Culturing Phytoplankton and Tigger Pods

[reefnoob]

I'm not sure if this is the correct area to post this... How would I culture phytoplankton first of all? Put a starter culture in a 2liter bottle? Then what would I feed them? Do they just need light? How often do I harvest them? Where can I buy a starter culture from? My LFS sells Phytofeast Live by Reef Nutrition. How do I know if the cells are still alive? Do I go by the expiration date? Can I use phytofeast or should I use something else? I've read that culturing them yourself is more worth it so I want to give it a shot. I'm pretty sure I know how to culture tigger pods. Just basically keep the water green with the phytoplankton. But when can I harvest them? Sorry for all the questions, I might have more to come.

 

[reefnoob]

Anyone? Also, I've read that tigger pods don't necessarily need phytoplankton, they can live on crushed flake food or pellets. Is this correct? Also, how do I keep the water quality up? Am I supposed to do water changes somehow?

 

[little_fish]

Melevsreef.com - Phytoplankton

The Breeder's Net: Culturing Larval Fish Foods, Part I — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

Its a very time consuming and expensive process to try and culture pods this way, why do you need to culture pods like this?

 

[reefnoob]

I was wanting to get a mandarin. I was going to first see how many pods I can get, and how quickly I can do it. So that if it's not enough, it would be a definite no that I can't get a mandarin.

 

[little_fish]

Why dont you wait until you get one that eats frozen? They really arent that hard to find. Ask the LFS to feed them every time you go and one might suck up a piece or two, or look for someone tearing down their tank locally that has one. Or set up a 10 gal tank as a training tank.

 

[reefnoob]

Well I haven't seen any at my LFS except for one in their show tank.

 

[Bifferwine]

Culturing phyto is a chore. It takes a lot of space and a lot of work.

 

[Cheeser]

yeah its alot of work. its not like sea monkeys...but theres some videos on youtube thatll be helpful to you if your serious about it.

 

[reefnoob]

I think I read that tiggers can also eat flake food. Do you think I can feed them that instead of phyto?

 

[little_fish]

short term, maybe, long term, no

 

[Gizmo]

If your lfs has an account with ora, they can order you a tank bred mandarin. I think they cost a little more, but are very hardy, & will eat frozen, as well as other foods.