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

[@LuckAqua]

Thank you very much for the video. Now I have a new food source and ecology balancer for my tanks.

[@carlosjoya1583]

I thought you needed phyto in order to reproduce and grow copepods! Never thought this could be done with only flakes or detritus. Great info. Thank you sir.

[@rlalex420]

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

[@johnbubbajohnson5630]

It is very interesting. Thank you for sharing. God bless you and your family.....🙏❤🙏❤🙏😊🙂😀

[@rhombifer566]

truly the beard 🧔‍♂️ of knowledge

[@fishstix1988]

How much and how often would a water change be? Are you keeping the salinity at 1.026? How much and how often would you feed them phytoplankton? I'd love to email you and talk to you more in detail about this!

[@tanknicians8839]

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.

[@Rick-the-Swift]

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.

[@iconcorals6950]

Does the tank water need to be heated?

[@DEXTER-TV-series]

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

[@BriansAquariums]

Great video!

[@tanknicians8839]

Thank you!!

[@killer2k1tv]

Any issues with ammonia or nitrates building up in the copepod culture tank over time? Do you perform water changes? Or any type of maintenance?

[@tanknicians8839]

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!

[@LuckAqua]

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

[@rja9784]

You can’t have an unbalance of copepods. They are literally self regulating

[@tanknicians8839]

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.

[@mr.octopus6972]

All I can say about these little pests is that they ate my entire collony of daphnia in only 48 hours.
Hundreds of daphnia just plain killed.
This is so frustrating. It's been months since I was trying to keep live daphnias. As soon as I got it right, these little monsters just appeared out of nowhere and destroyed everything.

[@ajnabeeladka]

Hi Tommy This is Rahim Frm India, I have Recently setup my saltwater tank with using seawater for how long do I have cycle the water b4 adding the fish. how do I culture rotifers.

[@thomascristaldi9303]

Do you have to add a nitrify bacteria and also do water changes as the grow and multiply when cultivating them ?

[@DEXTER-TV-series]

Why I don't see -baby- adult brine shrimps in saltwater aquariums and refugiums to be live food for fish 🐠 ?

[@gailnosbaum4980]

How did you do them in Tupperware and not have to have air bubbler ???

[@tanknicians8839]

Shallow Tupperware lots of surface area

[@Boogerdick69]

I left the film on my 20g on the glass for about a week. I came one night to check the tank and man I never seen that many pods in one of my tanks. So many, all types of sizes just feasting on the film. So best way to get those out to move them to another tank is to allow the glass to get dirty again then siphon them out at night?

[@tanknicians8839]

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.

[@Boogerdick69]

@@tanknicians8839 awesome thanks I’ll do more research

[@BriansAquariums]

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.

[@Boogerdick69]

@@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

[@billfrater1948]

You're missing info already, Salt water, Just mixed or cycled water?

[@Alohajacklyn808]

Fresh mixed saltwater is best

[@borisgarcia817]

Rotifer where they come from?

[@nicbrown265]

Can you keep freshwater copepods with blackworms?

[@ducklady1993]

I have always thought they need nano phyto to grow.

[@tanknicians8839]

That’s what big phytoplankton wants you to think

[@Coralnstuff]

If you have a sump with a return pump will copepods and amphipods make it from the sump to the display tank without dying?

[@tanknicians8839]

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.

[@Coralnstuff]

@@tanknicians8839 thank you!!!

[@dsostreaming]

Do you just added the harvested copepods to the tank with that water or do you use a strainer for them?

[@tanknicians8839]

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

[@kingfisherfleshy]

I do not raise brine shrimp - but I do want to culture benthic copepods as I feel they make more sense than some of these open water copepods...better for cleaning our surfaces in aquariums and more likely to survive filtration and water changes as they are on surfaces vs swimming in the water column. Is there a good way to source these?

[@borisgarcia817]

Shrimp 🍤? Is where they come from?

[@gregstephens2339]

What is the DMSO for?

[@leoL3383]

Question on how to culture copepods. Do I need a heater source?

[@tanknicians8839]

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

[@plind67]

Great topic Tom,,,, however the sound quality was real bad. I could barely understand you.

[@tanknicians8839]

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

[@plind67]

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.

[@garrycole9187]

@@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.

[@tanknicians8839]

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.

[@LuckAqua]

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

[@Jacobdonnelly5]

Excuse me Tommy really want to get into the saltwater tank stuff, is it really that hard?

[@tanknicians8839]

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’.

[@lucaswhitten5854]

Tommy how do you guys treat brookrynella in clownfish I’ve tried formalin dips freshwater dips medication nothing works any tips

[@tanknicians8839]

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!

[@lucaswhitten5854]

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

[@Alohajacklyn808]

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.

[@DadHD]

Buzz cut!!! 😆😆😆

[@LuckAqua]

Cut buzz :D

[@49erReefer]

Temp.? Heater needed?

[@tanknicians8839]

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.

[@49erReefer]

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

[@Ross19kilo]

Where are y’all located?

[@tanknicians8839]

844 park avenue, lake park, 33403

[@gregstephens2339]

What do you use the DMSO for? I use it for pain.

[@tanknicians8839]

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