Calanoid Copepod Starter Cultures

[spawner]

I ship to canada for $20, but I only did it once and I have no idea whether the package made it yet.

I would caution you on shipping live anything across international borders without proper documents. The fines, penalties, can be huge.

[zimajays]

I am trying to contact algagen but the emails keep bouncing back - anyone know why?

Please help...

[vrado]

There seems to be a problem with the AlgaGen server today, so no emails are going in or out. Hopefully this will be fixed soon. You can always call at 772-978-1395

[angi]

Jim: It was a pleasure for me.

@all: I have to say thank You, too. Special Thanks to Erik and Karen.

We made the test import to europe with some difficulties. The shipment was confiscated by the custom for the time being.
I could persuade the veterinary at custom, however, to feed the copepods once. Until they arrived here, it lasted for 7 days.
Some copepods still lived in every bottle and I managed to stabilize the cultures again. Just they are 12 days in the bottle and alive!

I only wait for a written permission of the custom now to prevent future delays of the release.
A regular import of the ReefPods then should run well to Europe!

[angi]

Maybe we should start a thread on shipping copepods? I have experiemented a lot with different types of copepods over the years, trying to figure out how to successfully ship them. So far, I have been able to keep Parvocalanus, saltwater moina and regular tigriopus copepods in shipping containers successfully for over 10 days without opening the containers to aerate or feed them. I'd be glad to discuss it if anyone is interested.

Amie, I am interested! Please give us some informations of Your shipping experiences. I really want to know how to ship parvocalanus for over 10 days without opening the container...

[Amie]

Maybe we should start a thread on shipping copepods? I have experiemented a lot with different types of copepods over the years, trying to figure out how to successfully ship them. So far, I have been able to keep Parvocalanus, saltwater moina and regular tigriopus copepods in shipping containers successfully for over 10 days without opening the containers to aerate or feed them. I'd be glad to discuss it if anyone is interested.

Amie, I am interested! Please give us some informations of Your shipping experiences. I really want to know how to ship parvocalanus for over 10 days without opening the container...

Sure, I'd be glad to. It has nothing to do with shipping, and everything to do with 'bottling'. I figured out that copepods don't like 2 things. 1) clean water and 2) fast water changes. But typically, a lot of companies will ship their copepods in perfectly clean water that they changed right before shipping, giving the pods a death sentence over the next 2-4 days. As soon as a few pods start to die, the ammonia levels go up and the rest of the pods are basically on death row. Once they get to their new home, they are put into a larger amount of water, and the ammonia levels go down. At this point, I don't know if the remaining pods survive or not, but if there are any eggs, the eggs most likely are what starts a new culture if the person is patient at that point.

I have also seen bottles that have had a space of air at the top, obviously thinking that this will help supply the pods aeration during travel. The only problem with this is that it is impossible to turn the bottle over without some of the pods not sticking to the now dry side. In hot weather, that dry side will dry quickly and they will die. When it becomes wet again, there will be dead pods in the water, increasing the ammonia levels.

If you are one that wants crystal clean water when you ship your pods, then you need to drip the water in the night before. It is a real pain, but it makes all the difference.

I would recommend creating 3 test bottles to set on a shelve for 10 days, marked with the date on them, all tightly sealed with water all the way to the top of the rim. Put your regular shipping amount of pods in each bottle.
Bottle 1: pods with clean water dripped into the bottle.
Bottle 2: pods using your method, with a tsp. of grow-out water.
Bottle 3: pods with regular grow-out water.

If you watch them, and see the pods coming up to the top of the bottle, note the day that that happens. That means they need air. If it happens on day one, then the water is not aerated enough and could be another problem that needs to be solved before bottling them. If it happens on all 3 of the bottles, try dumping out 1/2" of water on all 3 of the bottles, close them up again, and watch them for 10 days from that point.

I did this in my basement, which is always around 65F. I was able to get to day 10 out of bottle 1, bottle 2 made it to day 10 but with some die-off, and 20+ days out of Bottle 3. (Note: "My method" in Bottle 2 is changing the water with new water the day of shipping without dripping slowly.)

[angi]

Hi Amie,

thank You for talking about Your methods. I know the ammonia problem. Therefore I think about using ChlorAmEx but do not know what is the best dosage. I know the problems with fast waterchanges, too. I think the greatest problem is, that such small copepods as parvocalanus do not tolerate starvation. They will die within 24-48 hours without feed. On the other hand You can not give greater amounts of algae into the bottles because the algae cells can attach to the tiny copepods and impede their swimming. And the nauplii do not tolerate to high density of algae cells at all.

Okay, one could drive down the metabolisms by cooling so that they need less food. But do tropical copepods tolerate a cool shipment with ice packs well or is it better to sent them in warm water? If they tolerate cold water, how fast can I drive down the temperature? Tisbe biminensis for example reacts very sensitive on cool shipment. Sometimes they do not stabilize again.

These are the questions which employ me.

[Amie]

I have never shipped tisbe, so I am no help there. My best suggestion is practice with bottling and setting them on the shelve and watching them. I have gone as far as putting them in the refrigerator to see how long they last in those temperatures. You might be surprised how long they last in clean water without any food, I was. Maybe a little cannibalism is going on, but the ammonia levels stay down. It isn't my first choice of how to ship them however. If I had a choice, I'd rather ship them in their growout water, with a cold pack, that is where I would get the highest success. I never ship in the coldest part of the winter, it has to be above 30F. And I don't ship above 100F. Now, of course, is the perfect time to ship.

[angi]

Thank You Amie for Your statement. I will try your method.

[BaboonScience]

A discussion about a misplaced/off topic post and subsequent discussion has been removed for moderator review.

[enigma]

So John of all people has removed my post. However I have a relevant question. When do the meeting minutes show a forum rule change o allow commercial sale of items in the forums? Why and when are other companies which have shown MOFIB support for years such as phyto2 and reed mariculture not allowed to plug our products in the same fashion?

[rayjay]

As I see it, any links that had been listed, or companies that had been mentioned were in answer to queries made and were a necessary part of the answers.
I didn't see that your links added anything to the topic in it's present form at least, but was a direct plug for your own product, IMO.

[Suzy]

This may not be the best place to ask, but are there rules (unspoken or not) about company representatives discussing their products? I was hoping to get feed back from the companies Ray mentioned in a thread I started about enrichments, and neither one responded. That seemed weird at the time, cause I buy a lot of stuff for my tanks, fish, larvae and corals. I think I may be a pretty good customer of these products! My fridge is full of golden pearls, cyclopeeze and reef supplements! But, maybe these unspoken (or spoken but hidden?) rules are preventing them from posting?

[Yngve]

Some copepod news from Norway here:
http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/182 ... y-to-serve
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-super-ready

Yngve