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FS: Live Phytoplankton

Wesley

Wesley

Clownfish Pimp
Location
Huntington Station, Long Island, NY
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I'm taking a break rearing larvae at the moment and have some extra phytoplankton for sale.

Phyto is not just for rotifers. SPS, LPS, Sponge, clams, and of course all of the filter feeders such as feather duster eat it as well. I also use my phyto to feed the copepods. Instead of feeding the mandarin, you could just dose the tank with some phyto to get more copepods to multiply. Look at the pods in my mandarin tank:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MFhQSKSPGQ&hd=1

I don't feed them anything other than tinting the tank with phyto every day.

$5 for a 16oz (about 1/2 Liter) (the smaller water bottle in the picture) or $15 for 2 Liter (the soda bottle)

phyto-bottles.jpg


These are live phyto and you can start your own culture with it. It won't foul your water like other commercial frozen product/food.
 
Wesley

Wesley

Clownfish Pimp
Location
Huntington Station, Long Island, NY
Rating - 100%
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For one or two bottles of culture, almost any air pump will do. The biggest air pump under $100 can support 4-8+ bottles depends on the brand. I use the Tetra Whisper Deepwater Pumps AP-300. It's quiet and powerful and it's under $50!

There are a few things I do to my mandarin tank to promote the copepods culture. Protein skimmer would take out the phyto from the water. It's just like when you feed the coral with some coral food, they recommend you to turn off the skimmer during feeding and some times thereafter. Since you can't quite target feed the pods, you'll need to have the skimmer off for quite some times. My mandarin tank doesn't even use a skimmer.

To increase the chance that my copepods to get enough food, at the beginning, I put about 1/5 bottle of my 2L (about 1.5 cup) into my 20 gallon mandarin tank in the morning. That's a lot, but the tank doesn't have any phyto to begin with. With this tank, I also use a warm white light (about 2300-3000K) to promote algae growth. The phyto you dosed will also keep multiplier with this light. So whatever you dose would less even longer.

Also, wherever you see algae grow, you'll see the mother copepods (with eggs) resting on it. By 3rd day, you should see tons of baby copepods on the sand bed. You won't be able to see it with naked eyes. Use a zoom camera or magnifying glass. Look at this video about 12 seconds in, they are really tiny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vaxzi0FmPeU

Another thing you can also do is to culture the pods. It'll be super easy as well, if you are going to culture your own phyto. I'm going to write another post concentrating just on culturing pods.
 
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G

GROSSR

Junior Member
Location
Aberdeen NJ
Rating - 100%
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I am in Jersey and I would be interested in a small bottle to start my own cultures. How much to ship to 07747? Amazing that if I drove to Huntington Station it would cost me 25.00 or so in tolls and about 15.00 in gas. The USPS is a great deal.
 
Wesley

Wesley

Clownfish Pimp
Location
Huntington Station, Long Island, NY
Rating - 100%
45   0   0
heh. yea, the tolls are a killer. Interestingly, lot of people from NJ want it.

I just found a USPS small flat rate box at home but it won't fit even the small bottle. I'm going to the post office to get a med size one and see what it can fit. Since they are pretty much just water, by weight, it's gonna be expansive to ship. That's why I'm trying to figure out a way to fit them into the flat rate boxes.
 
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