Tigger-Pod Culturing

[Duke]

Just wanted to share my copepod culture i've had going now for almost a month, It mostly stays outdoors on my back deck. I started it up March 31st with around 2 gallons of fresh salt water in a 5g pail, then i added one 6oz bottle of reef nutrition tigger-pods and some gunk from my skimmer for food. The first 2 weeks not much happened but lately the population increases daily and its now about as dense as the initial bottle i purchased. I throw 1 or 2 nls pellets in the bucket every day or so and thats it for up keep. i harvested 500ml last night and replaced it with 500ml of fresh saltwater. Heres a short video, its hard to make out the smallest stage ones but you get the idea. Pretty easy to do and great food for your fish.

http://youtu.be/VzUOC9wcPBw?hd=1

 

[reeffreak]

awsome duke beats paying 20 bucks a bottle

 

[Blob-79]

nice

 

[baker.shawn]

this is a really good idea, i may have to try something similar.

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

Do yu have a lid on the pail?  Mostiquos will soon be here.  .they carry diseases

 

[Duke]

apparently mosquitos wont lay eggs in salt water, i too am kinda skeptical , i can just as easily move the bucket to my basement and get the same results if i have to i'd imagine.

 

[reeffreak]

how big has the culture gptten duke lets see updated picture .

 

[Duke]

Now that its warmed up a bit I just went out back and checked on my culture and sure enough there was billions and billions of copepods... pretty good considering for a few weeks there it had 6" of ice in it.. I finally figured out a good way to catch the buggers without a net.. the below video was a total of 5 minutes collecting.. i do it at night and I just cut a circle hole in the lid of the pail and used a tim hortons cup with a hole in the side.. the cup has a few inches of water.. I put a flashlight over the cup and since they are attracted to light they go for the light at the small hole in the cup get inside and just hang out and wait to be fed to my fish.. my copperband really loved them which is good, Im hoping to have success with one so hopefully these help lol

 

[yveterinarian]

Duke:

What a wonderful way to collect them!  So easy too. 

 

[Duke]

Duke:

What a wonderful way to collect them!  So easy too.

ya I feel stupid now with this new way, I used to use a series of mesh screens and filters and would remove a gallon of water and strain it.. but it was time consuming and tedious.. this way is ingenious if u ask me.. lol I didn't keep this thread very updated but as time went on I split that 5G pail into a 25G Rubbermaid tub, rain water makes up for evaporation and nature does the rest, I did absolutely nothing to get these guys to thrive outdoors for the whole summer. This is something you might want to look into as I know tigger pods are a really great substitute for baby brine shrimp as a first food, they are 100x more nutritious and don't need gut loading like the brine, raising fry most people have extremely great success. Problem is growing them in the masses needed to have enough.. but I really feel I have that down, if you upsized to 3 or 4 rubbermaids I believe you could run a whole breeding operation. I believe ray jay himself had dabbled in culturing them at one point I recall reading.. that was one of the people I got the idea from, fishtal is another very successful breeder using tigger pods. If your ever interested I can give you some advice that would get u on your way, best bet is to start off sometime in march and you'll be set till winter, I currently move the setup into my garage in hopes to keep it going over the course of the winter.

 

[Darryl_V]

Could. It be any easier?  Do you have to aerate?

 

[Duke]

Could. It be any easier?  Do you have to aerate?

No aerating at all, the container got more than a few hours of full sun a day in the backyard all summer and fall and like I was saying it was almost frozen solid a few times here over the last couple weeks, these things are really hardy as can be a great fish food. These pods eat anything decaying, a few pellets or some flake is all you need to start them on and then nature takes over, its crazy how good the water levels hold just from rain over the summer, Whatever falls in gets eaten, theres no risk of anything growing in the water because we just don't have anything close enough to us that could, so its perfectly safe. I used fresh salt water and not used tank water to start it just to make sure I wasn't cross contaminating the whole thing with other pods or things already in my tank, its better to stick to single species so they don't compete. Im not the most ambitious so I only harvested occasionally but thats going to change now that I am using the light to capture them. I easily believe a single Rubbermaid tote could supply at least the equivalent to 4-5 maybe even 10 purchased bottles from the commercial companys a week and not even see a dent in the population once it gets up and going.

This is that fishtal guys round tub he has going, hes only a few hours away from us in Michigan. you can see what I mean by not putting a dent in the population, mine is similar just square and smaller, density was about the same after 2 months and I live in the city so mine isn't as dirty. lol

05-31-11

 

[yveterinarian]

[quote author=yveterinarian link=topic=2528.msg33713#msg33713 date=1355884384]
Duke:

What a wonderful way to collect them!  So easy too.

ya I feel stupid now with this new way, I used to use a series of mesh screens and filters and would remove a gallon of water and strain it.. but it was time consuming and tedious.. this way is ingenious if u ask me.. lol I didn't keep this thread very updated but as time went on I split that 5G pail into a 25G Rubbermaid tub, rain water makes up for evaporation and nature does the rest, I did absolutely nothing to get these guys to thrive outdoors for the whole summer. This is something you might want to look into as I know tigger pods are a really great substitute for baby brine shrimp as a first food, they are 100x more nutritious and don't need gut loading like the brine, raising fry most people have extremely great success. Problem is growing them in the masses needed to have enough.. but I really feel I have that down, if you upsized to 3 or 4 rubbermaids I believe you could run a whole breeding operation. I believe ray jay himself had dabbled in culturing them at one point I recall reading.. that was one of the people I got the idea from, fishtal is another very successful breeder using tigger pods. If your ever interested I can give you some advice that would get u on your way, best bet is to start off sometime in march and you'll be set till winter, I currently move the setup into my garage in hopes to keep it going over the course of the winter.


