Copepod breeding in a bucket?

[Matt spivey]

My LFS guy said he put a culture in some used tank water in an old salt bucket outside in the garden without a lid on and just leaves it and they reproduce still.

He told me before I bought pods off him so I wasn't having to go back and buy them weekly, were quite friendly so that was nice of him but I'm unsure if this would work.

Has anyone done it or bred pods in a way as simple as this?


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[Creekview]

Yes, I do. I have three 5 gallon buckets of Rotifers, a bucket of tigger pods, and a bucket of something I'm trying to identify. The new critters turned up in one of my phytoplankton cultures I thought had crashed. They had just eaten most of the algae. They weren't there a week ago. These suckers are almost 1/2 inch long!

 

[ddelozier]

thats brine shrimp

 

[DianaKay]

This sounds like a very interesting idea....no filtration or water flow needed?
Just a bucket of WC water from your tank with a start of Amphipods & that's all it takes.
If I didn't have a refugium with an abundant population of assorted pods...I'd try this.
I'd think using a fine mesh screen over the bucket to keep out trash (dying bugs) would be a good idea.
On doing my next chaeto trim from my fuge...do you think it would be worth a try to leave it outside in a bucket of tank water? Sounds like it might get nasty, but who knows? It gets very hot & humid outside where I live.
Anyone else going to try this?

 

[Creekview]

thats brine shrimp

Thought so, never grew them that big!!!

 

[Creekview]

This sounds like a very interesting idea....no filtration or water flow needed?
Just a bucket of WC water from your tank with a start of Amphipods & that's all it takes.

I don't use tank water! too many hitch hikers....like brine shrimp! I sterilize buckets with bleach, rinse with tap water and Prime. I use regular tap water for my cultures, add a couple drops of Prime. Salinity I run @ 1.015-1.019. No filtration, just a slow bubble from a rigid air line. I feed a custom blend feed, Rotifer Multiplier, from an eBay seller, phytofarmer. I feed every 12-18 hrs. Be sure to use new food grade buckets with lids. I got mine at Lowes, about $5-6 with the lids. I split the rotifer cultures every 7 days, the tigger pods take 3 weeks to breed, so I split them at 4 weeks.

 

[DianaKay]

I don't use tank water! too many hitch hikers....like brine shrimp! I sterilize buckets with bleach, rinse with tap water and Prime. I use regular tap water for my cultures, add a couple drops of Prime. Salinity I run @ 1.015-1.019. No filtration, just a slow bubble from a rigid air line. I feed a custom blend feed, Rotifer Multiplier, from an eBay seller, phytofarmer. I feed every 12-18 hrs. Be sure to use new food grade buckets with lids. I got mine at Lowes, about $5-6 with the lids. I split the rotifer cultures every 7 days, the tigger pods take 3 weeks to breed, so I split them at 4 weeks.

That's sounds like too much WORK...I thought the bucket outside sounded like a bit too easy to do.
I'm glad my refugium is keeping my tank pods stocked. I like the little bugs
I don't like the idea that every time I take chaeto out of my refugium to discard it that lots of pods are discarded with it. I've given a few bags of chaeto to the LFS BUT NOW, I have active Bryopsis in my DT, so...I will just be tossing all the excess chaeto in the trash.
I admire you for pod farming...just sounds like LOTS of extra work!

 

[Creekview]

It's a few minutes a day, an hour on the weekend. I have lots of pods, even a huge mysid shrimp population in my DTs. My scrubber grows them, too. I grow the rotifers and phyto for feeding corals. The tigger pods are a treat for the fish. They don't last very long in the tank due to their swimming action. Have no idea where I got brine shrimp in my phyto culture. I'm fairly meticulous about keeping those cultures clean. Of everything, farming phyto is the most labor intensive.

 

[DianaKay]

I'm growing WHITE WORMS...it's easy & my fish LVE them

 

[Matt spivey]

I agree dianakay, I want something incredibly simple I don't want airlines and bubbling bottles all over because I don't have the space. I admire anyone who gives it a go and if I had more space i would as it's all part of the hobby and appeals to my tinkering side. I'm going to try the bucket method eventually though maybe in a week or two


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