that will not live in our reef tanks. The tisbe species should do well in a reef tank and are a good choice for mandarins and the like. In general the harpacticoid species of pods make good fish food.

+1 on the tisbe. It's my understanding that the tigger pods are more free swimmers found in the water column. Tisbe pods stay closer to the rock work where Mandarins like to feed.

[nemokeeper]

I never had luck with tigger pods.... definitely gonna try those Reef Pods

[mwilliams62]

thanks.. I just bought a package of the reef pods and poured the contents into my sump that i am using for a tank for my pipefush. I hope they will grow and multiply could not see them even in the package... What about that green stuff that is in the package looks like a macro algea is that safe to put in there as well???

[mwilliams62]

how fast do the Reef Pods TISBE multiply????

[carlos413]

I also belive that tigger pods are a cold water species I have gotten some in the past 3 different times and have not been able to keep them for long. The reef pods though are good I have used them before and my pod s are running rampant. I get a bag once every six months, I have a mandarin and just for precaution.

[mwilliams62]

When do you start to see them??? When I poured in the bag I saw nothing... also that little green ball of what I am assuming some type of macro algea is it okay to put in the sump/aquarium were you pour the liqiud in at???

[vikubz]

Your best bet for seeing pods is to watch on the glass. I use a magnifying glass sometimes. It helps to ID the types of pods. The really nutritious ones are also the really tiny ones. The algae won't hurt, and pods actually like to set up shop in chaeto and other macros. I have also had good results feeding a little phytoplankton to the tank.

[reefcleaners]

Pods (in general) multiple fast, but their ability to reproduce in your tank will be limited by available food, shelter from predators and temperature. Predators aren't only your fish, other larger pods like amphipodds and the like will eat your smaller copepods. Your ability to culture Tisbe sp. pods will then be dependent on your ability to keep out significant populations of other pods etc... in closed systems you generally end up with only one type of pod after a certain amount of time, but start off pretty diverse as things are constantly being added to the system like new live rock and frags etc.... Well that is enough run on sentences for one post. :)

[djkms]

+1 on the tisbe. It's my understanding that the tigger pods are more free swimmers found in the water column. Tisbe pods stay closer to the rock work where Mandarins like to feed.

This is actually not true. Both tigriopus and tisbe copepods are harpacticoid and are both benthic (spends the majority of its time on substrate and surfaces).

It is also a myth that tigriopus copepods are only "coldwater" species. Yes a majority of the species are found in colder waters but those that are collected for the aquarium trade are actually collected in warmer waters. Tigriopus copepods will thrive and multiply in our warmer water reef tanks just fine. IMO those that blame tigriopus copepods not thriving in their systems due to it being a coldwater species are not providing the right conditions for the pods to multiply.

I culture both tisbe and tigriopus copepods and they are both cultured at the same temp and same water parameters.

Edit:

:wave: Hi John :) ^^ :wave:

[mwilliams62]

for now all i have in the tank is a small pipefish and a very tiny blenny .... What do I need to feed these pods with in order for them to multiply with. I aslo have a small patch of macro algae trying to get it to grow as well and it is not growing as fast as i would like it to don't know what I am doing wrong.

[reefcleaners]

Hello Kris!

You would want to feed pods something like phyto, they eat decaying food, but phyto would work faster. It is better to do in a separate culture tank. Newly hatched brine, (not brine that was hatched awhile ago, but newly hatched) will work for the pipefish for now. You will want to "gutload" the brine if you continue using it until a more suitable live food is available for the pipefish. Blennies are pretty diverse, which species? THey generally aren't finicky.

[disc1]

Randy Reed talked to our club recently about the Tigger pods. He says they are found in cold water, but they live naturally in tidepools. They chose them because they can live from 34degrees all the way up over 100 degrees. As tidepools evaporate, they can take more than double salinity all the way down to half salinity with almost no acclimation. They have to be a cold water tolerant species so they can live in the refrigerator.

I've got them in my fuge now.

