Copepod room ideas

[NMAJames]

I'm in the planning phase of a potentially relatively large scale breeding project(s).
I have a room I would like to dedicate to culturing copepods away from rotifer and artemia production and am interested to hear peoples opinions on how to make the most of the space.
The whole idea of this is to provide enough copepod eggs/nauplii to have constant rearing projects on the go which could include pretty much anything.
The room Is pretty small and working space even smaller. I would like to have multiple species on the go to account for as many different situations as possible but realistically will only have space for 2 or 3 or 4.

I have a small culture of A. temora which I'm hoping to try in a modified version of Luis' "copepod machine" which I need to try out and see if it will work so have dedicated an area for that.

To minimize cross contamination I want solid dividers from the ground to the ceiling separating different species and also doors at the front. Pretty much build big boxes for each species and have shelf's (that can be moved to different heights) to have 2 tiers in each "box". A storage area for dedicated bits for each species at the bottom and a concealed area for individual air pumps. There will be a sink for plenty of fresh water rinsing in-between maintenance/harvesting + alcohol gel. Fridge for storing eggs (hopefully).

Please see pic below for a rough idea of what I have planned/available.
The space is on the right and measures
H 220 cm L140cm W 60.



Alternatively I could just bring the wall out a bit more dividing the room and have 2 large tanks and use a sink and fridge near by outside the room. It would just be nice to have a self contained room with everything needed to hand inside.

So my main questions.
What would you do?
What species would you culture as a must?
What methods would you use in such a small space?

Rotifer and phytoplankton cultures are already going elsewhere. I'm thinking of giving ciliates a go but have somewhere else for that and artemia production is already happening so this room is purely for copepods.

Thanks in advance!

James

[Jake Levi]

Good start!

Have you figured what your needs will be?

If you severely isolate rotifers from other cultures it all seems to flow better. That is a must for me. Rotifers seem to have wings, so they have their own equipment, nothing shared, and are below everything else on the rack.

[NMAJames]

Needs for this could be so many different things.
For my own projects it will be for rearing larvae from a almost all the Caribbean fish available in the trade. Starting with Atlantic spade fish and French Grunts. But there will hopefully be a need from other people in the building for other tropical species from around the world.

The rotifers will be along way away from this! We've already witnessed the magic of them contaminating cultures elsewhere.

I should probably point our at this point due to this starting to sound a bit commercial that it is not! I work for a charity, so every penny gets spent on reinvestment and conservation/educational projects. Any information we gain from the project if it all goes ahead will be shared and all the fish raised on will either be stocked into exhibits onsite or shared with other Public Aquariums/Zoos who will also be collaborating in a major push for more tank bred ornamental marine fish in the trade.

[Jake Levi]

More questions, what have you done so far? As far as I am concerned the more cultures the better.

For phyto cultures I am now using 3 gallon water bottles from Walmart that lay flat on a side, have a spigot at one end and a large lid on upper side, these work the best of all I have tried, I drill a hole in the lid for an airline. I'll check them and see if there is a company name on them, Walmart stocks them in their water sales area.

My copepods are beside the phyto rack, in 3 and 5 gallon containers, this is working for me . I am looking for something smaller then the copepods for pelagic larvae.

What is your organization? Can you share more on your projects? This is fascinating.

My rotifers are the other side of the room from phytos, so far, so good. And all of the phyto is 'sealed off', and no common tools. Unless the rots go aerial they are restricted, and no interchange of water from grow outs ether.

[NMAJames]

So far nothing has been done with the room, it's just being used as a store room.
Very much in the planning phase. I'm hoping to get as much right first time so lots of research and discussions. I agree the more cultures the better. One thing that concerns me though is not dedicating enough space to certain species then being without enough feed when needed. The only copepod culture experience I have at the moment is A. temora and the quantity produced is far from convincing so far although the starter culture was pretty weak. I'm really not sure what techniques to use within the space we have.
It's a big building so we are able to keep cultures away from each other to help prevent cross contamination.

What copepods are you culturing? How dense are you managing to get them?
We have some paramecium that are going crazy when fed tet. Seem to be working ok with peppermints shrimp and mandarin larvae when combined with phyto and rotifer. I need to source a smaller strain of rotifer and more copepods though.

