Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus

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Fishtal
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Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, November 3, 2010 11:10 PM
Culturing Journal DataSheet
This first post should be updated regularly to include new information as events take place or changes are made to your system




General
Species:  Tigriopus californicus
Species description:  Harpacticoid copepod  
Culture source (link if possible):  I harvested these from my outdoor tubs that I culture them in during the summer.
If algae, CCMP # (ref http://ccmp.bigelow.edu/ ): 

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity: ~1.020     
Temperature:  Ambient, ~70°F
Vessel description:  Rectangular plastic tubs
Lighting description:  Ambient
Lighting cycle:        
Aeration description:  Rigid airline with slow flow

Methodologies
Split methodology: Harvest as needed

Culture medium description:  SW at 1.020SG
 

Cell count:
 (if known)

Reference links:  

Additional Information
I have cultured these copepods outside during the past two summers in BRTs. The initial plan was to culture rotifers but I ended up with copepods. I start the outdoor cultures in the spring, April'ish, when things start to warm up. This summer was very hot and I had to shade the BRTs to keep them cooler during certain periods. Population growth is better during the cooler periods.

This journal is for my attempt to culture them indoors over the winter. I started three different containers with varying concentrations of copepods to start with to see if that makes any difference.    



You will be required to provide photographic evidence and as much detail as possible about your project in this thread.
If your thread does not contain detailed enough photos  and information the MBI Council will not be able to approve your reports.

<message edited by Fishtal on Friday, January 21, 2011 3:31 PM>
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Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Monday, November 8, 2010 10:28 PM
Here are some pics of what I have set up:

 







 

From left to right I started with high, medium and low densities to see if that made any difference.
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Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 2:02 PM
I harvested more from the outdoor BRTs today:

 











 

[video]1RL8YiksNt0[/video]
<message edited by Fishtal on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 2:38 PM>
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Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 2:04 PM
[code][/code]And took some micro shots, not that great but...

 









 [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsBcN8dtmkU[/video]



<message edited by Fishtal on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 3:54 PM>
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alexk3303
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 7:51 PM
Tal, how do you sieve out what you collect? I seem to get a ton of junk with my pods.

Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 8:07 PM
Quote Originally Posted by alexk3303


Tal, how do you sieve out what you collect? I seem to get a ton of junk with my pods.


I can't be sure how I'll do it with my indoor cultures but the ones I harvested from outside today are pretty easy to get out without anything else. There is no water flow to speak of so everything that falls into the tubs pretty much sinks, except some of the leaves, being fall and all. The pods hang near the sides or in the water column for the most part so they are easy to target. I'm sure there are more in the gunk on the bottom but I'm not going to bother with them. Oh, and I use a 120 micron sieve. 
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alexk3303
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, November 10, 2010 3:11 PM
Thanks, I've been using coffee filters (60 uM I believe) and just tend to pick up a lot of gunk when I scoop water out of my cultures.

Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, November 10, 2010 3:31 PM
Quote Originally Posted by alexk3303


Thanks, I've been using coffee filters (60 uM I believe) and just tend to pick up a lot of gunk when I scoop water out of my cultures.


You might try siphoning them out instead. That way you should be able to avoid the gunk that gets stirred up when scooping.  
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alexk3303
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, November 10, 2010 3:39 PM
That probably would help, but at least the containers got a little cleaning

THEJRC
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, November 10, 2010 4:58 PM
best way I've found is to start a siphon with a small hose (airline, etc.) and run it through a set of sieves for size.  I used to size out with 500um, then 250, then 60um.  This way you can separate most of the naups, as well as earlier instars from the adults.
 
The cultures are spot on Tal...  sexy even!!  good to see such a population boom come from simple culture methods!
Pelagically yours,
~J      

Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, November 10, 2010 6:16 PM
Thanks Joe! I was going to mention the multiple mesh sizes, just hadn't gotten around to it. 
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Arc Katana
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 12:06 PM
Tal - 
 
  How are the cultures doing?  Is the temp an issue like we had talked about?  I just got some of these guys today and put them into a 3G water jug with phyto and some other pods to culture them.  I do have a the ability to leave these guys in about 50-60 degree temps if that would help?
 
Any info will be grand!
 
Thanks

Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 12:14 PM
The indoor trays are stable but not really increasing. I have some in a styro in the garage that are cooler and doing better.

The BRTs, outside, are still hanging on even though there has been some ice on the surface.  They do better at cooler temps for sure.
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Umm_fish?
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, December 2, 2010 9:07 AM
I need to try the outdoor tub. Do you know what their minimum temps are? The only problem I see with outdoors here is that our evaporation rate is startlingly high.
--Andy, the bucket man.
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Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, December 2, 2010 1:10 PM
I don't know what the absolute minimum is but there were some still swimming around when I looked under the ice last week. I'm tempted to put a heater in one of the tubs just to keep the water from freezing. 
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slosht
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, December 2, 2010 5:14 PM
Tal, you could also use a air pump with some tubing into the tub, the bubbler should keep the water from freezing.

efren villegas
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 2:37 PM
are these suitable for feeding newly born babies lets say clownfishes, or even pseudocromis?

Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 2:57 PM
Quote Originally Posted by efren villegas


are these suitable for feeding newly born babies lets say clownfishes, or even pseudocromis?