[mwilliams62]

Hi Reefcleaners my name is Mary from the above. Thanks for the info I will go and pick up a bottle of phyto. I have tried hathing the brine shrimp and have not been able get them to go down to the bottom of the container away from the eggs at the top. so I have been havig to buy the adult live brine shrimp he "pipefish" chumps down on about 3 or 4 and that is all I see him eat. I tried the frozen PE Mysis but he will not eat it or at least not while I am in there watching him. I have already lost one pipefish but he was much smaller then the other one. The Blenny is I beleive to be a Molly about one inch for now. I don't even know were he came from beign that little unless my other blennies had a baby and it was hiding all this time. The bigger mollies I have moved to another tank so they would not eat the Pupfish. So I want to give my Pipefish the very best for him to grow and nourishment that he needs..

Mary

[mwilliams62]

Thanks guys for all of your advise it has helped me out. Now get them to multiply and grow.

[seafarm]

Tigger-Pods (Tigriopus californicus) will NOT grow well in your main display tank. They don't instinctively hide from fish, are very large easy to find, and they often starve in reef systems because there is not enough microalgae for them to feed on. They grow best in your refugium or simulated tide pool (a 9x13 cake pan works perfectly!).

Tigger-Pods commonly live in tide pools and range from Canada to Honduras, from very cold water to very warm water. They are definitely not just a "cold water species". Due to their wide temperature tolerance they can be stored in cold hibernation for up to 8 weeks, hence why they are kept in the refrigerator at your local fish store. Hibernation reduces their need for oxygen and food, and extends their lives.

Their optimal growing temperatures depends on where the broodstock were originally harvest. Our broodstock population was collected in California where tide pool temperatures can approach 100 F so they are acclimated to temperatures at or above reef system. We've been culturing them at 75-90 F for over 6 years.

.......................

Tigriopus californicus don't live in the ocean - they live in the warm splash zone pools up above the ocean. These pools are shallow and get quite warm during the day, some much warmer than reef systems. The following published scientific study shows that they live in temperatures ranging from 42 to 92 F:

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=70713&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0025315498000095

In these tide pools there are no predators so they don't have the instincts to hide in the rocks when fish come by. Since they don't hide they get eaten pretty quickly in display tanks. We recommend they be cultured in a sump or refugium where there are no predators. They can also be easily cultured in a separate system like a 9x13 cake pan.

The population of copepods in a reef system is often food limited by the amount of natural microalgae that the reef system produces each day. When additional pods are added the food requirements immediately goes up, especially when feeding very large copepods like Tigger-Pods. Unfortunately many people don't realize they need to supplement with microalgae so both the Tigger-Pods and the existing copepod population end up with a food shortage and quickly starve.

The analogy I use when I'm giving presentations is "If you have an acre of land that produces enough grass to support one cow but want to have lots of cows - what do you do? You add bales of hay and suddenly that 1 acre will support LOTS of cows".

Microalgae is like hay to your zooplankton. The more you add, the more zooplankton you will have. If you don't have enough, they starve and disappear.

[djkms]

Randy,

Thank you very much for taking a minute to reply to this thread, your wisdom is much appreciated!

----------

Just to throw out some more knowledge I asked Randy a question a couple months back about feeding the pods; here is a copy/paste of our conversation (hope its ok Randy, just want to share the knowledge).

Hello,

I would like to get your tigger pods but have a question. Pretty much everywhere I read it states the best phyto for copepods is Nanochloropsus (most nutritious) yet on your website you state:

They can also feed on green algae such as Nannochloropsis and Tetraselmis, however most of these algae will pass right through their digestive tracts and not provide any nutrition.

Can you explain this a bit more, why would so many places recommend this algae to culture for copepods? If nano is not the best algae to feed pods what would be the best to feed them?

Thanks for your help!

Kris

Hi Kris,



I don’t know if Nanno by itself works, but I do know our mixed diet (Phyto-Feast) of Nanno, Tetraselmis, Pavlova, Isochrysis, and Thalassiosira works very well. My best guess is that Nanno is a bit small and has a tougher cell wall than Tiggers would prefer. Tet should work perfectly well, even though it also has a tough cell wall. The brown algae are very nutritious and have easily digest membrane walls.