[/quote]

Yes, Duke, I'm definitely interested.  My male isn't cooperating yet by getting pregnant again but at least I have time to prepare for them.  I will be setting up an area for the grow out tanks in January.  I like the idea of not having to enrich.  Are the tiggerpods as small as newly hatched baby brine shrimp?  Maybe, if they are not, I will do the baby brine shrimp as a first food then upgrade to the tiggerpods once the seahorses have grown a bit.  Either way, I would like to learn more about what you are doing. For winter (in my case) would it be best to move the culture inside since I need so many?  Thank you

 

[Duke]

[quote author=Duke link=topic=2528.msg33734#msg33734 date=1355888649]
[quote author=yveterinarian link=topic=2528.msg33713#msg33713 date=1355884384]
Duke:

What a wonderful way to collect them!  So easy too.

ya I feel stupid now with this new way, I used to use a series of mesh screens and filters and would remove a gallon of water and strain it.. but it was time consuming and tedious.. this way is ingenious if u ask me.. lol I didn't keep this thread very updated but as time went on I split that 5G pail into a 25G Rubbermaid tub, rain water makes up for evaporation and nature does the rest, I did absolutely nothing to get these guys to thrive outdoors for the whole summer. This is something you might want to look into as I know tigger pods are a really great substitute for baby brine shrimp as a first food, they are 100x more nutritious and don't need gut loading like the brine, raising fry most people have extremely great success. Problem is growing them in the masses needed to have enough.. but I really feel I have that down, if you upsized to 3 or 4 rubbermaids I believe you could run a whole breeding operation. I believe ray jay himself had dabbled in culturing them at one point I recall reading.. that was one of the people I got the idea from, fishtal is another very successful breeder using tigger pods. If your ever interested I can give you some advice that would get u on your way, best bet is to start off sometime in march and you'll be set till winter, I currently move the setup into my garage in hopes to keep it going over the course of the winter.


[/quote]

Yes, Duke, I'm definitely interested.  My male isn't cooperating yet by getting pregnant again but at least I have time to prepare for them.  I will be setting up an area for the grow out tanks in January.  I like the idea of not having to enrich.  Are the tiggerpods as small as newly hatched baby brine shrimp?  Maybe, if they are not, I will do the baby brine shrimp as a first food then upgrade to the tiggerpods once the seahorses have grown a bit.  Either way, I would like to learn more about what you are doing. For winter (in my case) would it be best to move the culture inside since I need so many?  Thank you
[/quote]

Yes at one point they are actually smaller, its like rotifers you need will need mesh to separate adults from the smaller ones at first but an adult tigger is only maybe double the size of a day old baby brine. Maybe ask rayjay about it. I believe indoors is where Ray Jay failed with the cultures, Its outdoors they really thrive.. im trying myself in the garage over the winter so I will keep this updated..

 

[Reef Hero]

@duke
I am definitely going to make an attempt at this......I am getting a CBB very soon and would like to have another pod grazer like a mystery wrasse or even leopard..... This would make it easier for both to find food in my small 75.....you just make it seem so simple duke, in today's society I must ask, what's the catch? 

 

[Duke]

@duke
I am definitely going to make an attempt at this......I am getting a CBB very soon and would like to have another pod grazer like a mystery wrasse or even leopard..... This would make it easier for both to find food in my small 75.....you just make it seem so simple duke, in today's society I must ask, what's the catch? 

lol theres no catches, just the cost of a bottle of tigger pods to get you started, and don't feel like your cheating Reef Nutrition, they acutally encourage culturing them yourself and have their own instructions on their site, they do suggest you feed them their foods also, but its not needed. My CBB is eating Mysis but really doesn't show that aggressive feeding behavior of all my other fish but when I toss a good bunch of these in he instantly goes into hunting mode so that's reassuring, I might add he seems to be constantly picking in the rockwork all day and night so im hoping thats another good sign. If you have the room to stash a container outback where kids cant fall into it then its worth it, I believe reef nutrition themselves is supplying their whole market on a few thousand gallons of these guys.. so you can understand how easy a large population is to grow.

 

[Reef Hero]

Damnit!!!! I was hoping to cheat reef nutrition!!!

I had a CBB for quite awhile but I cut back feeding mysis and then one day it fell ill and died quickly.....it searched the rock work relentlessly but I rarely ever seen it find much....I also used interceptor recently too before it died which I believe will kill off most pods in the tank.....these were all likely factors....well, and it is listed as difficult to expert only on some sites....the pods won't kill the skimmer either right? Like mysis will.....
Feed your CBB well duke!!! I am going to in my next attempt. Do you think I have to wait until spring? Or can I try now in my garage?


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