Culturing copepods

[Yachaq]

Hi WAMAS!!

I will start next week to grow phyto and pods using the copepod system from Poseidon. Has anyone tried to grow pods either using this system or any other DIY option?

What is your experience growing pods?

[lynn.reef.nerd]

@A.ocellaris has been growing pods for a quite a while. I would hit him up for his experience. 

I do have someone that uses the same system as you to grow phyto. He is not on WAMAS, but if you hit me up on Facebook, I can introduce you to him. 
 

[Vacobra1]

I can tell you growing phyto isn't as easy as it sounds,  I have been trying it for the last month and have crashed it 2 times and just stated again yesterday.  Everything has to be very sterile which I thought I did a good job of with the last culture that crashed.  Just make sure everything that touches the water is sterile and best of luck.

[jeffvt1999]

Keep a close eye on the fertilizer as well, and never use your pod or rotifer turkey baster to do anything in phyto culture or they’ll get a nice snack on all the phyto ?.  Follow fertilizer dosing very carefully, keep and eye on evaporation (salinity) and adding fresh water occasionally just like regular tank.

[AlanM]

what phyto and what pods are you growing?  I always wanted to try.

[Yachaq]

  On 3/9/2020 at 1:58 PM, jeffvt1999 said:

Keep a close eye on the fertilizer as well, and never use your pod or rotifer turkey baster to do anything in phyto culture or they’ll get a nice snack on all the phyto ?.  Follow fertilizer dosing very carefully, keep and eye on evaporation (salinity) and adding fresh water occasionally just like regular tank.

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Working on it. Seems that evaporation may be slower than with an open container, but will keep an eye open on the water level

[Yachaq]

  On 3/10/2020 at 12:17 AM, AlanM said:

what phyto and what pods are you growing?  I always wanted to try.

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I just started with the Poseidon Copepod system. It comes with 2 phyto starters (Nannochloropsis oculata) and 1 Tisbe (Tisbe biminensis?) copepod starter. Setup was a breeze. Let's see what results do I get.

[Joshb]

Any update 

[Yachaq]

Success!! I have harvested 3 rounds of pods and 2 of phyto. The phyto culture crashed the last round (my fault),, but I will be re-starting it this week.

Other than that, it requires a little bit of work once a week. It takes me less than 20 mins to harvest and have the next batch ready.

[AlanM]

Can you post any pics or videos of the little tisbe pods swimming around?  

 

What are you feeding with them?  Gonna raise clowns or banggai cardinals?

[Yachaq]

Certainly. I will post a video of the next harvest.

Right now I have a mandarin in the system that enjoys them. I have a couple of clowns that I hope will lay some eggs at some point....

[highfivem3]

i got the same system about a month ago! great stuff!  i have so much extra phyto now

[Yachaq]

I know!!! I just got the 4th harvest of pods (sorry @AlanM, forgot to take the video before dumping them in the sump) and re-started the phyto with a new starter culture. Almost don't know what to do with the rest . Thinking on trying other culturing other types of pods just because. At the price one pays for a bottle of pods, this system pays by itself in  just a few months.

I will take a video of the harvested pods next week.

 

[Vacobra1]

What pods are you culturing.

[Yachaq]

Tisbe pods

[Vacobra1]

That's what I'm growing too

 

[JJKK]

Do you know if the system would also support amphipods culture?

[Yachaq]

I believe that will be trickier, depending on the need for filtration and additional structures for a benthic organism. I believe a small tank with the adequate filtration system and lighting could work. This is more of a "grow in a bag" approach.

[JJKK]

  On 4/13/2020 at 2:52 PM, Yachaq said:

I believe that will be trickier, depending on the need for filtration and additional structures for a benthic organism. I believe a small tank with the adequate filtration system and lighting could work. This is more of a "grow in a bag" approach.

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Thanks for the feedback.  Yeah, safer bet is to get a small tank to culture amphipods. 

[AlanM]

This is really great that you're having success.  I don't have a tank at the moment, but have always liked the tiny life the best and would be tempted to just start a culture operation of rotifers, a few types of phyto, pods, etc.  Just hand them out to people in the club for their tanks.

[YHSublime]

  On 4/12/2020 at 5:53 PM, Yachaq said:

I know!!! I just got the 4th harvest of pods (sorry [mention=2633353]AlanM[/mention], forgot to take the video before dumping them in the sump) and re-started the phyto with a new starter culture. Almost don't know what to do with the rest . Thinking on trying other culturing other types of pods just because. At the price one pays for a bottle of pods, this system pays by itself in  just a few months.
I will take a video of the harvested pods next week.
 

I’ll happily dump pods into my curing rock bins if you make them! I’ll grab some starter pods!

[Yachaq]

Yesterday I got my 5th harvest of pods and phyto. After reseeding the culture bottles I was left with a little more than 1 liter of phyto. The pods collection on the other hand, was smaller than expected. I believe they just run out of food earlier in the process as the water was completely clear a few days before harvest. I plan to add more phyto to the pods culture if this happens again.

 

 

[AlanM]

Great video of the little swimmers!

[nburg]

Nice, I hope to try this at some point in the future. Tagging if I need to ask you any questions or for advice in the future.

Edited April 23, 2020 by nburg