I hope this is helpful,



Randy Reed, Reed Mariculture

Instant Algae and Reef Nutrition

Hope that helps you guys, it sure did help me :)

[mwilliams62]

Thank you Randy and everyone who has helped me on this thread.

I am trying to grow them in my sump that I was going to sale into a tank because I have run out of tanks to put my pipefish in it is not setup with my DT at this time and no other fish except for a very tiny blenny that is in there and he will be moved to another tank later on today he maybe he is barely one inch. I have added a small patch of chaeto and caulprea in there as well. i also purchased some PhytoPlex "Aqua-Cultured Phytoplankton" to put in there till I can start my own culture.

The Tigger Pods that I see at the lfs they keep them in a small refrigerator 8oz bottle can I pour the whole bottle into my make shift tank/sump???? Do I need to ket it become room temp before adding ???

Mary

[seafarm]

Mary - It's possible to culture them to your sump, however they might get pushed out depending on how high the flow rate is. They can be added directly from the cold bottles to your sump, however I'd suggest letting them warm up to room temperature first.

By far the most successful way to culture them is in a simulated tide-pool, and a 9x13 glass cake pan works perfectly for that. It will be about 30 days until you see results, but after that you can scoop them out regularly.

Hope this helps :)

[djkms]

By far the most successful way to culture them is in a simulated tide-pool, and a 9x13 glass cake pan works perfectly for that. It will be about 30 days until you see results, but after that you can scoop them out regularly.
Hope this helps :)

Randy,

Can you give more details on the simulated tidepool approach? I currently culture tigriopus copepods in a 5 gallon bucket with roti's and feed nanno paste daily. The results are ho-hum.

So..
culture container - 9"x13" glass pan
Temperature - ambient room?
Salinity - 35ppt work?
Lighting - Indirect ambient room light?
Circulation - Rigid tubing (1,2 - bubble count?)
Food - (If phytopheast - then wouldn't some of the algae be wasted since they prefer dynoflagellate's?) (maybe a Iso paste?)

Any other tips to help along a culture?

Thanks Randy!

btw great conversation, good to have Randy and John giving input here!

[seafarm]

Let me see if I can help :)

Culture container - anything that is long, wide, at least 2 inches high. Cake pans are a perfect example. If you get deeper than 2-3 inches you have to add an airstone.

Temperature - room temp. Anything from 60-85 is optimal.

Salinity - 30 ppt to 40 ppt. They are used to the tide pools evaporating during the day and the salinity going up.

Circulation - not needed, especially in a shallow system.

Lighting - ambient

Food - Phyto-Feast or Shellfish Diet, they like variety. Nanno is the least effective species for them.

When you have a good population going simply scoop some out and feed them to your tank. Then replace the water in the "tidepool". If you are replacing it with water from your aquarium I'd pour it through a coffee filter first to keep other organisms out.

[dzhuo]

Randy,

1. How fast do tiger pods reproduce? For example, how many eggs do they lay per life time?
2. What's the life span? Weeks? Months?
3. How much do we need to feed the pods? Once or multiple times per day?
4. Typically, how many pods can live in a 9x13 glass cake pan?

[seafarm]

1. How fast do tiger pods reproduce? For example, how many eggs do they lay per life time?
** I'll see if I can find that out and get back to you.

2. What's the life span? Weeks? Months?
** My understanding is their lifespan is about 100 days

3. How much do we need to feed the pods? Once or multiple times per day?
** 2-3 times a week should be fine. They have a MUCH slower metabolism than rotifers.

4. Typically, how many pods can live in a 9x13 glass cake pan?
** Good question - I'll see if I can get an answer for you.

[dzhuo]

Randy,
Keep us post on question #1 and #4. Appreciate your help and sharing your experience and knowledge with us!

[C-Dragon]

Hey everyone,
Randy asked me to jump in here to help shed some light on the Tigger pods. I am the aquarist in charge of Tigger culture and have been working with them for almost 3years. Well, enough about my background.

