Copepods and Brine Shrimp

[oatyfruitybar]

So I have a new mandarin dragonette and am currently working on training it to take frozen foods instead of live. This has got me thinking, though - what if I could raise my own food from starter cultures?

I've been wondering if it would be possible to raise brine shrimp, copepods, or preferably both in an extra 10 gallon tank I have. I've done a little research and it doesn't seem so terribly hard, but a lot of people seem to recommend smaller containers than a ten gallon (the biggest I've seen recommended is five gallon buckets). I'm wondering if that would have any impact on the critters - after all, if they're fed, the water is good and the temperature and salinity are in their preferred ranges I don't think that they'd care so much about how BIG a space they were in.

Anyway, if anybody has any prior experience raising copepods or brine shrimp or if anyone has any advice I would appreciate it.

 

[hurrafreak]

They sell equipment for the brine shrimp raising. I thik copepods are a little more extensive but I have NO experience in that. But I know that Aqua Medic makes a brine shrimp hatchery thing.

 

[Zooid]

I would culture them separately. I believe the brine shrimp will eat
copepods once the shrimp get large enough.

you can use a ten gallon tank to raise either. The reason most people use
smaller containers is to make it easier to harvest the animals. I personally
prefer to use half gallon glass jars or one gallon containers.

 

[kmcmurtry]

Ultimately it has to do with keeping it clean as brine shrimp can get messy, and most people cycle the containers so they can sterilize them in between hatches. From experience in my younger days raising brine shrimp, they can get smelly fast. It's trial and error seeing what will work for your. I would almost go with 3 upside down 2 liter bottles - the route you see online (have the link somewhere - rather than a square tank. That or bow a plastic sheet in your tank and seal with aquarium-safe silicone inside to make sort of a bowl - aeration is the key. People who are anti-aquarium say don't want anything settling in the corners and yucking it up.

 

[oatyfruitybar]

Gotcha. Okay, well maybe I shouldn't raise brine shrimp anyway seeing as how they're good for raising fry (which I'm not doing) and not a lot else. It's my understanding that they're nutritionally deficient for adult fish. I'd rather raise copepods, as they seem cleaner and could be of more use to me. Smell would be a HUGE issue as I have a roommate. She's already skeptical about my fish tanks, and I'd rather keep that to a minimum.

Rather than altering the ten gallon tank, what if I vacuumed out the corners regularly and/or kept it a bare bottom tank? I could put a filter on either end of the suction tube so as to not suck up copepods. I just would rather not alter it because then that minimizes the possibility of using it as a different kind of tank later. I've been considering hooking up the 10 gallon to my 20 as a refugium and raising copepods that way but I don't have my roommate's permission for that (and I'm not too likely to get it. ).

 

[kmcmurtry]

Maybe someone who's tried raising pods could chime in. I think the hardest part, as I have heard it, is keeping the water quality tip-top which is why it's usually a fuge scenario.

 

[Zooid]

I use two two liter bottles upside down to hatch baby brine shrimp but you can't effectively raise them in that type of container. after hatching, they could be transferred to the ten gallon tank at that point. They'll need phytoplankton to grow. Extremely easy to culture.

I raise pods in half gallon containers that are aerated. Easy to do also.