collecting wild copepods

[chungsl]

i try to collect wild copepods by a small plankton net(only wave it in water by two hands), want to know the degree of usefulness of the small net and the abundance of copepod in particular location in winter.

date & time: 26/12/05, 14:00, sunny day

location: a mangrove beach

water temp: 20 degree C(winter)

water depth: 2 feet

tides : rising

i use florida Farm 50 micron plankton net (5"dia,15"long)with a 2m long rod,

wave it by hands slowly on the surfuce of water for 15 mins ,mix the collected bottle's water up to 1L seawater.

i roughly count the amount and type of copepod in this collection:

1) 2-3 /ml (nauplii of copepods,i only guess it is nauplii)=90%

2) 0.2-0.3/ml ( adult of copepods or one is bigger than nauplii )=10%

3) total collect about 3,000 pcs copepods

below pics are in same magnification,the rotifers are s-rotifer(110-140 micron).

the two nauplii below the rotifers.

just for fun in holiday! any bro. has experience in collecting wild copepods for sharing .

[FuEl]

Interesting....awesome food for larvae rearing..

[iantoh]

hi there bro chungsl,

whereabouts did you go plankton netting? thats cool. perhaps you could share with us more. what have your capture rates been for rotifers versus copepod naupliis? theoretically, to catch copepods, youd have to go at night? if youre doing this in singapore perhaps i could tompang?

cheers,

ian

[marinebetta]

hi there bro chungsl,

whereabouts did you go plankton netting? thats cool. perhaps you could share with us more. what have your capture rates been for rotifers versus copepod naupliis? theoretically, to catch copepods, youd have to go at night? if youre doing this in singapore perhaps i could tompang?

cheers,

ian

...you will have to go to HK to join bro Chungsl

Always thought of trying.....but sounds like too much work - OK for the occassional fun thing to do but kind of a chore to do daily to feed larvae! But that's me....always looking for the lazy way out

[keithtanbb]

Good job! applause for the effort.maybe you can culture them, same methods as for rotifers, use baker yeast to feed (economical) and dose with phythoplanktons before harvest! Been doing this with my LFS -bought rotifers, (got to make sure they have enough food to eat or the culture will crash!

[Dazza]

sounds like an interesting idea .. anybody interested to hv a try... maybe we can arrange a collection trip ... in sg lah not hk haha

[chungsl]

FuEl, do you culture copepods? what's type ?

iantoh, the mentioned mangrove is in H.K. i have saw the whole bench has numerous carb in low tide,i think the larval carb need enough amount of copepods food(right?), so i try to collecting by hands.

if my net is full size and collecting with machine boat, the capture amount of copepods may reach culturing amount of rotifers in my home. this trial of collecting is mainly for experiencing the knowlege of book.

theoretically, catching copepods can be at night or daytime.

what's the "tompang"? =join me?

marinebetta, if my raising fishes should eat copepods and are valuable as Frank Baensch's, i will collect copepods three times a week like him .

it is fine that my black oc. eat rotifers and bbs, recently, i have a batch 500+ of babies are 7 days old with one stripe.no copepod need for these.

keithtanbb, thank you for your suggestion in culturing copepod. i try to culture them.

[chungsl]

sounds like an interesting idea .. anybody interested to hv a try... maybe we can arrange a collection trip ... in sg lah not hk haha

very well,i think singapore's aquaculturing is more popular than HK's.

in my local,very rarely people raising fish or others at home and rarely such post in forum.

[Maxstar81]

Bro Dazza,

Wanna make a trip out to Pasir Ris Beach to try?

Can it it a beach combing & harvesting outing.

LMK, hope can find common time that we are both free!

[FuEl]

Nah I don't culture copepods. There are two types of copepods. The main group that is useful for fish larvae are calanoid copepods as these are pelagic copepods that swim around all the time. To culture these in sufficient amounts you will need very large culture volumes. Unfortunately, the copepods seen in aquaria are mainly the benthic type. These do not swim in the water column and fish larvae don't really have access to them. While it is rather easy to culture benthic copepods (since all they need is surface area), the low ingestion rates of such copepods by fish larvae don't seem to make such cultures worth the effort.

[chungsl]

FuEI, thanks for your input.

[FuEl]

Hmm..no probs..but with that said culturing benthic copepods can be useful for other purposes. Such as feeding pipefish, mandarins and other small fish that are hard to wean onto dead food items. A shallow tank of bioballs should work well, with lighting or sunlight provided and with regular addition of silicates (good if your tapwater contains silicates). Increasing evaporation and replacing the lost water with silicate laden tapwater will see your diatoms bloom. That's natural food source for those benthic copepods.

[ciaolong]

i found it super easy to culture pods

my seahorse tank in my room since i havnt added the seahorses has become a pod farm it had almost 1 month without a pump on and the pods are crazy like nuts the tank only get natural sun light and there a bit of nurients in there so aglae is quite a bit (on glass)

basicly its a 1ft tank with 1 piece of liverock from my propgation tanks which had the starting pods and i gave it a week and there were mass pods no equipment needed

[iantoh]

hi there everyone,

i heard a while back that some guys in sg are culturing calanoid copepods for commercial sales- anyone hear any updates about that? would love to get more copepods.

off topic, but bro fuel, you know the suction syringe gun that researchers use to catch fish whilst diving? do you happen to know where i might be able to buy one? those look nice, and im thinking it might prove alot less stressful and troublesome if we could use those to catch fishes in our tank.

cheers all,

ian

[FuEl]

Wow guys culturing calanoid copepods? Probably linked to a hatchery?

Anyway, never heard of those suction syringe guns before. Unless you are talking about those employed for submersibles.

[cannon_eer15]

Is anyone interested to collect copepods this coming Saturday? I'd like to seed my tank.

[colinsoon]

who going catch pods please tell me!!! i wanna go too!!!!

[Qxnviolet]

Erm, where in the world can we go and catch pods? Sounds interesting....would like to join in too...haha

[Weapon_Master]

Sounds like fun. Too bad I cant make it this week due to work commitments

Let us know how u guys go and I'll try to make it for the next one

[arcanehacker]

Do update us on the outcome.. if successful, maybe can organize another one. good to cultivate more copepods.

[briareos]

This coming saturday, labrador beach?

[briareos]

Anybody interested to go? Planning to collect beach fleas for my tank.

[briareos]

Tomorrow, 11 am, at labrador beach anyone?

[Qxnviolet]

Wah, so early...where is labrador beach anyway? Near Sentosa?

[briareos]

Must go early before the sun is in full blast... the amphopods will be hopping all over the place.