Question #1. How fast do tiger pods reproduce? For example, how many eggs do they lay per life time?

Answer: Regarding the question of how fast Tiggers reproduce. Most females only require one or two mating occurences during their lifetime. They have the ability to store sperm. From only one mating occurence, they can produce up 12 batches of fertilized eggs every 4 days with optimal nutrition and a temperature of 23C (73F). Females can hold anywhere from 30 eggs to 140 eggs at one time. In fact, with plenty of oxygen, light and a good food supply, a population of Tiggers can double itself every 6 days at 15C (59F) or every 4 days at 23C (73F).
A female Tigger is sexually active by day 14 at 23C. From there, if she lives another 86 days, at 23C she could potentially produce anywhere from 645 embryos to 3,000 embryos in her lifetime with only needing to mate twice!

4. Typically, how many pods can live in a 9x13 glass cake pan?
Answer: I would have to say you could potentially see anywhere from 10K to 50K individuals in your cake pan if the females are producing large clutches of eggs and you are feeding them well. They have the ability to filter feed as well as scrape algae off of any surface.


I hope this helps. Randy did a great job answering all the other questions accurately.

Chad M. Clayton
Aquarist, RMI

[djkms]

Thanks Chad, good info there! May I ask what you guys feed your cultures at Reed? Also, do you think we could use these same methods for tisbe pods with the same degree of success?

[mwilliams62]

What does the "ppt" stand for when referencing salinity????

mary

[djkms]

What does the "ppt" stand for when referencing salinity????

mary

Parts per thousand

http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs/SgPptConv.php

[C-Dragon]

What does the "ppt" stand for when referencing salinity????

mary

Mary,
For example, if you are trying to achieve a salinity of 35ppt, you add 35grams of sea salt mix to every liter of water.

Thanks Chad, good info there! May I ask what you guys feed your cultures at Reed? Also, do you think we could use these same methods for tisbe pods with the same degree of success?

PhytoFeast is a great food for Tiggers. Tigriopus and Tisbe are harpactacoid copepods and should do fine with PhtyoFeast.

[mwilliams62]

Thanks Chad... please forgive the stupiness question here: i am not very good at the grams stuff how much would be in relations to the measurments in teaspoons???

mary

[dzhuo]

Chad,
Great info! A couple of follow up questions:

1. Do we need to maintain temperature to ensure we have both male and females? Or would a higher temp only produce one gender of babies?
2. Do we need to put anything such as rock, sand or algae in the cake pan for the pods?

[GreshamH]

Mary - It's possible to culture them to your sump, however they might get pushed out depending on how high the flow rate is. They can be added directly from the cold bottles to your sump, however I'd suggest letting them warm up to room temperature first.

By far the most successful way to culture them is in a simulated tide-pool, and a 9x13 glass cake pan works perfectly for that. It will be about 30 days until you see results, but after that you can scoop them out regularly.

Hope this helps :)

There is also the issue of predation by amphipods and mysids as John noted earlier. In tank copepod cultures are very hard to maintain given that factor alone :( Luckily stand along cultures are very easy to maintain.

[mwilliams62]

I don't recall seeing an answer for the question about TISBE can they be cultered as the Tigger Pods??

Mary

[GreshamH]

Chat,
Great info! A couple of follow up questions:

1. Do we need to maintain temperature to ensure we have both male and females? Or would a higher temp only produce one gender of babies?
2. Do we need to put anything such as rock, sand or algae in the cake pan for the pods?

Gresham from RMI here...

1. no, the shift from female to male at higher temps is very insignificant.
2. bare vessel is suggested. No rock, no sand, nothing.

[GreshamH]

I don't recall seeing an answer for the question about TISBE can they be cultered as the Tigger Pods??

Mary

Me neither :( I have seen write-ups for Tisbe floating around on the net, I'd suggest checking MOFIB dot Com or MBI dot com. Both have areas where members do zooplankton culture write ups.

[dzhuo]

Sweet! Thx Gresham!

So basically get a cake pan, pour salt water and add eggs, once hatched feed the pods once every 2 or 3 days. And then just occasionally check salinity and add RO/DI or fresh salt water (no tank water) and continue to maintain the culture? Anything else I missed?

