# Freshwater Copepods (daphnia..etc)



## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Isn't there a guy on this forum named kiran from your general area..........I swear by it. By general area I mean it loosely like by Virginia-y

Uhh copepods are an eyesore in most of our shrimp tanks since nothing eat them. I'm sure you can find someone here who'll round some up for you hahahah


----------



## Bandit1200 (Dec 11, 2010)

buy some java moss, more than likely you'll get a starter colony along with your moss. That's where mine came from.


----------



## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Kiran1 said:


> Hello. This is my first post here on TPT.net forums!
> I have been checking out copepods and think they would be great in my tank. However I haven't been able to find any place where I can purchase them! I have found many saltwater ones though, but that's not what I need.
> Any suggestions?
> 
> ...


Whoah, same name!? :icon_mrgr

Welcome to the forum. Copepods (i.e. daphnia) are pretty easy to find, usually they'll just "show up," but if not, and you're feeling adventurous, check out a local pond or lake. Something relatively still. Grab a few cups of water and look carefully, I'd say there's a 95% chance you'll find _some_ copepods. Otherwise, maybe check eBay. Or if you have a nearby university, check with them, I'm sure they'd gladly give you a few. And by a few, I mean, like, 50-100. Freshwater ecology labs always have too many of them! 



Bananariot said:


> Isn't there a guy on this forum named kiran from your general area..........I swear by it. By general area I mean it loosely like by Virginia-y.


South Carolina, not Virginia! :tongue:


----------



## Kiran1 (Aug 18, 2012)

I think copepods would look great in my tank! I've got a 55 gal with 4 juvenile discus, 10 neons, 2 zebra danios, 4 chinese algae eaters, 2 very small ancistrus plecos, pineapple swordtail pair, 4 kuhlui loaches, and 4 snails. I heard that neons eat copepods--I'm not sure if they do though. I really like having the full spectrum of life in my tank-including- copepods, bacteria, plankton, fish, but definitely not algae . I take it the copepods remove excess nutrients too? They would make a good snack too if any fish were to bite. 

Thanks for the welcome! I will go to a local pond to grab some pond water tomorrow morning.  My only concern is picking up algae and fish parasites.


----------



## Kiran1 (Aug 18, 2012)

Also, I got a bunch of java moss two months back, but I didn't get any copepods with them unfortunately.


----------



## Jules (May 20, 2012)

Kiran1 said:


> I think copepods would look great in my tank! I've got a 55 gal with 4 juvenile discus, 10 neons, 2 zebra danios, 4 chinese algae eaters, 2 very small ancistrus plecos, pineapple swordtail pair, 4 kuhlui loaches, and 4 snails. I heard that neons eat copepods--I'm not sure if they do though. I really like having the full spectrum of life in my tank-including- copepods, bacteria, plankton, fish, but definitely not algae . I take it the copepods remove excess nutrients too? They would make a good snack too if any fish were to bite.
> 
> Thanks for the welcome! I will go to a local pond to grab some pond water tomorrow morning.  My only concern is picking up algae and fish parasites.


Even if you seed the tank with hundreds of copepods, I doubt you'll see a single one after a day with all those fish in there. I had a massive infestation of cyclops in my 20 gal quarantine tank (literally thousands of them - which I was perfectly happy about since I knew the fish would love them), and within 8 hours of adding a school of hungry green neon tetras there was not a cyclops to be seen anywhere.


----------



## kingfisherfleshy (Jun 4, 2010)

+1 to the above...fish candy.


----------



## Kiran1 (Aug 18, 2012)

I have a lot of plants in my aquarium though..including a christmas/taiwan/java moss wall. Do you think that will help the copepods much?


----------



## kingfisherfleshy (Jun 4, 2010)

Some - you might not irradicate them all, but you will likely not see very many. 

I do greenwater cultures that are in 10g tanks. 

Then I add daphnia - and when the tank goes from green (algae) to white (daphnia) I add fish. 

The tank is usually clear within a week (3-4 days). Let it be known though that these tanks are completely bare - and I only use this method to grow newborn fry very fast. 

I have mainly used this to culture various species of goodeids.


----------

