A great food source for difficult to keep Mandarin Gobies. Tigriopus californicus is a very large (250-2500 micron) harpacticoid copepod that ranges from Alaska to Baja California. T. californicus is a very hearty copepod that can tolerate wide ranges in temperature (10-35°C) and salinity (10-100 ppt). T. californicus eats microscopic algae, protists, bacteria, diatoms, algae and microbes (McGroarty 1958). The T. Californium’ life cycle has 14 stages, and can live from 50-100 days.

How to care for your Tigriopus: Grows best in conditions where temperatures are between 25-30 °C, and salinity is 32-38 ppt. Do not overfeed—maintain Tigriopus in light/cloudy phytoplankton conditions using Phyto-feast *LIVE*. Needs little to no aeration. If using air, bubbles should be 1-3 mm at 1-2 per second. Receiving your Tigger Pods™ Tigger Pods™ are wonderful little creatures, full of energy, fun to watch, and great food for your reef tank.

When you receive your shipment, here are some steps that will help ensure their health and survival. Upon arrival you may notice the Tigger-Pods™ aren’t very active. This is normal when cold shipped or cold stored. As the bottles warm up, the Tigger Pods™ will become more active. It is not uncommon to have a few of the oldest copepods to die from old age. We pack the bottle with all stages of life, but only count the adults. On average, we pack at least 10% more in every bottle to account for any DOA.

Personal Use Upon arrival, open bottle cap and remove the inside liner. Let stand at room temp for 2 hours to allow temperature to rise. The Tigger Pods™ can be poured directly into your refugium and/or main tank. They can live several weeks in the bottle, as long as they are fed and the bottle is open to the air. Tigger Pods™ feed on microalgae and we recommend feeding them with Phyto-Feast™. Phyto-Feast™ can be dosed directly into both your refugium and main tank. The recommended feeding rate is 1 to 5 drops per gallon each day, depending on the bio-density of your reef tank.