[GreshamH]

Well close, but you will be adding live copepods. To my knowledge the eggs have to develop on the female and hatch off her. I do not think they produce a resting cyst like rotifers or artemia.

That is virtually how I have done it in the past, except I prefer plastic kitty liter pans since they offer a litter larger area and because they are opaque. I've found clear tanks/vessels and light makes the Tigger-Pods concentrate in one area and eventually you see large die offs in those areas (localized low dissolved oxygen, dunno). The funny thing is they are not always attracted to light. I've tried harvesting just using light and only half would typically make the migration. Light flashes will make them disperse and hunker down.

[dzhuo]

How many bottles do you suggest that we should start with? Also, do I need special net to take out the pods (young and adult) for feeding?

[mwilliams62]

How many bottles do you suggest that we should start with? Also, do I need special net to take out the pods (young and adult) for feeding?

That is a very good question "how many bottles to start with"???

Is it possible to use only half a bottle and put the other half in the sump???

I also want to thank everyone who has shared their advise and expertise here in this thread....

Mary

[djkms]

Ok Randy, got your bottle of Tigger pods (holy copepods batman! You weren't kidding when you stated on the bottle double density!) and shellfish diet (most people could probably get away with phyto-feast but I will use the algae to culture other things).

I am running 3 experiments - all with your tidepool approach listed here. I purchased plastic Tupperware instead of glass (hope it works, pyrex and the like is expensive). I split the bottle into 4 - one for each of the 3 Tupperwares and the rest stayed in the bottle in the fridge.

All containers at 1.021 SG. In the first tub will be just water, pods and food. In the second tub will be bioballs to increase surface area. In the 3rd tub will be a rigid tube to give surface agitation and help increase oxygen levels in the water - around 1 bubble per second.

So lets take some bets. Which container will produce the most pods and why?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/Dr_digitaL/DSC01720.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/Dr_digitaL/DSC01722.jpg

[mwilliams62]

Please keep us updated on the experiment.

[The_Codfather]

what's the best way to accumulate them from fridge to the DT?

[jbonez]

i have a bunch of lil white things on the back of my tank glass what can they be? the move very slow

[mwilliams62]

What time of day do you see them crawling on the glass? I think it is some type of snail I cannot remember the name of them.

[jbonez]

well i dont see the move its that i see them in the morning at one spot then i notice more at another spot they are there all the time

[sharkman121]

great thread, learn alot of stuff for when i culture my own pods for my mandarin.

Tagging along for the results of the experiment.

[chefgreg]

Bump

Well? should have had some results by now any updates?

[djkms]

Ahhh, are you guys waiting on me?

Well surprisingly the tub with no agitation and no bio balls did the best. I was never able to get the pods as plump or orange/red as the bottle from Reed but they did reproduce. I only cultured the pods for a couple months before tearing down due to other issues.

[MarineSniper]

When do you start to see them??? When I poured in the bag I saw nothing... also that little green ball of what I am assuming some type of macro algea is it okay to put in the sump/aquarium were you pour the liqiud in at???

They are often packed with Ulva lettuce/algae. I put mine in with the pods and it's multiplied well, as have the pods

[sharkman121]

nice nice, this will help alot in my pod culturing.

awaits any further test results

[fla2341]

Here are some pics I took of the copepods I've found in my tank. I took these with a USB digital Microscope I got off e-bay for $23.00. So far I've only figured out how to do 20x's and 225x's magnifications. The one photo shows the copepod next to a mm ruler. From this my initial thoughts is this a representative of a Tisbe copepod. The 225x's shows a better detail of the copepod. They are right around 1mm at full adult length. The body length/type and description points to Tisbe although I do have some smaller sized adults which might lead me to believe they are Parvocalanus. Either way they are copepods. Their behavior in the tank is to swim in jumps as well as on the glass. If you watch them you will see them move slowly or jump from place to place. I've also observed some planarian(flat worms) on the glass which also appear as small white or pink moving objects. However their movement is a smooth flowing motion and are slighlty larger. In addition I do have some micro snails which show up from time to time but they are 1 1/2-2 mm and are recognizable as a cone shelled snail.

