Culture Journal: Parvocalanus crassirostris

[Ummfish]

These guys might be overkill for sexy shrimp, though. You should try something like Apocyclops if you want something for them. Apocyclops are much, much easier to culture and are fine with higher densities, too. The first stages are still smaller than rots, but are about twice as big as the naups of these copepods. And, once the shrimp can handle the adults, the females are brooders so all those yummy, nutritious egg sacs are right there for the shrimp to munch on.

These copepods really are more for tiny fish larvae that can't handle anything bigger.

 

[Zooid]

Apocyclops are great.......I've crashed rotifers far faster than Apocyclops. And the food for the copepods are O. marina. This is very difficult to completely kill off. I've brought back cultures that have been taken over by bacteria several times.

 

[Ummfish]

Really, Gale? How'd you do that? When mine get bacteria I just toss them and split one of the others, but I'd sure like to know how to recover one.

 

[Zooid]

Andy,
I split the culture in half, throw out one half, top off the other half with new water
and then I feed VERY little. I do this process for about a week and normally it makes
a comeback. I culture in one gallon containers so when I start the resurrection process,
I only feed about four drops of RotiGrow+ when splitting (normally I feed 10 drops twice per day)
At the scheduled feeding time, if the water has any green tint at all, I don't feed until the next regularly scheduled feeding.
This method has brought the culture back at least three or four times and I've verified it with
the microscope. Still looks like O. marina to me hehe.

 

[djkms]

Gale that is good info, I think I crashed one of my cultures recently. I sent you a PM a couple weeks ago but didnt get a reply, wonder if you got the PM? Anyways hope all is well and sorry to stomp on your thread Andy

 

[Zooid]

Sorry about that Kris.
hmmmm, normally I respond as soon as I see the PM......I don't remember getting it though.
Working nights sucks! lol

 

[Ummfish]

Thanks, Gale. You're the man!

 

[Zooid]

Oh, Andy,
btw, When splitting during the resurrection process, I always sieve half of the culture into a clean container
just to keep decreasing the bacteria population. There's most likely bacteria build up on the walls of the container
so I want to remove that population every split.

 

[Ummfish]

I'm still doing my daily sieve and container change and I have to say, the cultures are looking better. I have those sieves built on 6" PVC, so I can just pour the whole bucket through and it doesn't take overly long to clean the buckets since there's not a lot of time for buildup.

 

[djkms]

Andy,

Do you think these pods could have a viable population living in a DT? If so I would love to get a split from you, I am all about diversity

 

[Ummfish]

I would really doubt it, honestly. Though don't let that keep you away. They are on the menu for just about anything in the tank and powerheads just can't be their friends.

 

[Zooid]

They might be viable if you fed a huge amount of Isochrysis
I throw my splits into my main tank when I don't have a batch of larvae running.
I'm sure some of the corals appreciate it.

 

[djkms]

hmm what about Roti's would they feed off of them like my other pods?

Gale if you get your hands on a starter disc or culture of Iso im willing to give it a whirl. No crashes yet with my nanno or tetra, not that its saying much compared to Iso. FAF is always out of discs even though they say they are in stock.

 

[Zooid]

I stopped ordering from FAF after they abused me on the shipping.
I normally order from EBAY if it's available.

 

[Ummfish]

Mark Vera has really good quality liquid phyto starters (and I mean _really_ good): http://www.phyto2.com/

The FAF Iso is a joke. Not even a hint of it growing.

 

[Ummfish]

But seriously, we should get you going on O. marina. It really is far easier than T-Iso. Heck, it's even easier than Nanno. Then we should get you going on Apocyclops. That's a good starter pelagic copepod. It's much easier and more forgiving than Parvo.

 

[djkms]

But seriously, we should get you going on O. marina. It really is far easier than T-Iso. Heck, it's even easier than Nanno. Then we should get you going on Apocyclops. That's a good starter pelagic copepod. It's much easier and more forgiving than Parvo.

You talking to me?

 

[Ummfish]

You betcha. If you can keep phyto, you can keep O. marina.

 

[Zooid]

yep, O. marina is one of my favorites

 

[djkms]

Hi Andy, how is the culture coming along?

On a side note I am going to start culturing Roti's separate from pods. They produce way too much waste and my cultures keep crashing and its getting really annoying. By crashing I mean I don't see pods in my cultures anymore, its pretty much all roti's. I am going to try the tidepool approach that Randy Reed is talking about here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2030920