dave w January 17, 2013 Share January 17, 2013 (edited) WAMAS friends, I'm going to try raising pygmy angelfish larvae in a greenhouse tank. Although their favorite food is copepods, only half a dozen pods are sold commercially. We have 50 copepod species in the Chesapeake who are good aquarium candidates because brackish water pods adapt to a wide range of salinty and nutrient levels. Most copepods are seasonal, growing in warm water and dropping eggs (cysts) in the fall which settle into the mud, overwinter and hatch the next spring. Would anyone living near the Chesapeake please bring me a tablespoon of their wonderful mud in a ziplock baggie to the next WAMAS meeting? It can be wet but should be kept cold. From these I can isolate as many of our 50 native species as possible and hopefully a silver bullet will be found so pelagic fish can be reared. Yes it's ambitious, but worth a try. So please bring me your mud. Or sand. Saltwater marshes or swamps are the best, but mud from open waters is fine too. A word of caution: don't let the mud warm up in your house for a significant period of time or the cysts will hatch early and die. Not to get all 'technical' but I believe the scientific term for breaking out of the cyst too early is: "premature eject-ulation" which would require me to prepare and administer many, many tiny doses of Viagra. Waaaaay too much work! See you at the next meeting. Edited January 17, 2013 by dave w Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbgen12 January 17, 2013 Share January 17, 2013 Does this work only in the winter time? Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w January 17, 2013 Author Share January 17, 2013 (edited) Does this work only in the winter time? Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2 Some pods stay alive through the winter but most lay resting cysts and die off in the Fall. During the season there wouldn't be as many cysts in the mud. There would be live pods in the water column or attached to surfaces. There are two predominant pod species in the Chesapeake, I am interested in isolating the other 48 which are present in smaller numbers. That's why I appeal to the WAMAS membership, so I can get mud from as many different habitats as possible. Some people live near the rivers, some near the ocean, some in the lower Chesapeake where salinity is higher. Some live near a marsh. All are good habitats to get a variety of pods. Edited January 17, 2013 by dave w Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w January 17, 2013 Author Share January 17, 2013 A mistake. I meant to say "during the SUMMER season" there wouldn't be many cysts in the mud. I didn't mean to say "during the season". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 January 18, 2013 Share January 18, 2013 I will be visiting my Mom this weekend and she lives on the water in Tall Timbers, MD. Its a creek right off the Potomac River. Let me know if this will work and i will get you some mud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimlin January 18, 2013 Share January 18, 2013 what about potomac in d.c. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w January 18, 2013 Author Share January 18, 2013 I will be visiting my Mom this weekend and she lives on the water in Tall Timbers, MD. Its a creek right off the Potomac River. Let me know if this will work and i will get you some mud! Nyfan78, thank you. It should be fine. Even if the salinity is very low, most of these copepods can adapt when I adjust it upward. And even if there are only freshwater cysts they'll die but that's no big loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w January 18, 2013 Author Share January 18, 2013 what about potomac in d.c. ? jimlin, a sample from the potomac would be ok, pfisteria and all! An exotic copepod (exotic meaning non-native, not meaning sexy) was discovered at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in D.C. a few years back. So one sample from D.C. should be all I need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w January 20, 2013 Author Share January 20, 2013 bump. please collect a little mud for my copepod research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYfan78 January 20, 2013 Share January 20, 2013 Dave, so I totally forgot to get you mud. So sorry man! : / Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w January 22, 2013 Author Share January 22, 2013 Dave, so I totally forgot to get you mud. So sorry man! : / no worries nyfan78. we stilll have a lot of winter left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w January 27, 2013 Author Share January 27, 2013 bump. please get a tablespoon of mud from the saltwater swamp near you or your next visit to a local beach. Getting more copepods into fish breeding is a good thing to do. Many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w February 7, 2013 Author Share February 7, 2013 bump. please mud me. sand from the ocean is also fine. i'll only be there at the beginning of the meeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w February 8, 2013 Author Share February 8, 2013 mud, mud, mud. please bring me some salty mud. thank you, thank you, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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