bravanc June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 i catch grass shrimp for bait down in solomons (southern Maryland) every time i bring the net up there are humdreds of copepods running around while i pick out the grass shrimp. never found the time to collect them as i am eager to fish. maybe i'll put a trap or filter like what reefs2 go does when they transport/sell them and collect them later. i'll try that tonight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 i catch grass shrimp for bait down in solomons (southern Maryland) every time i bring the net up there are humdreds of copepods running around while i pick out the grass shrimp. never found the time to collect them as i am eager to fish. maybe i'll put a trap or filter like what reefs2 go does when they transport/sell them and collect them later. i'll try that tonight Sounds like it's worth a try. Report back if they seem to survive in your tank if you put them there. Or set up a QT with some water from a water change and check their initial survival rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 Yeah, but the sound has higher salinity than the bay.... Trust me, they don't care, Grass shrimp don't care either as I can take 50,000 of them with one swoop of the 2 man net. I wish they taste good but I don't think they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey18 June 27, 2014 Author Share June 27, 2014 I am working this weekend but might try to head out there next weekend... although the holiday traffic in that direction might dissuade me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 I'd be interested in helping out or going. Do you want open water copepods or amphipods like paulB? I'd recommend that your best collection efforts would be at night so you can collect the benthic pods called harpacticoids. These cling to the bottom of your tank during the day and eat bacteria, so they may last longer in your tank. Unfortunately they enter the water column at night and may get sucked through your pumps. Any copepods you collect during the day will be pelagic and should be in the water column most of the time, meaning they'll get sucked into your pumps sooner rather than later. Depending on where you collect, salinity acclimitization shouldn't be too hard. Estuaries like the Chesapeake have warm fresh water from rivers running downstream over the top of the water at the same time that colder ocean water from the incoming tide moves upstream along the bottom. Copepods need to manage rapid changes in salinity so are pretty tough in that respect. If you are collecting planktonic copepods I can show you how to make a cheap "poor man's" plankton net. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huly June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 Oh this sounds fun! Pez and I might want to join! I have my dad's 120Gal cooler. That might be enough room LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 Oh this sounds fun! Pez and I might want to join! I have my dad's 120Gal cooler. That might be enough room LOL Based on my limited experience that should fit a few pods. I would be more interested to see how many beers it holds for the trip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey18 June 27, 2014 Author Share June 27, 2014 Well I don't have a boat so I will have to collect whatever I can wade / swim to. I don't really care what specific things I collect. I am more interested in seeing 1) what i pull up and 2) if my fish will eat it :-) paul B brags about his massive pod collection every summer and I want to be like Paul! (doesn't everyone?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 Oh this sounds fun! Pez and I might want to join! I have my dad's 120Gal cooler. That might be enough room LOL Yep. This is where we show this picture. This isopod would have a tough time going through your return pump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 and I want to be like Paul! You firse have to be bald. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huly June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 LOL LOL LOL That is awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mling June 27, 2014 Share June 27, 2014 What about at the beach ? I go to Bethany Beach a lot. Will I be able to get it there ? There is also the Assawoman Bay and Indian River Bay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w June 29, 2014 Share June 29, 2014 Okay, So.... it seems that most people involved in this thread are interested in collecting amphipods, not copepods, if I have it right. For amphipods we don't need a boat, just some wading boots, nets and a place on the shoreline where dead vegetation collects. You'll need the patience to separate amphipods from lots of gunky smelly algae, that's the hard part. We can find amphipods in any of the above mentioned places, although those with higher salinity would be better. Grass shrimp would also be wonderful because there is much more bang for the bite. I've looked into culturing them but their natural food is stuff growing on the blades of seagrasses and I don't know how they'd do on substitute foods in a culture tank. How about we just collect a hundred gallons of grass shrimp and let our fish feast on that? They are probably nearly the same nutrition as amphipods but much larger shrimp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey18 June 29, 2014 Author Share June 29, 2014 (edited) Grass shrimp sounds awesome as well. Im definitely planning on combining it with the social... but want to head out there sometime in July also. Edited June 29, 2014 by Sharkey18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 July 7, 2014 Share July 7, 2014 Went to Matapeake Beach just over the Bay Bridge in Queen Anne County, MD today and brought just a couple of fish tank nets for the kids. We harvested some grass shrimp, some mummichogs, some incidental amphipods, a couple of small crabs, and a Northern Pipefish from the rocks of the jetty. Only issue is the extremely low salinity so after spending the afternoon at the beach I had to come home, put everything away, bathe the kids, and then acclimate the collected animals to full marine salinity... Very easy to collect and also very durable, although their adjustment to full salt should probably have taken much longer than I spent doing it (only about 3.5 hours as I got tired of acclimation after the first hour and can't believe I made it as long as I did). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b July 7, 2014 Share July 7, 2014 (edited) I collect almost every week in a tide pool in the Long Island Sound and acclimate in a few minutes. In this tide pool at low tide water from a lake on the other side of that road overpass behind me drains into this pool and the water becomes almost fresh. At high tide the sea level here is 8' deep. There is probably more aquatic life in that small pool than all the tanks in the US put together. And a couple of video's. It was an underwater camera so the sound is very low. Edited July 7, 2014 by paul b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey18 July 7, 2014 Author Share July 7, 2014 Awesome! Thanks for the info Dave. I don't know if I could make 3.5 hrs. either. Does it seem like the stuff is still alive? or did it all get eaten /disappear? Paul, If we had access to a tide pool like that I would be there every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b July 7, 2014 Share July 7, 2014 I am there every week, sometimes twice a week. My Grand Daughter just hit shore in the Dinghy and is pointing the way to the tide pool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 July 7, 2014 Share July 7, 2014 Awesome! Thanks for the info Dave. I don't know if I could make 3.5 hrs. either. Does it seem like the stuff is still alive? or did it all get eaten /disappear? Paul, If we had access to a tide pool like that I would be there every week. I stuck it in a separate tank since my "reef" will get broken down and replaced at some point in the future and everything seems alive and well. The grass shrimp gorged on capelin roe today and it seems like this might be a god food for them. Capelin are an Arctic fish that eat a lot of krill so I figure their eggs (which are used in sushi - the tiny orange eggs on a lot of common rolls) are pretty nutritious. I wonder if feeding this to them will turn them orange... Their heads turn orange when they eat the eggs so I wonder if long term feeding will cause their bodies to stain orange as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM July 7, 2014 Share July 7, 2014 Do you ever feed sushi roe to your reef fish, Dave? Maybe that would be something to try for me since Nutramar Ova seems totally unobtainable for the forseeable future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 July 7, 2014 Share July 7, 2014 I used to, but have no reef fish or reef at the moment. Not all of the fish liked it, but most did. The tangs never really had much interest in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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