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Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Thursday, July 30, 2015 1:57 PM
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I'm sorry I missed this year's MBI workshop. I wanted so desperately to discuss copepods with everyone. I will not miss another, I can assure you! Now, on to my discussion/questions regarding Apocyclops panamensis. I have been working with this pod now for 3 months, and I must say that it is incredibly durable. I am culturing it on nothing but Instant Algae (Tet 3600 and Iso 1800), and, since the algae is non-viable, I am keen to keep pursuing this species. I have found that this pod is euryhaline, so I have it in 15 ppt water for now, and they seem to be doing just fine. I am working on improving feed dosing, water quality stabilization, optimal adult stocking densities and harvesting methods. I have read everyone's threads on this animal and the information has been quite useful. There are a number of breeders all over the world looking for copepods that will eat non-viable algae, or perhaps bacteria, so my focus has been to find the right pod and optimize mass-production protocols. It is my understanding that people have fed these guys to larval and juvenile fish. What about invertebrates? Also, does anyone have any pictures/information/protocols/systems for harvesting copepod nauplii passively. I welcome all callers! Chad
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Thursday, July 30, 2015 11:58 PM
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Following this. It's a pod I'm very interested in myself for a few projects I have in the works.
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Friday, July 31, 2015 12:08 AM
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I'm glad you learned your lesson. Seriously though, can you tell us more about how you're culturing them? Things like culture container type, how often and how much are you feeding, how difficult is it to keep the cultures from being contaminated by other things...
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Friday, July 31, 2015 11:21 AM
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I will get you all that and more, today!
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Friday, July 31, 2015 11:46 AM
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tagging along. I presume if you only used Tet, or only Iso, you're not getting the results you want (and if only Tet, would they come out lacking DHA)?
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Friday, July 31, 2015 1:52 PM
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Originally Posted by mPedersen
tagging along. I presume if you only used Tet, or only Iso, you're not getting the results you want (and if only Tet, would they come out lacking DHA)? Hey Matt. Hope you are well. You would be correct about the lack of DHA in Tet. So Iso is necessary, and, as usual, a feed that contains more than one species of algae is optimal. Eventually, I would like to try our Shellfish Diet to really bolster the diet with other species of algae, including diatoms. Also, I would like to see if these pods will consume Haematococcus, which will be very interesting. My goal with the Haematococcus is to make them red and improve the carotenoid content with astaxanthin. I suspect this will only work with the adults, but that won't be so bad, especially if they pass the carotenoids to their offspring. Well, I'm off to take pictures and look at the system. I will get back to everyone with the details of my ever-evolving copepod recirculating system. Chad
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Friday, July 31, 2015 5:56 PM
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Apo Culture Syst Apo Culture Ta Apo Culture Tank.jpgnk 1.jpgem.jpg So, as you can see, I am using a 70 qt HDPE BRT. I have an inner standpipe surrounded by a perforated standpipe with 40 micron mesh screen covering it. The water level is at 50L. I have a flexible diffuser wrapped around the base. pH probe in the tank. 300W Cobalt heater keeping the temperature at 27C. I am dose feeding with the older version of what is now the IceCap dosing pump. So far, I have been dosing 10mls per hour from a solution that contains 2 mls of Tet3600, 2mls of Iso1800 mixed in 236mls of saltwater. I am going to use a small scale magnetic stirrer to keep the food suspended, but I haven't found one yet. I was able to eliminate all large ciliates by performing a series of rinses through a 190 micron mesh screen. I have not seen any contaminants in the system for 3 months now. To keep contaminants out, I have the culture in it's own room. I use gloves when handling and all equipment is dedicated to the culture and not shared with any other area. As you can see in the aerial image, I have made a filter floss media holder to catch unwanted organic waste. I am wiping down the sides of the container with filter floss every evening before I go home, by the next morning, the tank is clean. I am using Dr. Tim's Eco Balance and Waste Away for obvious reasons. Once I have a protein skimmer and bio media, I am going to hook up a recirculating system. So far, I have 8K adults and 180K nauplii in the system. The females are holding up to 10 eggs each. That's all for now!
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Friday, July 31, 2015 6:39 PM
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Regarding the floss, I checked multiple times to see if it's trapping/removing the pods. Well, I mostly found copepodites and adults in it, but a low enough count that it's insignificant (1% of the population. I did not find nauplii in the floss. There is very small portion of the floss submerged and it seems to be working very well at removing all unwanted organic waste.
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Friday, July 31, 2015 8:56 PM
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You and I have the same equipment right down to the infrared thermometer!(exception is the fridge).
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Friday, July 31, 2015 9:16 PM
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Chad have you been able to get accurate measurements on the smallest naups in the culture? I've read many times the smallest are about 70-120um but never seen it cited to anything scientific.
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Monday, August 3, 2015 11:22 AM
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Originally Posted by JoeDigiorgio
Chad have you been able to get accurate measurements on the smallest naups in the culture? I've read many times the smallest are about 70-120um but never seen it cited to anything scientific. Hey Joe. I now have a microscope in the culture room. I have a stage micrometer and will be measuring all nauplii to see what the low end is. I will get you that information as soon as I can. I will also get pictures of these guys and add them to the discussion.
