The Aquaculture Guide - Aquapparel

Copepods are an essential part to a reef aquarium. They do 3 main things: Eat PhytoplanktonFeed fish and coralsAnd act as a micro clean up crew So what are these little things? They are a microscopic crustacean that consists of a variety of different species. In fact there are over 13,000 species, 2,800 of them which live in Freshwater. Sooo they are kind of a big deal for being so small. When we had our aquaculture facility, we used them for a variety of things: To feed our baby seahorsesTo feed our coralTo serve as a micro clean up crew in our coral tankAnd we sold them to both individuals and fish stores in order to provide a good, quality source to aquarium hobbyists Personally, I shipped nationally and delivered locally tons of this stuff and I was not the only one working in that facility. So made our pods so great? Well, we raised our seahorses off of them. And because the Seahorses needed a lot of essential vitamins, HUFAs and a good source of protein so that they would grow up to be healthy and strong, our stuff had to be top notch. And it was, we raised and sold thousands of these beautiful creatures. Not only that, but we tested them out on our own corals in the facility as well as on some of our friend's corals and fish. The response was pretty epic. And so we made them available to the public. So should you feed your reef tank Copepods? It is a great source of live food if dosed properly and consistently. The problem is that this can get expensive with a dose of copepods costing $20 and up in some cases. Especially if you have a large reef tank with lots of corals and small fish that eat copepods as well. The solution? You can easily grow your own unlimited supply! Recently, we created an online course that shows you exactly how we did it for just $19. We even scaled down the 5 gallon culture vessels that we used to this smaller 1 gallon vessel. The course is very comprehensive and all of our tips and tricks are included. Including how to eliminate any unfavorable bacteria that may result from the culturing process that you could unknowingly expose your tank to if no precaution is taken. https://aquapparel.teachable.com/p/live-food Now I know that there are a ton of free videos on YouTube that show you how to do this in plastic bottles but, that’s not the best method. You can watch this video to learn why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZTYjxrnE7c Since we raised very fragile baby seahorses on our Copepods, we had to culture them pretty frequently and pretty much perfectly. So if you are looking for all of that information that is already out there, condensed into an easy to digest, online course that you can take at your own pace with detailed instructions and video, then you might want to check out our course. You can find it here: https://aquapparel.teachable.com/p/live-food Aquapparel is all about marine life and how to conserve it. I have created this content in order to help you, the hobbyist have the healthiest reef that you possibly can. This overall helps to reduce the amount of unnecessary fatalities of corals and fish which means less are taken from the ocean. Although many species nowadays are aquacultured, there unfortunately is still a decent amount that are difficult to care for and have yet to be successfully bred in captivity that are still harvested from the wild. Aquariums are awesome! Learning about fish and corals makes people care for their survival in the wild. By providing you with this information I hope to contribute to your coral and fishkeeping success while helping us all conserve the wild counterparts of the species that we are so passionate about.