Copepod Question

[oatyfruitybar]

So I've been trying to raise copepods for some time now, but I'm uncertain about what I'm seeing. I originally did this for the sake of my mandarin fish to try and do right by it (since then it has died).

I started with a ten gallon tank, a heater, sand and some rock and added two bottles of copepods (different kinds), and have been using Phyto Feast. All the pods were super tiny when I got them, but I assumed they would grow. I've been adding food every few days and the water keeps clearing up, so I'm under the assumption that SOMETHING is eating it. That being said, I haven't seen any movement in the tank for some time now, with lights on or off inside it. I started this project maybe a month to a month and a half ago, and added two balls of chaeto to give the pods more places to hide, but still haven't seen any.

So what I'm wondering is has my pod population crashed? If so, what is eating the phytoplankton that I keep putting in the water?

 

[Zooid]

can you see any white dots on the glass at all?

 

[djkms]

What species copepods? Most pods do not like light and will not be visible except at night with a flash light or real early in the morning. They also do not like flow. Copepods are super tiny critters and when purchased in a bottle they are mostly adults, they do not get visibly bigger.

Also, copepods should be fed daily. If they did in fact "crash" I would suspect there are other things in your rock that will eat phyto. It has also been my experience that if you culture them in a fuge type setting (rock, sand, heater, etc) the population will explode then diminish, explode then diminish. I suspect though, with only feeding every 3 days that they probably died out.

 

[oatyfruitybar]

No, no white dots that I can see. I picked up a few rocks and looked underneath those too, and nothing. I fed them every time the water started to clear up, not necessarily every three days, which is what most tutorials said to do. Often it was every day, actually. But for whatever reason, I guess I have to assume that they crashed. Also, about other things in the rock eating the phytoplankton... maybe, but that rock was dry for probably a month before I put it in this tank. I found a bristleworm in the chaeto the other day (do bristleworms eat phytoplankton?) but I'm pretty sure that came in the chaeto... not sure what could survive dry rock for that long?

I'm just nervous about cleaning out the tank because if they didn't die then I'm throwing away perfectly good critters.

 

[Zooid]

I've never had good luck with pods except when I cultured them in a one gallon container with an air line.
Kris is right most pods are extremely small, I have to break out a jeweler's loupe just to see the antennae on them to make sure I am looking at pods.
Tigriopus pods are different. Those guys are very big and they have a red color most of the time.
Amphipods are going to be the pods that you can see easily and they look like a comma and will run all over the place. I don't think amphipods make
good food for Mandarins because they are so big but I could be mistaken.

Most likely you bought a variety of different pods. If you try again, set up a small tank with no rock and no sand. You can throw a bunch of sinking
bioballs in the tank or some pieces of PVC for surface area. The pods you buy will normally be harpactacoid and will want a surface to walk on. If you
are trying to raise Tiggerpods then you may not even need a heater because those are normally a cool water pod. Let me know if you are successful, I
may be setting up another pod tank soon.

 

[Kindafishy]

I once had quite the pod farm going. My mandarin was very fat at the time as well.

There are only two thing which have changed since then.

1. No green algae in the tank.

2. Instead of my original large grade crushed coral and shells, I run Bahama Oolite which is fine, with about 10% crushed coral.

With no algae (previously bubble caulerpa and hair algae BTW) and no deep impenetrable hiding places in the sand, they disappeared. My mandarin started fading, So I sold him to Aqua imports.

So, with my new tank I plan to have an algae refugium. With a deep large grain crushed coral and shells. Hopefully higher then the main tank, so it can naturally overflow into the main tank without chopping the copepods to bits like my under tank, pre-return one did.

A neighbor moved a couple of years ago and sold me a biocube for $35. I filled it with dirty tank water from my main tank. Then large crushed coral sand, and a rock. I think I've done three water changes since? I put a light on it, and moved my refugium rocks into it a month ago when I bought a new skimmer. That little tank has hundreds of pods running around. I don't feed the tank at all. All it has now is the bubble caulerpa from my refugium, the rocks, and crushed coral. I feed it nothing, ever.

Somehow the pods are alive(you can see them on the acrylic night or day, There are tiny nearly crystal clear anemones with white tip tenticles, And a single red feather duster all living in there!