We have a purpose built phytoplankton room running at the moment for a different project that is coming to an end so we'll be able to take it on for food production and larvae feed.



I think we are going to have to replace the vessels with something larger though to increase production. I'm not convinced if all goes to plan the current set up will be enough. I also want to use the pipes cut down for copepods. They're quite expensive so would rather not buy more!
I'm thinking of trying to source bags like these below but am open to suggestions?


I work for the National Marine Aquarium. We're the largest public aquarium in the UK. A lot of my time is spent cleaning fish tanks and feeding fish but also opportunities to purpose and implement projects like this.

"The National Marine Aquarium is a registered charity committed to promoting a sympathetic understanding of the sea through programmes of education, conservation and research"

The reason I'm putting a plan together for this project is the funding for an experimental scallop hatchery some colleagues set up is running out. Once/if the money runs out the scallop hatchery can hopefully be re vamped into a fish hatchery! More info on this can be found here> https://stefanielamb.wordpress.com/

Another cool project at the moment is something called the community sea grass initiative which is doing lots of surveys on sea grass beds whilst engaging with and including the public as much as possible. More info an be found on the fb page https://www.facebook.com/CommunitySeagrassInitiative

More info on past projects can be seen here >http://www.national-aquarium.co.uk/blog/

[Jake Levi]

Those phyto columns are awesome ! Which species?

I am doing a cross section on pods, besides parvocalanus I added acartia and still searching for colurella, going to go with adding phyto as hatching starts, actively looking for all the copepod species I can find. Plus some amphipods, have two ten gallon tanks for them, with macro algaes. On rotifers besides brachionis I do want Colurella adriatica. way away from the pods. For regular feeding of all fish in addition to the copepods. My biggest fish are Centropyge, all others much smaller, so any very small copepods I am very interested in them. I will make room for all of the smaller ones that I can find. The more the better.Ditto rotifers.

Its going to be at least six mos before the Centropyge are spawning, if I am lucky with no setbacks.

[Luis A M]

Very nice,James!
Are you sure you have a marine Paramecium (or some look alike)?.Not an Euplotes?.
Steve Walker raised Spadefish,years ago.You´ve seen the paper?.

[NMAJames]

Those phyto columns are awesome ! Which species?

I am doing a cross section on pods, besides parvocalanus I added acartia and still searching for colurella, going to go with adding phyto as hatching starts, actively looking for all the copepod species I can find. Plus some amphipods, have two ten gallon tanks for them, with macro algaes. On rotifers besides brachionis I do want Colurella adriatica. way away from the pods. For regular feeding of all fish in addition to the copepods. My biggest fish are Centropyge, all others much smaller, so any very small copepods I am very interested in them. I will make room for all of the smaller ones that I can find. The more the better.Ditto rotifers.

Its going to be at least six mos before the Centropyge are spawning, if I am lucky with no setbacks.

At the moment there is isochrysis and tetraselmis. I want some rhodomonas sp in the future also.
Sounds good! What Centropyge do you have? I have a feeling finding reliable starter cultures here is going to be a pain, shall have to worry about that more once the room is finished though.

Very nice,James!
Are you sure you have a marine Paramecium (or some look alike)?.Not an Euplotes?.
Steve Walker raised Spadefish,years ago.You´ve seen the paper?.

No I am not sure, both were being considered! The reason I was swaying more towards Paramecium is there are Euplotes in a rotifer culture we have which seemed different. My ID and microscope skills are no where near as good as they should be, I'm working on that a lot at the moment! I'm pretty confident which ever they are they are helping with the rearing of peppermint shrimp and mandarins though. No I haven't seen that paper I'll look for it. I have read about the success rising tides have had with them though. Seems like they would be a good starter species.

[Luis A M]

Euplotes (oligothrichs="few hairs")have their cilia fused into some few stout leg looking appendix.Paramecium has the typical slipper shape.

[Jake Levi]

I have C. argus, looking for C. resplendens. Have several others as yet unpaired, hope to correct that soon.