I hope this helps you with your identification.

As to the "Red" nature of the Tiger pods I think that a supplimentation with a Astaxanthin form of algae which is rich in carotenoids, see here http://www.jehmco.com/html/powders__spirulina___plankton.html, will help to bring out this pigmentation in your copepods. In addition to the red/orange enhancement their are other beneficial properties which will convey to your fish through consuming copepods when you add a feed of this type to your pods.

[mwilliams62]

Were can you get this stuff at "Astaxanthin"?

[fla2341]

Click on the link in my post. It's the 1st item listed.

[mwilliams62]

Thank you I did not click on that link and saw that they also have the powder I was looking for as well: SPIRULINA MICRON POWDER

[dantdodge]

Thank you I did not click on that link and saw that they also have the powder I was looking for as well: SPIRULINA MICRON POWDER

Can you feed the pods solely those two powders the spirulina micron and the other stuff for the color enhancement or do you have to culture plankton or buy it for food?
Thanks in advance!

[mwilliams62]

Can you feed the pods solely those two powders the spirulina micron and the other stuff for the color enhancement or do you have to culture plankton or buy it for food?
Thanks in advance!


I was looking for the Spirulina powder to put in the food that I mixed up in the blender for my Omnivore fish but all my Tangs end up eating that food as well and I was reading someone else's receipe and they had included that powder with their mixture and I was going to do the same since my Tangs like that food that I mix up.

[Uncle Salty 05]

I never had luck with tigger pods.... definitely gonna try those Reef Pods

+1
I have added Tigger Pods more than once and they quickly disappeared.
I will never buy them again.

[fla2341]

I hope this helps:

Ok, the Tigger pods and Tisbe are a Harpacticoid copepod. By this I believe that they will feed off the substrate as well as in the water column. The following links are for further information on the feeding, culturing and general behaviour as well as the food benefits to these two copepods. From this information you can take that copepods do have specific foods which they will eat but they also can and will consume other types of food items. The Reef Nutrition link as well as the other referents state that the Tigger Pods prefer the Brown algaes but will consume the green algaes as well but will not achieve any value from it as a food item. However it should also be noted that in one of the papers I linked that copepods will "taste" several types of food items and either eat or reject them. I have experienced that given a greater choice in feeds copepods will consume more types of phyto, algae and other food particles then what is generally accepted as the species specific food type.

basic general info on Tigger pods - where they can be found
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/2005/harpacticoid/harpacticoid.htm

Reef nutrition culture tips on tigger pods
http://reefnutrition.com/tigger_pods_care.html

Paper on feeding preferences of Tisbe
http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/7/m007p303.pdf

Good general paper on pods value as food
http://idosi.org/abr/4(2)/4.pdf

As for the Reef Pods Tisbe: This past Saturday I attended the Frights and Frags show here in Orlando. I was able to obtain a 8oz bag of the Tisbe copepods from the company rep. It was packed full of them. Every sample of the water I put under the scope had some copepods in evey stage of developement. With this sample of an identified copepod I was able to determine that the copepods I have in my tank are Tisbe. These things are hyper active. They are swimming and jumping all over the sides and water column of the culture vessel ( 1 gallon glass former pickle jar) I've added water with a salinity of 26 in small amounts to the original water over the past 4 days to bring the volumn up and will continue to do so over the next several days - no aeration yet as the water volumn is still limited. The size and development in just a few short days is as stated in the company lit. They will develope rapidly from nauplii to breeding adults quickly.

In addition to the Tisbe I also picked up a small bottle of the Phyco Pure Reef Blend. I doubled the volumn of a 2 ml sample with sterile water (26 salanity) and with the smallest drop I still couldn't count the number of algae cells present.165942. I would have to say that they provide a good quality product(s)

With this experience I'm now interested in aquiring their Tangerine and Parvocalanus pods to culture as food. Both are a Calaniod copepod which I understand can be challanging to culture.

