Grow Copepods the easy way | how and why to culture copepods 

Yeah I thought the same, makes it pretty much free to breed them now 🎉

Water changes are accomplished by harvesting, yes same salinity as your tank. You might not need to feed phyto, the microbial film could provide everything to keep them going.

Hey Alan, I notice you tube edited your name. Just curious are you a conservative? They seem to targeting only certain users for their name editing software. Regarding the salinity question, I think they like freshwater as well. Idk, but I have them in my fresh water tank.

Does the tank water need to be heated?

@@Rick-the-Swift I think it is different pods.

They really don’t need a lot of food, the waste that you add is more to support the biofilm on which they are feeding- a big mistake people often make when culturing copepods at home is over feeding. If you keep feeding minimal the water you remove while harvesting will be more than sufficient to maintain water chemistry. Thanks for asking!

I think we just use plants to deal with nitrates problem even when culture copepod or other kinds of live foods.

Thank you!!

Shallow Tupperware lots of surface area

We don’t yet have a great understanding of reef tank ecology so you might be right here- however If you artificially inflate the population size of one member of the ecosystem you will decrease the prey for that organism and increase the population size of things that eat that organism. They may also outcompete things in the aquarium that are already occupying similar niches. So it’s not inconceivable that you could have too much of a good thing in this context. Thanks for watching and commenting, appreciate your insight.

Some of those pods might be copepod eating copepods- just a heads up if your planning on starting a culture. Give it a google. Otherwise yes, small syphon works well.

@@tanknicians8839 awesome thanks I’ll do more research

I found tgevsame thing on my clkwnfish broodstock tank. I uses a 3/16" rigid airline tubing to some airline and siphoned them one by one into a new culture vessel. However these 2 cultures I started did not survive long for me. I fed them a blend of nano, tetra and iso phytoplankton just like I do with my other pod cultures I bought in a bottle. I think possibly the pods I siphoned out wanted to eat the film algae, dinoflagellates, cyano and other macro algae that was on my tank was vs just phytoplankton microalgae. I'm working on doing an experiment currently to see if this is the case. Doesent make sense but we will see.

@@BriansAquariums yup has to be. My 20g has a bunch of the pods running around the sand bed an rocks during the night. My 60g does not, my 60g also has a melanurus wrasse that likes to eat them as well. I 3 easy sizes to distinguish from running around that tank daily. That tank grows no algae, I don’t remove the filter floss lol. It’s been there for months, I don’t change the water often or anything. The tank is insanely clean. I’ve already started siphoning them during the night and releasing them in the 60g during the night while the fish sleep. I easily catch over 100 at a time

Fresh mixed saltwater is best

Shrimp 🍤? Is where they come from?

Hey David, I’m not sure about amphipods but copepods generally do really well going through a return pump. Check out commercial copepod production set ups for aquaculture. they sometimes employ very strong pumps.

@@tanknicians8839 thank you!!!

I’ll look into a Bluetooth microphone. Thanks for the feedback. Was it the background noises mostly or the actual audio quality itself?

Yes it was background noises but it did improve when you were standing and closer to the camera. Also I wear two hearing aids and perhaps for most who listen didn't have any problem. Any way thanks Tommy and good luck in your new store.

@@tanknicians8839 , I could hear you fine, the background noise is nothing. Thanks for the great honest information. Paul should use headphones because maybe his background noise is reflecting off yours.

I never considered how a hearing aid could amplify background noise. Thanks for bringing this to our attention we will look into solutions to make our audio better for everyone.

I could hear him fine and understand the whole process. But the noises in the background are quite loud, I agree.

We use this water, don’t really need to strain unless you are trying to separate naups.

It’s as hard as you want it to be. If you are patient, choose hardy animals, and quarantine everything before it goes in your display you will avoid a lot of the issues that make a tank ‘hard’.

Only if ambient temps are cold, we keep ac between 74-77

I’m sorry to hear this, how did you confirm brook? Humble fish has a video detailing treatment if you haven’t seen that- also a good forum post. Formalin is a great dip if used correctly, it can be tricky to use and make sure your taking necessary precautions. It’s best to follow up with a similar treatment for uronema- cp or metronidazole- I would recommend cp if you have it. Good luck, I hope they recover soon!

@@tanknicians8839 I could see that the skin was peaking off and white fuzz

Copper! I use coppersafe with a 20g tank and dose to 1.5 on first day and then up it slowly to 2.2 over the next 2 days. Do not fees them at all for those 3 days. Trust me. I rescue them from my crappy LFS and ive saved at least a dozen so far.

That’s what big phytoplankton wants you to think

We keep the shop at 76 degrees. If it’s much cooler where you would keep them you could add a heater if you wanted.

@@tanknicians8839 Thanks! I first began seeing you on Paul’s channel and was very impressed with your knowledge. Thanks for the help!

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It’s a solvent, we mainly use it for praziquantel.

Cut buzz :D