Culture Journal, Species: Parvocalanus crassirostris

General
Species:  Parvocalanus crassirostris
Species description:  Pelagic calanoid copepod
Culture source (link if possible):  http://apbreed.com/produc...anus_crassirostris.php
If algae, CCMP # (Optional): 
http://ccmp.bigelow.edu/
Culture Establishment Date:  5-7-2014 
Continuation Date: 

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity:  ~1.023
Temperature:    Room temp, 70-80F
pH:  Not measured

Vessel description:  1 gallon plastic containers, 0.5 gallon plastic containers, 5.5 gallon aquarium  
Lighting description:  fluorescent strip light
Lighting cycle:  6AM to 9PM
Aeration description:  Rigid airline tubing set to a slow bubble in 5.5 gallon tank, other cultures currently not aerated

Methodologies
Split methodology: Scaling up right now.  When a culture looks like it is starting to bloom, I divide it in half and create a new culture.

Culture medium description: 
I feed just enough live Iso to slightly (very very slightly) tint the water, occasionally tetraselmis

Cell count: Not counted
 (if known)

Reference links:  

Additional Information
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Notes: 
I stopped using sterilized/neutralized water and now just use water sieved through 27 micron mesh.


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Here is a naup at 4x:

 
And 10x:

The shipment came in two bags with 25000 nauplii each, so I used one bag to start one culture and the other bag to start a second culture.  I added the smallest smallest smallest amount of iso, not nearly enough to even tint the water.  I've made the mistake of overfeeding in the past and I'm going to try really hard to avoid that this time.  

Okay...the last ones died over a couple days, they never really took off.  So I ordered some more, this time some naups and some adults.  They were shipped in warmer temps (and since they don't put a heat pack in, that is good) and both seemed very active this time.  Fingers crossed that finally THIS time I will get these going right...
 
They are set up in plastic cereal containers, naups in one and adults in another.  I plan to split each into a second container in the next few days.  They were fed a few mLs of live iso (each container)

I started mine in jars and in 10 gallon tanks.  The tanks did very well, and the jars, not so well.  I think they may need more air/surface area or something.  With the adults, I did get a big die off, but enough survived that I could get a good culture.  The nauplii were a breeze!

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

I feel like today the adults look like they are doing better than the naups, but I think I had the air set too low for the naups.  I hope to get them in larger containers this weekend after a trip to Petco for the $1/gallon sale...I hope it's still going on!

I have never cultured them in any container larger than 3 gallon carboys.  I give them very light air (I shoot for maybe 1 bubble per second), and also very light feeding.  If I can see the water tinted in any significant way, I consider them to be overfed.  I hope this helps.

Every little bit of advice helps

Jim--I read your thread and remember how you stated one of the biggest problems is overfeeding. If (when) I do overfeed, what is the best way to fix/handle that? Sieve them and place them in new water? Split the culture and dilute? Scrap the culture and split a non-overfed one to take its place?

Re-starting this AGAIN...Got a new starter on Wednesday (5-7-14)
 
The last one was over taken by bacteria or something.  

One thought I've had about these and phytoplankton, is that once you get some to survive, the offspring of that group also survive, and so there is a natural selection of ones that can survive all the conditions we are able to provide them, i.e. water, food, temperature, etc. Isochrysis used to be hard for me, and now I can grow it even without sterile conditions, with and without rotifers, and it blooms in laval tanks and tubs with no problem.  Last year I had an outdoor tub of it that survived heat spells, etc. These things seem to be quite adaptable, given enough time to adjust.  Joyce Wilkerson mentioned something about this in the Clownfishes book.  I think its true.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

I agree as well. My rotifers seem tuned to my special kind of care (neglect). The problem for me with Parvo is getting those first few generations to survive! I hope to get it this time. I have a container with adults, and three that have nauplii (more likely copepodites at this point) and I also "seeded" several larval containers. So hopefully I have them spread out enough where it will be difficult for disaster to strike them all...

