Vial of Copepods

I just custom ordered a vial of live copepods from big als, I'm suppose to get it today and I was wondering whether I should put that vial of very "expensive copepods" into a 5G tank with live sand, live rock rubble and chaeto or should i just dump the vial into my refugium and let it do it's thing in there? This vial costed me $35CAD.. yes i know it's expensive and I probably already have lots of copepods in my aquarium but I have a mandarin who I want to keep happy and want more so the reproduction rate is a lot higher. Also, should I be dosing some phytoplankton for the copepods to take as well? What are some things you guys feed to keep the copepods producing at a good rate?

 

Refugium, but at the same time - My pods showed up on their own.. Un-invited, unless you needed them right now, it's always best to let them grow on their own. It'a a huge step in seeing a very productive tank.

good luck,
-Fritts

 

Put 1/2 the pods in your fuge and 1/2 in a bare 5 gallon tank with fresh salt water in it and put a filter sponge in there with them. Feed them some Phyto in both tanks every couple of days.

In two or three weeks shake out the sponge a little them move it to the fuge and put a new sponge in the 5 gallon. Keep feeding them and switch the sponge out every so often and you will have an pretty much never ending supply of pods.


Edit : forgot to tell you to put an airstone in the 5 gallon with a valve so you could turn down the air a bit.

 

Hopefully your tank is at least a year old and you don't have any other fish that might be eating pods. Having a fuge is very beneficial to pod production but it can't fix everything, nor can buying pods! I can imagine that could get pretty expensive to keep replacing them!

 

Here is a pretty good explanation of how to culture Copepods courtesy of Reed-Mariculture

 

Mine was shipped in a sponge in a plastic bag. I put the sponge in the main tank since I don't have a refugium. After about a week I took out the sponge. I had a pod population explosion. Thousands in the main tank.
If you put them in the main do it at night cuz the fish will be all over them in the day.

 

thanks guys i really appreciate your time

 

I second this. Or even put 2/3 in your fuge and the rest in the 5G.