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Copepods!

  • Thread starter eithan0693
  • Start date
I've been trying to keep these little guys alive for some time now maybe 2 weeks.

Things seem to be doing very very well.

97d4d00695447bac59f71966e4259d89.jpg


A C6 momma copepod big enough to see. She's about 0.7mm big, is swimming above the marimo ball.

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In the middle is a copepod C1-C4 it has grown it's 4th segment and tail.

Adult copepods have 6 stages of life denoted by c1 through c6. The juvenile copepods are denoted by n1-n6. They have 12+1 stages of life. 12 metamorphosi and their breeding phase. In the microscopic picture the large c1-c4 copepod is about 0.2 mm large. There are smaller round n1-n6 copepods on the lower have of the picture.

Copepods!!: Copepods!! - YouTube

These two are fighting over a piece of phytoplankton aha
 
I love copepods! :D
Such interesting little life forms.will be watching
 
Very cool! I used to have a large culture of copepods going in most of my Aldrovanda cultures, but eventually they completely disappear. Whatever species I have seem to require a dry diapause period.
 
Very cool! I used to have a large culture of copepods going in most of my Aldrovanda cultures, but eventually they completely disappear. Whatever species I have seem to require a dry diapause period.

Anytime you're working with cultures of crustaceans, you need to continuously start new cultures as older ones inevitably crash.
 
Oh okay yeah I cycle my water through... 7? Tanks so they should be good...
 
Anytime you're working with cultures of crustaceans, you need to continuously start new cultures as older ones inevitably crash.

Yeah, I used to keep several buckets outdoors that I'd periodically flood and dry to keep ostracods and copepods, but I've abandoned them in favor of more low maintenance long-term residents like Neocaridina shrimp.
 
My copepods lasted all year in a bucket outside, so I figure if I keep expanding the culture whilst feeding them to my plants and shrimps the colony should be indefinite. I find they are about as much hassle as my shrimps are which is next to none.
 
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  • #10
Whenever I have copepods they come from the pond, and there is usually a lot of pondwater and decaying plant material with them as well. I've never tried keeping them long term though.
 
  • #11
Whenever I have copepods they come from the pond, and there is usually a lot of pondwater and decaying plant material with them as well. I've never tried keeping them long term though.

That's what I do, too.
 
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