Copepods - Care and Propagation of T. californicus

The technical advances in the marine quarium hobby over the last ten years have been nothing short of phenomenal. These advances in filtration, lighting, water treatment, water movement and more, overcame many of the hurdles which prevented all but the most dedicated hobbyist from enjoying marine animals inthe aquarium. In turn,the hobby developed the reef aquarium and live coral propagation specialties. Along with the technical advancement has gee a greater understanding of the marine animals, both large and small, and their importance to the overall health and success of the captive marine ecosystem. Copepods are an excellent example of our better understanding of the captive marine environment and its requirements. They serve as an essential link in the food chain of marine ecosystems, taking nutrients from a microscopic level and providing them to higher order organisms.
T. californicusin the captive marine aquarium
Copepods can live in your main aquarium or refugium. They love to hide in rocks or substrate as well as in macroalgae. If there are predators in the tank, they will certainly be eaten before their 14 stage, 100 day life cycle gees to end. In the wild, they eat microalgae, bacteria, protists, diatoms and microbes.
T. californicus is not too particular about its home. They gee from the pacific ocean off the the coast of California and survive the extremes of the cool pacific waters and rising temperatures of tide pools.
The lowest cost solution for a copepod culture tank would be a plastic shoe box.Avoid deep containers.Kept at room temperature, the water in the shoe box should be changed on a frequent basis - at least 50% once per week. Start with new seawater, do not take water from your tank as this may contaminate your new culture.
T. californicus does best in temperatures between 10-35 degrees Celcius. Ideal salinity should be 32 to 38 ppt. (1.020-1.025) T. californicus needs little aeration, if you choose to add aeration, the bubble size should be between 1-3 mm at a rate of 1-2 bubbles per second. Light is not necessary for the copepods, so no special lighting is required. Cover the vessel to avoid evaporation, dust and contaminates.
Like other culture activities, it is very important to segregate the equipment used to cultivate the copepods. For example, do not use water from your main tank in the culture, or use a siphon for the main tank and then the copepod tank (without first disinfecting). It is a little extra work, but will help avoid the frustrating disaster of contamination nd culture crash.
Feeding copepods
Once you've established the copepod tank and introduced your new "pods" to their home, they will want to eat. T. californicus eats primarily brown algaes, or diatoms, such as are found in Phyto-Feast Live.A few drops every other day should be fine to keep them happy.They will also eat green microalgaes, such as nannochloropsis and Tetraselmis, but theywill pass right through the digestive process and not provide nutrition.You do not want to over feed them - culture will crash (large die off) due to over feeding.
Harvesting your copepods
You can siphon the copepods through a strainer or collector, ensuring that when you feed the copepods to your tank, you only transfer the copepods and not the water. A brine shrimp net may be useful to collect the adult T. californicus.