 

They are too big for larvae but do I feed them to my P. fridmani when they are near meta and that seems to help.
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Rook
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 3:28 PM
Very cool Tal.  Have you tried feeding these to the seahorses; maybe too small?
Rook

Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 3:39 PM
Quote Originally Posted by Rook


Very cool Tal.  Have you tried feeding these to the seahorses; maybe too small?

I haven't tried, I think they would be too small though.
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 3:45 PM
well i wil try to get some of them and bred them i couldnt get my pseudocromis porphirea trough meta yet

Hellaenergy
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 9:25 PM
How are the cultures doing? What are you feeding these guys?
Live and Learn

Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, February 22, 2011 9:27 PM
The  indoor cultures are fed a bit of RotiGrow Plus from time to time. No set schedule. Indoor cultures are doing ok, nowhere near as well as outside.
 
I have some in a styro in the cold garage that are hanging in there as well. No food or air pump.
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Monday, March 14, 2011 3:45 PM
Quote Originally Posted by Rook


Very cool Tal.  Have you tried feeding these to the seahorses; maybe too small?

 
FWIW my adult H. angustus goes NUTS for these. She will hunt and snick each and every one of them when added to the tank. The erectus don't notice them. I started culturing them for fry, but by the time they are big enough to eat Tigriopus, they are big enough to take Cyclop eeze, so I rarely give these to fry, and only to get them on cyclop eeze. But my angustus loves them so much, I keep them for her.

mPedersen
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 11:19 AM
HOLY CRAP those are some thick cultures!

Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Saturday, April 9, 2011 5:58 PM
Now that it's warming up again it's time to get things going again outside.
 
I didn't have any great successes over the Winter but I did get some to survive. Here is how each of the different cultures faired:
 
Outdoor 30G pond with heater: I think I waited to long to add the heater. There are some 'pods in there now but they may have come from the water I've been adding from inside. Interestingly enough, the salinity is still the same as it was last Fall.
 
Indoor plastic tubs: As mentioned in the beginning, I split these into 3 batches with varying densities. The tub with the low density seemed to do the best, but not great. I fed them RotiGrow occasionally and aerated them lightly. It was only in the last month that I saw all 3 cultures decline. 
 
Styro in unheated garage: This method seemed to do the best, surprisingly. I didn't add top off water more than a few times since December and never fed them. These were often exposed to the cold when the garage door was open but it was probably around 40° when the door was closed.
 
I'm going to try culturing the other types of 'pods that are coming out now in the same way. Hopefully it works.
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Sunday, April 10, 2011 7:59 PM
Here are some pix of the ones in the styro:
 

 

 

 

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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 7:57 PM
I put the ones from the pix above back into the BRTs outside about 2 weeks ago and I'm seeing the population increase. I kept the heater in the one tub during the really cold nights but have unplugged it now.
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 10:33 PM
I noticed today that the population is really starting to increase. A bit warmer during the day and not as cold at night. Should have a bunch of them soon.
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, May 12, 2011 7:43 AM
I need to get going on an outdoor culture, but we're still getting snow. It doesn't stick, but still. What do you use for topoff water? Just a hose or do you schlep RO/DI out?
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Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, May 12, 2011 11:38 AM
Quote Originally Posted by Umm_fish?


I need to get going on an outdoor culture, but we're still getting snow. It doesn't stick, but still. What do you use for topoff water? Just a hose or do you schlep RO/DI out?

You can start them (Tiggerpods) now if you want. Toss in a heater if it's getting below freezing at night and they should be fine.
 
Top off comes from the sky, most of the time. We had a nice little storm lat night that filled everything up. If I go through a long dry spell I will add top off on my own but salinty swings aren't a big deal for these guys.
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, May 12, 2011 4:02 PM
But are you just adding from the hose (with the chlorine and/or other stuff the city puts in) or are you hauling good water.
 
Top off would likely be a daily or every two days thing for me. We evaporate like crazy around here.
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Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, May 12, 2011 4:28 PM
I never really thought about it... The rain takes care of it most of the time. I have used lake water and tap water with no probs. Never used RO/DI.
 
The other copepods might be a bit more finicky than these though. 
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, May 12, 2011 7:01 PM
The population seems to have exploded today. I didn't see nearly this many yesterday. Maybe the rain last night helped?
 

 

 

 

 
Here's a vid, kinda hard to get good shots due to the reflection of the sky but you can get an idea...
 

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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Thursday, May 12, 2011 10:44 PM
Population goes BOOM!

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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Friday, May 13, 2011 6:05 AM
That's amazing. Why do you think the outdoor cultures do so much better than the indoor cultures? I might want to try this. Hopefully my landlord won't notice.

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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Friday, May 13, 2011 9:42 AM
I wonder if the lighting and general debris that blows into the vessels has anything to do with it. More light means more phyto which means more food and I'm sure the decaying leaves and such in the container also provides some food source.
 
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Fishtal
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 1:59 PM
Not sure if it's due to two hot and sunny days or the cottonwood seeds but I'm getting another population explosion:
 

 

 

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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:02 PM

 

 

 
Yeah, all that orange-red stuff is copepods.
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Re:Culture Journal, Species: Tigriopus californicus - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:59 PM
Micro vids:
 

 

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