Whats the best way to grow copepods?

[traxryu]

Im looking to setup a seperate tank to start and grow some copepods. I had to rescue my mandarine from starvation(he was very skinny)and put him in a small ventilated container in my tank. This way I can feed him brine shrimp to get him back to a healthy state. He seems to like them! Thing is, I dont want to have to keep doing this. My tank is only about 6 months old and cant handle the mandarines diet.
Anyway, if any of you know the best and cheapest way of doing this I would really appreciate it.
Thanks guys, your always a big help.

 

[krusk]

first of all
do you have a refugium?
what size is your tank?
I don't remember on top of my head but I will post again this afternoon when I get home
there is a place sell copepods
if you have a refugium, get 1 order of copepods place in the refugium for couple weeks, shut water from refugium to main tank. Copepods will reproduce then start the refugium that will transfer copepods to your main tank
please read up on how to build a refugium

 

[krusk]

or
you can build a refugium without ordering copepods
place some new liverock(which also have some copepods) in the refugium

 

[traxryu]

Well, my tank is on the small size... its only 37 gallons. Plus I dont have a refugium. Ive heard alot about them but have never tried to create one. In fact I wouldnt really know the first thing about how to start it. But if you know of any good sights or books id be very thankfull.

 

[predator]

In a tank that size you will consistantly havew problems keeping a pod population to support a manderins appitite. Remember, fish are gluttoness eaters. It's easy to keep most fish from eating to much. You just simply do not feed them. But Manderins are diffrent. I personally would get rid of the little guy. I mean why risk starving the little guy?.
But if you are hell-bent on keeping the little guy then you nee a refugium. It's a seperate tank with a dsb(deep sand bed), rock rubble and little current. This will allow the copapods to breed like crazy without being preyed on. Then as the population begins to deplete you can grab you a piece of rock rubble and throw it in you main tank to feed the mandreine. Hopefully Mr. Salty will come on or even Sammy and help you figure out the way to get the water to and fro.

 

[varible]

Id like the address of the place that sells them please

 

[traxryu]

Yep, I thought about getting rid of him, but I dont know anyone who has the tank to handle it. I do want to get it back to being healthy though. He likes the brine shrimp Im giving him and I feed him everyday. If anyone is interested in taking him and lives in the NJ area then you can e-mail me at traxryu@hotmail.com or mention it in the post and we can talk. You must have a big tank though.

 

[byrself]

i got a post on here for moving copes. i got em all over a 10 gallon tank that has no fish. i only had one small peice of lr in this tank for a few days and now they're all over the tank. i think if you got another small tank and just keep some lr in there, and feed small peices of flake every now and then, you could grow some. all i have for a filter is a regular old 20 gallon hang on mechanical filter. just my personal experience, i got a mandarin also and really want to keep him as fat as possible. the more lr you have the better. i've thought of just buying a few pounds of lr at a time to keep new pods growing in main tank.

 

[krusk]

here is the site
<a href="http://www.ipsf.com/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.ipsf.com/index.html</a>
if you thinking about keeping Madarin in a smaller tank. This site is a definite good

 

[kris walker]

Copepods need food. I think that is one of the limiting factors in many peoples tanks (along with predators). When my tank was experiencing an algae bloom, pod populations increaseed significantly. Then after I became fishless, I had a pod population explosion. So if you really want lots of pods, I would suggest encouraging microalgae growth, but since this would be hard to do only in your refugium only (without getting it in your main tank), how bout using DT phytoplankton instead.
kris