Copepod Selection

[JulioC]

Hello, I´m trying to start a copepod culture to raise fridmani, seahorses or mandarin. I don´t even have any of those fish but I´d like to start with copepod production.

wich is a easy one to start with? I´ve read abaut Parvocalanus crassirostris that is sold by apbreed but not easy to mantain.

A. Tonsa is very common but I don´t know which one is easier to start.

Thank you

Julio

[Luis A M]

Hola Julio!
You can raise the common calanoids in the set up explained in the sticky,with reasonable success.Sometimes a culture get´s contaminated and crashes;so it is wise to keep at least 3 cultures all the time.
Eggs of A.tonsa can be kept as a back up,which makes this species very convenient.
But if you´re looking for an "easy"pelagic copepod,Apocyclops panamensis is much easier than the others.

[JulioC]

Thank you Luis!

[Luis A M]

You´re welcome!
Which LFS you like more in BA?

[JulioC]

I usually don´t go to LFS. Generally some customer buy from oturi and give the fish to me but I know it is not the best way to find fishes.

I´ve been looking for a while Black and White and I´ve lost 2 pairs in different moments (one month after buying them). They get some kind of infection while the rest of the fishes are perfect. I couldn´t find fridmany neither but since I´m focusing in improving my fry numbers with ocellaris, picasso and premnas I´m not making a big effort to find the rest of the fish I need.

If I finish my second fish room this year I plan to go to Palomar and Indico to find new pairs. It would be easier If bringing fish in an airplane from the states were legal

[Luis A M]

Julio,I also suffered some weird disease that wiped off all the clown juvs in grow out and several old established pairs.It also affected gobies and mandarins,but not other fish.I thought it was Brooks,but the isolated ciliates were spherical,about 80 mics.
Incidentally,all the species you mention can be raised with rots.Though they probably will perform much better on a copepod diet.Even clowns reach meta twice as fast in a BRT,with copepods and 24hr L.Spawner once suggested the extreme of ditching all rots cultures

[JulioC]

Luis,

I only lost 4 b&w ocellaris but all of the rest of the pairs and fry were perfect. It was very strange because no other fish got any sinthom.

Yes, I´ve read a post of someone raising clowns with copepods and it was surprising how fast they reach meta.

I think we use rots because they are easy to raise. I it were the same with copepods we would rely only on them I think.

I plan to breed fridmany and some goby (I still need to buy the pairs). I´ve read Fridmani can be raised on rots and enritched artemia but it seens they have a difficult meta this way. With copepods it seem to be easier, right?

My picasso take a long time to reach meta. Maybe mixing rots with copepods may help.

Julio