A note on culturing Tigger pods and other large copepods: Larger size shallow water vessels are what are needed for the larger copepods. A 30 gallon plastic tub filled initially with only 6-8" of water would be ideal. Include some forms of macro algae and other sterile items for additional surface area and to assist with water purity. Also use a slow aeration in the culture. You don't want to churn the water but provide a slow steady flow. You will get far better results in my opinion.

[mwilliams62]

I hope this helps:

Ok, the Tigger pods and Tisbe are a Harpacticoid copepod. By this I believe that they will feed off the substrate as well as in the water column. The following links are for further information on the feeding, culturing and general behaviour as well as the food benefits to these two copepods. From this information you can take that copepods do have specific foods which they will eat but they also can and will consume other types of food items. The Reef Nutrition link as well as the other referents state that the Tigger Pods prefer the Brown algaes but will consume the green algaes as well but will not achieve any value from it as a food item. However it should also be noted that in one of the papers I linked that copepods will "taste" several types of food items and either eat or reject them. I have experienced that given a greater choice in feeds copepods will consume more types of phyto, algae and other food particles then what is generally accepted as the species specific food type.

basic general info on Tigger pods - where they can be found
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/2005/harpacticoid/harpacticoid.htm

Reef nutrition culture tips on tigger pods
http://reefnutrition.com/tigger_pods_care.html

Paper on feeding preferences of Tisbe
http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/7/m007p303.pdf

Good general paper on pods value as food
http://idosi.org/abr/4(2)/4.pdf

As for the Reef Pods Tisbe: This past Saturday I attended the Frights and Frags show here in Orlando. I was able to obtain a 8oz bag of the Tisbe copepods from the company rep. It was packed full of them. Every sample of the water I put under the scope had some copepods in evey stage of developement. With this sample of an identified copepod I was able to determine that the copepods I have in my tank are Tisbe. These things are hyper active. They are swimming and jumping all over the sides and water column of the culture vessel ( 1 gallon glass former pickle jar) I've added water with a salinity of 26 in small amounts to the original water over the past 4 days to bring the volumn up and will continue to do so over the next several days - no aeration yet as the water volumn is still limited. The size and development in just a few short days is as stated in the company lit. They will develope rapidly from nauplii to breeding adults quickly.

In addition to the Tisbe I also picked up a small bottle of the Phyco Pure Reef Blend. I doubled the volumn of a 2 ml sample with sterile water (26 salanity) and with the smallest drop I still couldn't count the number of algae cells present.165942. I would have to say that they provide a good quality product(s)

With this experience I'm now interested in aquiring their Tangerine and Parvocalanus pods to culture as food. Both are a Calaniod copepod which I understand can be challanging to culture.

A note on culturing Tigger pods and other large copepods: Larger size shallow water vessels are what are needed for the larger copepods. A 30 gallon plastic tub filled initially with only 6-8" of water would be ideal. Include some forms of macro algae and other sterile items for additional surface area and to assist with water purity. Also use a slow aeration in the culture. You don't want to churn the water but provide a slow steady flow. You will get far better results in my opinion.


I was wandering about the Tangerine and Parvocalanus pods when I saw them on a website and was going to order them but I may not now if they are going to be a challenge. I have been having trouble finding any Tigger Pods in the stores here so I did not get to start my culture like I wanted to do this past weekend. I did find the ones called "Reef Pods TISBE" but could not remember if they are the easy ones to culture or not.

[fla2341]

When I restarted a 100gal tank up aprox 3 1/2 years ago( maybe 4 I lost track) I used 40 gallons of natural salt water I collected from the beach here in FLA. The Tisbe copepods I had before the show on sat date back to that time. So without any special effort on my part they have been happily multiplying in my tank for all that time.

The Tisbe I got on Sat are in the 1 gallon jar with about 2 1/2" of water now which I've been slowly adding. They seem happy and jumping around. Two weeks or so prior to that I set up a 10 gallon tank with aprox 5 gallons in it by syphoning out some off the sides of the established tank. Without any special efforts on my part they continue to establish themselves in that tank. I have a small air pump hooked up to riged tubing bubbling in the tank. Other then adding a small amount of algae that was it.

