Breeding Copepods

[saltwaternoob74]

hey everyone,
I really want to breed copepods so that i can have a large enough culture to reproduce and keep a mandarin fish in my tank I think they are the coolest saltwater fish. I did buy some trigger-pods and also something called it's alive which i was told was eggs to hatch in the tank. I put the trigger-pod bottle in my tank to aclimate and when I opened it i left the bottle in the tank for a half an hour then pulled it out....however i forgot to shut off my pump... so im doubting that the all got in the rocks even though i put it in the rocks. I also put a teaspoon of the it's alive mix into the tank three days a week. Is there anything else I can do or should do.
Thanks.



tank is 72 gal. acrylic.
two halide 75wt 20000k lights.
also pump w/ skimmer.

 

[milkton]

Hey, not sure if this helps as i have never bred copepods before but what i heard people do is dose phytoplankton to feed the copepods. Where i get my copepods for my mandarin is from time and my sump. Good luck!

 

[seffieuk]

Copepod Culture

Container of any size, some people even use 2 litre cola bottles
Air line
Phytoplankton
Sunny window sill
copepod culture starter
salty water
sieve

place salty water in container, add air line and light from window sill, place in phyto, enough to turn the water to a greenish tinge, put in your culture. Ensure the water always has the greeny tinge, wait three weeks and bingo, start harvesting.

Top tip - run two cultures as usually one will crash after a few months

Top tip - in the summer, you will not need to add phyto as you will gt green algae naturally

Seffie x