Well son of a gun! Woke up this morning and found the culture with the adults all gross :/ I sieved and nearly all were dead. WTH? I'm beginning to think there is something about my water or sterilization technique that they don't like. The younger pods in the three containers seem okay so far today, and there are live adults in both of the containers that had (or still hold) the angelfish larvae...so I guess that just further supports the culture water. Hmmmm

Your problem may stem from the use of just Isochrysis as food.  Iso is really small, something like 5 microns in diameter as I recall, and it is an ideal food for small naups in the 60-100 um range.  But successful parvo cultures are usually a mix of small phyto for naups and larger phyto for adults, more like the 25-50 um range.  The adult parvo waste more calories processing tiny food than they gain from digesting it, just as our baby fish will starve to death chasing live food that isn't sufficiently large.  I don't remember which larger phyto were best used in combination with ISO, but I think tetraselmis and pavlova were two of them.

I've tried feeding tetraselmis, both this time and in the past. I'm not sure that's it. Also, the adults that are still alive are in a larval tank that got only Iso, IIRC.
I've added some younger pods that were still alive to a BRT that has tetraelmis in it tonight though. Hopefully they will do well...

Well, the culture I set up that I had use the sterilized culture water all got cloudy and weird.  However, the ones I put in the wineglass bowl that has a few Centropyge argi larvae are doing great.  Go figure.  So I will probably pull some out from there to start another culture (or two...I will clearly need backups lol)

I don't think this is her problem.  In fact, I can amost surely rule it out. Many breeders raise multiple generations of Parvocalanus crassirostris on live Isochrysis alone.  Examples include, but are certainly not limited to Andy Rhyne, Jim Welsh, and myself.  Actually, I've never heard of anyone successfully raising Parvo that didn't use live Iso.  I did do the research before attempting to grow it myself.
 
 I don't mean to rain on your parade, Dave. Please continue to think creatively.
 
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

 
So I was doing some reading, and came across this link I found somewhere else on MBI about the patent for Parvo culture
http://www.google.com/patents/US20060169216
 
In it they do say that the species of Parvocalanus they use (not identified down to the species level) is slightly larger than P. crassirostris and does need a phyto larger than Isochrysis used along with Iso (they use Chaetoceros mainly, IIRC).  However, they also state that P. crassirostris, which I am culturing (well, trying to!), can be cultured on Iso alone.  Perhaps that's where all this stems from?
 
In any case, the wineglass "culture" is still doing well.  I will probably pull some out tonight, start a back up and also try to get some microscope pics.

Tetraselmis is a great species of marine phytoplankton to feed to Parvocalanus.  I usually have Isochrysis as my base feed and I add either Tetraselmis or a diatom species such as Thalassiosira pseudonana.  When I started to co-feed the diatom, I saw much better reproductive success and fecundity.  Now, all I feed to my cultures is Isochrysis and Thalassiosira pseudonana in equal parts and I always filter the algae through a 20micron mesh sieve before feeding it out.  I use the filter in case the algae is contaminated.  You can never be too sure. 

I created two new cultures from the wineglass culture tonight. No aeration on any of them.

Chad,
Thanks for sharing this! It's great to know how you guys at Reed are doing it successfully.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I now have three new cultures started, all using non-sterilized water that was put through 27uM mesh. I also have the wineglass "culture" going, but I added some Centropyge larvae tonight so if all goes well that one will be eaten

Finally got around to taking some microscope pics

Right now I have a 5 gallon tank, about half filled, then a 1 gallon clear cereal container about half filled, and two half gallon containers partially filled.  I am feeding with Iso mainly, but I did also give them a small amount of Tetraselmis once.  Only the five gallon tank is aerated at the moment, but I will probably start aerating the other cultures soon.  
 
I used water that is sieved through a 27 micron mesh instead of sterilized and neutralized and I haven't experienced the weird cloudy water then death issue since switching.

The 5.5 gallon tank seems to have bloomed nicely. The smaller containers aren't doing quite so well, but still have some Parvo in them. I want to start some larger tank cultures soon.

Pics of the bloom:


 
This weekend I hope to look at them under the scope.  Just double check that they are what I think they are (hope they are...).  

Hi,
I need your opinion becasue I can't take a decision, gosh  I am used with nanno and plicatis but I failed in raising marrons and citrinus. So now I would like to try something smaller. But here it comes the hurdle...should I have to start with parvo or rotundiformis? My preferite are parvo but I read so many negative feedback and difficulties in raising them. And also T-iso seems to be quite critical. Any suggestion from your experience? 
Cristina