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Reef Snacklebox - Three Species Blend of Live Copepods

Reef Snacklebox - Three Species Blend of Live Copepods

$39.00 USD
$39.00 USD
Sale Coming soon
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The Reef Snacklebox is a dense blend of three species of live copepods to feed your fish and corals while also providing balance and stability to your reef. The live copepods included in each Reef Snacklebox - Tisbe, Apocyclops, and Tigriopus - eat nuisance algae and detritus. In certain cases, they are even known to consume other harmful microfauna (Tisbe copepods can eat certain strains of harmful dinoflagelletes).

Live copepods are incredibly small but pack a significant punch. The Reef Snacklebox, when combined with our live phytoplankton, creates the basis for your reef's food chain. Your reef requires a strong foundation of live copepods and other microfauna in order to be stable, healthy, and vibrant over the long term. Biodiversity is key to successful reefing, and the Reef Snacklebox is a crucial component.

As tiny as they are, live copepods are also powerful members of your clean-up crew. Their small size enables them to reach the tiny crevices in your rock that snails and urchins can't get to. They eat leftover fish food, detritus, and algae that settle in those spaces, which in turn contributes to lower nutrients in your reef tank.

Live copepods such as the ones found in our Reef Snacklebox are also necessary to keep certain types of fish such as mandarin gobies, dragonettes, and pipefish.

Buy With Confidence

Shopping for live goods online can be stressful, but we have use best-in-industry shipping practices such as biodegradable stryofoam boxes, checking your weather and including heat/ice packs as needed, and sending all orders with UPS two day shipping. If anything goes wrong, we have your back with our completely hassle-free, no-questions-asked Dinkins Delivery Guarantee.

Don't take our word for it - check out our reviews section to see what other reefers are saying!

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I buy copepods from Dinkins Aquatic Gardens?

There are many excellent suppliers of live copepods on the market. The main thing that sets us apart from the crowd is our focus on quality and customer service.

In terms of quality, we offer some of the densest bottles of live copepods on the market. We also pride ourselves on our award-winning customer service: the Dinkins Difference. Every order of live copepods is fully backed by the Dinkins Delivery Guarantee.

How many live copepods should I buy?

Deciding how many live copepods to buy depends on your tank size and specific needs. Please see this page for specific recommendations.

How should I dose my live copepods?

Add all of your live copepods at once, as they will gradually perish after about a week. It's best to add them at night, when your lights are off and your fish are resting. Turn off all your pumps/powerheads for about an hour, then pour in the entire contents of your bottle(s).

How long will live copepods survive in the bottle?

Copepods are a living cleanup crew and food source, so just as with any other cleanup crew, you'll want to add them all at once. Our bottles don't have enough food or oxygen to keep copepods alive indefinitely.

Copepods generally last 6-7 days in a sealed bottle before they begin to perish. You can open the lid when you receive them and that should give you another day or two of "shelf life."

If you need to keep them alive longer than that, then put them in a bucket with some fresh saltwater, an airline, and some live phytoplankton. They'll survive indefinitely in such a setup (with regular feeding and water changes).

My copepods are all on the bottom of my bottle. Are they alive?

Almost certainly! The Apocyclops, Tisbe, and Tigriopus copepods we sell are benthic, meaning during most of their life they prefer to slowly crawl on the something (in this case, the bottom of your bottle).

Temperature acclimate your bottle of copepods by floating in your tank/sump for about an hour. Then give them a quick shake. Let your bottle set for about one minute.

Then, gently pick up the bottle and shine a light directly upward through the bottom of the bottle, preferably in a dimly-lighted room. You should see a good deal of movement. If some of the copepods aren't moving, then they are likely the planktonic juveniles that don't actively swim.

If you don't see much movement, please contact us so that we can send you a free replacement under our Dinkins Delivery Guarantee!