# culturing copepods ?



## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

i think they're copepods (hitch-hikers i am happy to have for sure)

they're small about 1mm,
(the times i wish i was home instead of at work to be in a position to post a picture for everyone)

i've got a small globe tank (of sorts) ... i guess would be normally used for beta fish ...

the water is a very solid green (yay) and i noticed i've got a bunch of copepods in there
i think the microworms i used to have in there died off , going to start extra feeding to see if anything is left alive.

but ...

for culturing what looks like copepods, ... how dense could i get the culture before i divide it (put a bunch in the main tank), how much greenwater could they eat before i worry about them eating too much ?

i'll try to remember when i get home to get a picture on here if people have other ideas/concerns on what to look for, concerns to have.

i love the idea of live food, ... i would love to have the option of enough i could forgo feeding store-bought food, (not realistic, but hey)


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## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

Flear said:


> i think they're copepods (hitch-hikers i am happy to have for sure)
> 
> they're small about 1mm,
> (the times i wish i was home instead of at work to be in a position to post a picture for everyone)
> ...


 
Florida Aqua Farms has several references and equipment for cultures both FW and marine.

I used to culture micro algae and rotifers for my marine tank. Used 3 two liter bottles for each. also had a back up of 6 more 2 liter bottles. Drank a lot of coke to get those. :lol:

I would take 300ml from a rotifer cultures and 600ml from an algae culture. 300ml of that would go into rotifer culter for 600 total and that would be added to the tank. The other 300ml would replace the 300ml from the rotifer culture. I would then take 600ml of tank water and microwave it for a minute, let it cool, add the florida aqua farms micro algae grow, and pour back into the algae culture. And would use different 2 liter cultures each day.

Once per month I would rotate all the 2 liter bottles with new clean ones and wash the old ones in bleach, rinse, then vinegar, rinse, and let dry.

Occasionally a micro culture would start to fail and I would dump that into the tank and split a good culture, add fertz and microwaved tank water. The cultures would recover in a day or two.

Actually a lot of stuff like in your case just shows up in a refugium with plants. Once you get that away from the fish, pods just start showing up.


my .02

Bou


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## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

i'm using sterilite clear tubs (16quart) instead of 2L bottles
also heard this recommended from a site (not the tubs, but away from the bottles) so the containers could easily be cleaned properly

i'm going to guess (unless others have another suggestion), ... to let the (what appears to be) copepods culture till the water starts to clear up any, ... then divide it to move stuff to the main tank ?

that water has been fed mostly sinking algae waffers (the microworms that were in there used to love those things)

kinda disappointed that the worms are gone, but happy to see other life present


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