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  #1  
Old 01/11/2008, 05:03 PM
dadonoflaw dadonoflaw is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: dc
Posts: 573
culturing copepods

i have a mandarin and several other plankton feeders so i was interested in growing copepods as a food source and was hoping someone had experience with this and could give me the benefit of there knowledge? what would i need? parameters of the container and that sort of thing.
  #2  
Old 01/11/2008, 11:57 PM
mokeyz mokeyz is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 86
Hi,

If you have a refugium and macroalgae in the refugium then you probably already have copepods, aphipods and isopods among other inverts. Your signature indicates a 180 gal reef that has been up for a year so there is probably a decent population, though not enough to sustain a mandarin for very long. Assuming the "fuge" they will reproduce there and some will get swept into the main tank on a regular basis, you can increase the amount that goes to the tank by pruning some of the algae (chaeto, calupera, etc.) and putting it in the main tank. Though I have a large population of pods in my refugium and tank I am thinking of setting up a pico with sand, water and algae from my refugium as a separate, predator free environment for them to reproduce.

I don't think it would be very difficult to keep them in a separate tank and siphon some off for the main tank on a regular basis. The parameters would be the same as your reef, with live sand, algae and some live rock rubble I think they will be fine.
  #3  
Old 01/12/2008, 12:53 AM
mokeyz mokeyz is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 86
Hi again dadonoflaw,

I did some research and here is some info on copepod propagation and a pdf that you can download. From some reading they are cannabalistic - but I think for our application a small separate tank without other predators should produce a good supply for the main tank.

http://www.flseagrant.org/program_ar...epod/index.htm

Regards,
Marlene
  #4  
Old 01/12/2008, 01:11 AM
dadonoflaw dadonoflaw is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: dc
Posts: 573
thank you. you know i never see amphipods anymore but like i said i have alot of zooplankton feeders so they have likely been consumed. i guess i have some reading to do
 

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