Copepods Tigriopus sp. (For fish)

Tigriopus copepods

Living bento-pelagic copepods Tigriopus sp. in bottle.

Laboratory grown and fed exclusively with phytoplankton.

Large copepods, ideal for feeding a wide variety of organisms including fish.

DESCRIPTION

Genus: Tigriopus

Animalia Kingdom

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Crustacea

Class: Maxillopoda

Subclass: Copepoda

Order: Harpacticoid

General characteristics

Copepods are the main primary consumers of microalgae. They constitute more than 70% of the zooplankton components of all seas.

Sizes range from 120-230 µm.

They are in the main diet of fish and crustaceans. They are omnivores and cosmopolitans.

They live at high population densities and tolerate a wide range of physical and chemical conditions (temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen), common in the intertidal zones where they live. They have bento-pelagic habits.

They have sexual reproduction and have high fertility. They go through 6 naupliar stages and 6 copepodite stages until they become adults.

Nutritional value

They are very important for the larval diets of marine fish since they have limited enzymatic activity to synthesize, elongate and desaturate chains of polyunsaturated fatty acids to long chains of highly unsaturated fatty acids. All of this is essential since these fatty acids are part of important cellular structures of the nervous system, the retina and other pigmented tissues.

Unlike other live feed used in aquaculture, they do not need to be enriched to have a good balanced level of nutrients since these in themselves have an excellent nutritional composition.

Advantages of copepods as food

Enhances the natural color of fish and crustaceans.

Strengthens the body's immune system.

They are especially useful with some aquarium inhabitants who are more sensitive to their diet, either because they are sick or because they do not accept inert food.

It has been shown that copepods in larval culture of marine fish ensure normal development with improvements in growth and survival, considerably reducing diseases, malformations and abnormal pigmentation.

When to use copepods and why

Being bento-pelagic, its movement is more visible to predators and therefore it does not last long in the aquarium once you introduce it, it is consumed more quickly.

It can be preyed on by larger crustaceans and fish.

We must add copepods to our aquarium to always ensure good microfauna in it. It is important not to forget the food chains, we must try to imitate the conditions that exist in the sea so that there is correct functioning at all levels.

Copepods are an excellent source of food for more delicate fish and to restore the appetite of sick fish or fish that have a harder time eating (mandarins, pipefish, seahorses, etc.) as well as food for corals and invertebrates that live in our aquarium. .

We must add them at night so that they are not preyed upon at the moment and always add them at the opposite end to the water outlet of the tank.