The Terrific Tigrio Tank

There's a not-so-secret weapon for reef keepers that we all think is still underutilized. Aquarists who use it, consistently have aquariums that are cleaner, clearer, more stable, have corals that are healthier and are able to keep fish that are beyond the means of many other aquarium hobbyists. What is this miracle we speak of? Well, it's science backed process and ideally it starts when you initially start up your aquarium or even your refugium, but it's never too late to start.

To make a long story short, you want Nutramar Tigrio copepods in your tank. Why? Well, Tigriopus genus copepods are an incredible food source for your fish and inverts. They're super high in HUFAs (highly unsaturated fatty acids) which makes them incredibly nutritious as a food for anything that will eat them, which it turns out is pretty much everything. We've never seen a fish that could see them turn them down. It turns out that their erratic swimming behavior is a feeding trigger that just about no fish can ignore. There's another benefit to having copepods in your tank, and it's that they are active detrivores. They get into every nook and cranny and consume left over food, fish waste, and anything else that gets caught up in areas where flow and larger detrivores can't get to it.

If you need a primer on cycling, look for our “First Timer” series on this website. Once your aquarium is cycled, a process that works dramatically more quickly and thoroughly if you utilize Dr. Tim's One and Only product, you need to start stocking microfauna. There are two key elements to this, what we're trying to do is supply the aquarium with enough micro-algae to tie up nutrients that would otherwise feed nuisance algae and we want the micro algae we choose to be a good source of food for the copepods we're going to stock next. The reason we'd like to do this before we have fish, is to give those copepods a chance to settle in and start reproducing before there are predators for them in the tank.

This is also why many advanced home aquarists often keep a refugium. They give your aquarium a location where algae and copepods and other micro-fauna can flourish and reproduce without predation, offering your aquarium a consistent drip of natural food and unparalleled nitrogen removal and pH stability. (see our article on refugiums)

Adding Nutramar Tigrio to your aquarium is remarkably simple. Just tighten the cap and float the bottle in your aquarium (or refugium, or sump) for 10 minutes. This will equalize the temperature in the bottle with the temperature of your system. Then open the bottle and pour them in. If your tank already has fish, and you're dosing into the main display, do this after lights out to help give your copepods time to settle into protected areas of the aquarium. In a tank that has fish in it, we recommend one bottle for every 20 gallons of capacity. If the aquarium does not have fish, you can dose half this much. Repeat this process again after a week. The real hack about doing this successfully lies in offering your copepods some nutritious food before ever stocking them. If you need to store your Tigrio before adding them keep the bottle out of direct sunlight and below 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Leave the top of the bottle slightly ajar to allow for some oxygen transfer as they will consume the oxygen in the bottle over time. If you're keeping them for more than a few days before stocking, keep them between 40 and 50 degrees for best longevity.

Nutramar has a wide range of live algae products available for your home aquarium, and for seeding the tank and feeding your copepods, we recommend Nutramar Phyto CRIT. This makes perfect pod food and has a long list of other benefits as well. Add between 15ml and 30ml of CRIT every day. So, what is CRIT? CRIT stands for Chaetoceros, Rhodomonas, Isochrysis and Tetraselmis. It's a blend of live algae products all cultured here at QM labs, made to be versatile enough to feed your copepods as well as your clams, sponges, corals and other filter feeders. It offers a broad range of cell sizes and high vitamin, protein, omega-3 and other phytonutrients vital to your aquarium's health.

Chaetoceros is an excellent food source for copepods and amphipods and enhances oxygen levels while controlling dissolved nutrient levels. Rhodomonas is high in omega-3 and other nutrients. Isochrysis is another alga often used to boost the nutritional content of micro-fauna. Tetraselmis is a phytoplankton that is really high in lipids which is perfect for all your filter feeders. The mix is tailor made in house and is utilized here for growing out our live foods as well. We use it, and we recommend you do to. You can just stock your copepods, and they'll make it until they get eaten, but if you want a population of healthy ones, dose your display with Nutramar CRIT too.

This combination of stocking Nutramar Tigrio and Nutramar CRIT should be your baseline when planning any display, as it will be cleaner, healthier and more stable. This is especially true for those of you who plan to keep picky fishlike Dragonettes or have a lot of filter feeders like the reef keepers among us. If you're going to stock copepods, and everyone should, Nutramar Tigrio is the choice to make. Each bottle is cultured here at QM Labs, in purified and ozonated saltwater in a meticulously controlled environment. They are the safest, most reliable and most nutritious copepods available. Ask your Local Fish Store about getting you both CRIT and Tigrio today and thank us tomorrow!