So I can state from my experience that the Tisbe are simple to establish if it's in a protected environment, ie refuguim or separate vessel. However just like anything else I wouldn't just dump them in (unless it's from/in an established volumn of water like I did). Take a few days to insure they are adjusted to the salinity/temp in your system before you add them. Provide some phyto/food for them and you should do just fine. It's takes about a week for them to develope from egg to adult so look for them to start showing up then.

[fla2341]

Try here for other types.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=2190+3058&pcatid=3058

Don't be afraid to experiment. I sometimes wonder if that's one of the main reasons why I got into saltwater over 20 years ago:rollface:.

[mwilliams62]

Thanks I have three of those items in my shopping cart over there. The Tangerine, ReefPods TISBE and the Rotifiers. I don't see the Tigger Pods by I think Reef Nutriation on Live Aquaria I was hoping I could get all of them in one place. Do you know of an online site that carries them all including the Tigger Pods?

[fla2341]

Let's see if this works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A4iJC5tPBw
I just took this video this am and it's my first attempt on youtube. The video is taken using the USB Microscope and the field of view is approx 1 1/2". My finger tip is in the end to give you a idea of scale. The video quality is poor due to the input being only 1.3 mp. There was very low magnification - there's not even a number on the scope for how low this was. It's less then the 20x's minimum they have on the adjustment. I only adjusted for focus and the lens was 6" away from the jar. If I bring it closer you will see every imperfection in the glass and a tiny field of view. The video was converted to a MP4 format from the original to reduce the size for youtube.

You can see several copepods in different sizes. The microscope displays live on the computer screen and in that I could clearly see the napuplii jumping, swimming and floating around. There are hundreds of them in the total volumn of the jar.

No I don't know of one single on line source for Tigger pods and Reef Pods. It seems to be either/or.

[mwilliams62]

Let me see if I can help :)

Culture container - anything that is long, wide, at least 2 inches high. Cake pans are a perfect example. If you get deeper than 2-3 inches you have to add an airstone.

Temperature - room temp. Anything from 60-85 is optimal.

Salinity - 30 ppt to 40 ppt. They are used to the tide pools evaporating during the day and the salinity going up.

Circulation - not needed, especially in a shallow system.

Lighting - ambient

Food - Phyto-Feast or Shellfish Diet, they like variety. Nanno is the least effective species for them.

When you have a good population going simply scoop some out and feed them to your tank. Then replace the water in the "tidepool". If you are replacing it with water from your aquarium I'd pour it through a coffee filter first to keep other organisms out.

Other then feeding the pods these foods "Phyto-Feast or Shellfish Diet, they like variety. Nanno is the least effective species for them." Is there anything else you can feed them while growing them in the cake pan?

[enb141]

This is an old post but I also would like to know if there's another sugestion for feeding them?

What about Dan's feed or algamac?

[mwilliams62]

This is an old post but I also would like to know if there's another sugestion for feeding them?

What about Dan's feed or algamac?

Don't know about other foods to feed them. Never heard of Dan's Feed or algamac before. I would stick with the foods that have been listed by those that have been culturing the pods.

[enb141]

Don't know about other foods to feed them. Never heard of Dan's Feed or algamac before. I would stick with the foods that have been listed by those that have been culturing the pods.


The problem is that those live foods don't last too long and buying them to my country is gonna be prohibitive expensive so I was thinking about something that can last about 6 months or 1 year as Dan's Feed or algamac does because is just a "dust" after all not liquid as the ones they mention.

[duganderson]

Great thread! Thank you very much.

I'm planning to buy a captive breed Mandarin.

What specific pods would be best to grow for a Mandarin?

Any suggestion for a phyto brand for the type of pod you're recommending?

When you're growing pods, you just scoop the pods out of the water? Are they generally free swimming in the water OR do you have to scrape them off the sides?

I'm assuming you get sludge/waste build up at the bottom of the container? How do you clean off the sludge/waste easily?

Thank you, Doug