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Monday, August 3, 2015 11:23 AM
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Originally Posted by KathyL
You and I have the same equipment right down to the infrared thermometer!(exception is the fridge). I am glad to hear that we think alike!
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Monday, August 3, 2015 12:25 PM
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Chad, you strained the culture through a 190 micron mesh to remove large ciliates and have a contaminant free culture. Do you have small ciliates? Or do they pass through your 40 micron screen into something that eliminates them? I didn't see a U/V or other ciliate killling mechanism attached. Am I missing something? How do you keep down the population of small (less than 40 micron) ciliates? Do the adult A. panamensis feed on the small ciliates?
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Monday, August 3, 2015 1:50 PM
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Originally Posted by dave w
Chad, you strained the culture through a 190 micron mesh to remove large ciliates and have a contaminant free culture. Do you have small ciliates? Or do they pass through your 40 micron screen into something that eliminates them? I didn't see a U/V or other ciliate killling mechanism attached. Am I missing something? How do you keep down the population of small (less than 40 micron) ciliates? Do the adult A. panamensis feed on the small ciliates? Dave, before I started the culture, I poured all of my animals through the 190 micron mesh and rinsed them repeatedly. My goal was to eliminate Euplotes, but I have yet to eliminate Vorticella (they are approximately 40 to 50 microns). I do see protozoans in the 10 to 15 micron range, but I am not worried about them right now because they are only interested in milling around in the organic waste and will not out compete the pods for algae. To keep the Vorticella at bay, I am simply keeping the organic waste at a minimum with the use of the floss and scrubbing the walls and heater daily. Once I figure out the minimum size of the nauplii, I will change out my standpipe screen so that, when the recirc is set up, they will pass through it and get zapped by the UV, while retaining the pod nauplii. I also hope to rid the culture of the 10 - 15 micron protozoans. If this system proves to produce mass quantities of nauplii, we will dedicated a "clean room" to this animal. I will treat the copepod eggs, while still attached to the females, with glutaraldehyde and pray that some embryos hatch so that I have a truly clean culture. Glutaraldehyde has proven to be very useful for decontaminating rotifer eggs, so I hope it works for copepod eggs. I am not sure if the pods consume small ciliates. Chad
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Monday, August 3, 2015 2:19 PM
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On Friday, I had 180,000 nauplii (3.6/ml) and 8,000 adults/copepodites (0.16/ml). Today, I took a 54ml sample of the culture to quantify the nauplii and copepodite/adults. I now have 1.9 nauplii per ml and 1.7 copepodites/adults per ml. A total of 98,000 nauplii and 86,000 copepodites/adults. There are very few egg bearing females and mature males, but that number will go up as the 86K copepodites mature. I anticipate that my nauplii numbers will jump significantly as the copepodites become sexually mature, then I can start harvesting nauplii. I added two caps of Dr. Tim's Waste-Away today. Once the recirculating system is set up, I plan on adding his Eco-Balance to the system for its probiotic qualities. Chad
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Monday, August 3, 2015 4:16 PM
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So, with the help of Dr. Eric Henry, we were able to find what we think is a Stage 1 nauplius. We measured its length to be 90 microns and width is approximately 65 microns. The width measurement is just the body and does not include the appendages. I included the photo with scale, so feel free to check my measurements. If anyone knows what a Stage 1 nauplius looks like, please send me pictures or confirm the image is indeed Stage 1. I believe Jim Welsh measured them at 70 microns wide, so I'm close to his measurements. Here is the thread where Jim confirms his measurement: http://www.mbisite.org/Fo...1&print=true Enjoy, Chad
<message edited by clayton447 on Monday, August 3, 2015 5:04 PM>
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Monday, August 3, 2015 9:55 PM
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Tuesday, August 4, 2015 9:06 AM
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Do you use the same system for parvocalanus?
check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website: http://kathysclowns.com Captive bred clownfish and more (Wholesale to the trade.)
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Tuesday, August 4, 2015 9:43 AM
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So right now it seems like the real question is who has used these, for what species, and what did you think? I'm aware this species is popular with the sygnathid breeders but I haven't seen much info regarding how effective its been in larviculture. I personally plan to use it on bluestripe pipefish, PJ cardinals and a few Synchiropus species once I get it in culture.
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Re:Apocyclops panamensis Q & A
Tuesday, August 4, 2015 5:01 PM
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Originally Posted by
Once I figure out the minimum size of the nauplii, I will change out my standpipe screen so that, when the recirc is set up, they will pass through it and get zapped by the UV, while retaining the pod nauplii. I also hope to rid the culture of the 10 - 15 micron protozoans. Chad So Chad, now that you've measured their smallest dimension at 70-90 microns not including appendages, what would that make your new standpipe screen, 80-100 microns? I think it will be good to run through a UV for ciliate control. That should also work for Euplotes, as I recall they are football shaped and about 40 microns on the smallest dimension. Your population seems to be fluctuating wildly. Do apocyclops seem to produce chemical cues and restrict reproduction like some copepods? When adults sense a lot of naups in the water the adults stop reproducing. Thanks, Dave
<message edited by dave w on Tuesday, August 4, 2015 9:28 PM>
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