Bringing back my Copepod population after crash

[titancrusher1]

About 45 days ago my tank crashed. It's now fully recovered. Parameters are great and coraline is back to normal my only concern is i have two scooter blennies that were fat and happy before the crash and now they seem a bit "Fit" :P

I noticed i haven't seen ANY copepods in weeks and am afraid of just buying a bottle of tigger pods. I dont ahvea refugium and my sump has equipment in it that's not Copepod safe eg..pumps.

I DO have an in tank refugium with Cheato in it made out of egg crate with a piece of LR in it. Could I just turkey baster some copepods into the cheato? also, can I use Tigger Pods and actually have them populate or is there a species that is better used for population growth?

Thanks!

[josh27]

You would have a very slim if no chance of tigger pods living in your tank for any large amount of time at least in my experience. They do not live in warm waters so they are stored in refrigerators before being sold. You would be better off buying a culture of copepods somewhere.

[titancrusher1]

What copepods should i try to buy?

[HanoverFist]

I'd squirt most in that chaeto, some in the rockwork and some in a small rockpile in the main tank. A few populations to help ensure survival.

Small feedings of phytoplankton can really help the population explode too. Just be careful not too use too much - you'll be overfeeding. I'd go with, at most, 1/4 - 1/2 the minimum recommended dosage dispersed between the refugium and the tank - if you have nothing in the tank currently using phyto. Start small (few drops) and every few days dose phyto again but use a little more.This way your system can adjust to bioload. I worked up to 1/4 tsp on my 40 breeder and didn't see much impact other than on my pod populations. Even a few drops in the refugium should have some impact though.

The chaeto and other safe places will work wonders on their own. So it's really about how long you want to wait before it's a large population.



As far as what pods to use you can always get a small piece of LR from an established tank. Few pieces from various tanks would be better. There are also places that sell copepods, amphipods,etc by the 1000s. TiggerPods brand aren't even alone out there - there's ReefPods and OceanPods. Plenty of sources for pods and diversity.

[divewsharks]

you can order them in from places like reefs2go, inlandaquatics or ipsf. packages designed to seed and re-populate colonies.

[titancrusher1]

any idea of the best species? i tried tiggerpods and they never seemed to actually start breeding

[divewsharks]

i just made my first ever order from reefs2go, so we will see about them. as for inlandaquatics and ipsf, those colonized very well in my tanks.

[Sk8r]

Copepods can go through the most potent pump just fine. Even amphipods can make it through. Remove any filter socks and let the water loop freely. That's where they get stopped.

[CJO]

Originally Posted by josh27

They do not live in warm waters so they are stored in refrigerators before being sold.

This myth has been going around for a while. They are not cold water copepods (though they can live in those conditions). They are kept refrigerated to put them in a lower energy mode so that they survive longer before having to be introduced to the aquarium. I am breeding them fine in warm water.

CJ

[rivoth]

DT copepods would be a good thing to throw into your in tank refugium. They are a tropical species. Any LFS that caries DT products should be able to get them for you.

[2_zoa]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Copepods can go through the most potent pump just fine. Even amphipods can make it through. Remove any filter socks and let the water loop freely. That's where they get stopped.

Agreed, just feed phyto and in a week or two you’ll have plenty. Assuming there are still some within the system after the “crash”

[crawlerman]

Get some chaeto from someone that has an established tank. There will be plenty mixed in.

[divewsharks]

this thread is from 2010, its dead.....

[LeJeune981]

Originally Posted by titancrusher1

any idea of the best species? i tried tiggerpods and they never seemed to actually start breeding

I use tisbe pods.. they live great in an aquarium and reproduce and populate fast... I buy mine from
Podyourreef.com

20 bucks for a pouch (bout 8 to 13 thousands pods)

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[Daddi0]

***

[2_zoa]

Originally Posted by divewsharks

this thread is from 2010, its dead.....

Interesting how it was on the front page last night when I posted. I for sure didn’t go digging for it.

[sde1500]

The post that necro'd it was deleted for trying to sell pods.

[LeJeune981]

Originally Posted by 2_zoa

Interesting how it was on the front page last night when I posted. I for sure didn’t go digging for it.

Mine does that once in a while too...
I wonder why it does that

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[justletmein]

I'm in the process, hopefully tail end, of a pretty rough tank startup. Started with rock from a reefer breaking down his tank and pretty sure it was tainted in combination with an RO/DI error filling the tank ended up with some weird stuff. Anyhow, first 5 months went by and I never saw any pods at all, cope or amphi... nothing. Ordered a couple bags of the 5280 from algae barn and kind of forgot about them. 2 weeks or so after dumping them into the tank I remembered and put my flashlight from my phone on the glass while it was dark and saw a decent number of copepods all over the sides of the glass so it appears to have done well. Still not sure what to do with no amphipods, not sure what to think either since I dumped 120 lbs of existing established rock in and used existing established sand to start this tank but I'm happy to finally have a copepod population now.

edit: oh hell 2010? nice... oh well guess I'll leave the post now lol

[LeJeune981]

Originally Posted by justletmein

I'm in the process, hopefully tail end, of a pretty rough tank startup. Started with rock from a reefer breaking down his tank and pretty sure it was tainted in combination with an RO/DI error filling the tank ended up with some weird stuff. Anyhow, first 5 months went by and I never saw any pods at all, cope or amphi... nothing. Ordered a couple bags of the 5280 from algae barn and kind of forgot about them. 2 weeks or so after dumping them into the tank I remembered and put my flashlight from my phone on the glass while it was dark and saw a decent number of copepods all over the sides of the glass so it appears to have done well. Still not sure what to do with no amphipods, not sure what to think either since I dumped 120 lbs of existing established rock in and used existing established sand to start this tank but I'm happy to finally have a copepod population now.

edit: oh hell 2010? nice... oh well guess I'll leave the post now lol

I had the same problem after a tank crash... I lost all my inverts and crustaceans.. I found a guy on ebay selling ampipods.. so I ordered 200 of those . And a couple bags of copepods..
Once in a blue moon I'll see an ampipod.. but i always see cops on my glass.. and both my scooters are fat and happy

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