Advice on Seeding Copepods

What do I need in order to get this process started? Do I just put the bottle of copepods in my refugium and let them multiply? I had one years ago when I had a smaller tank and of course it starved after a while. I was unsuccessful with feeding it with a feeding station. Have you ever had success with them living over a year?
 
Yes, just put it in your fuge, but its going to take months before there is a large enough population in there to feed a mandarin.

Many people have long term success with these guys, but they are usually living in a mature reef system with lots of pods or are trained to eat frozen.
 
Yes you just add the bottle also if you add a marcoalgae like chaeto it'll give them a place to breed as well as a food source. Like littefish said though, it'll take some time for you to get a large enough source to feed a mandarin long term.
 
In a tank that was started with good quality and cured live rock and running a fuge,you've got pods.They just need time to and food to expand their population.
90% of the time,when you buy those packaged pods,all you end up with is a little bit of water with a strand or 2 of cheato in it and a few dead pod bodies.
To help what you already have expand,feed a little phytoplankton a couple times a week.
 
I have seen many in my tank already.....I just figured the mandarin would deplete them in no time. I will try the phytoplankton and see if I can get them to expand.
 
you can make pod houses in your fuge with gutter gaurd and zip ties, make a smallish cylinder and fill it with rubble, cap the top and bottom, the pods will grow in there and you can just swish it in the display once in a while, a chunk of open cell foam anchored down will do the same thing
 
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