​Time for some Myth Busting!
 
One of my top frustrations is the myth that Tigriopus californicus are a "cold water species". I hear this from store owners and hobbyists ALL the time. This copepod is eurythermal. For those of you that don’t know the term, it describes an organism able to tolerate a wide range of temperatures.  Tigriopus californicus is both euryhaline and eurythermal, withstanding and remaining active in salinities from 4ppt (Vittor 1971) to 102ppt (Egloff 1967) and temperatures from 4C (39.2F) (Vittor 1971) to over 40C (104F) (Ranade 1957).  The genus Tigriopus is represented by seven species which are abundant in splash zone pools all over the world (Bradford, 1967).
 
This copepod can be quite successful in places where nothing else prospers.  Tigriopus californicus, as an inhabitant of supralittoral rockpools, is subject to sudden and violent fluctuations in salinity and temperature; these conditions have eliminated this niche for most marine invertebrates (Ricketts and Calvin, 1973).  It has effectively colonized much of the Pacific coast of North America.  The marine harpacticoid copepod, Tigriopus californicus (Baker), is a successful colonizer of supralittoral splash pools from Torch Bay, Alaska, to Baja California, Mexico (L. Chalker-Scott 1995). 

​We (Reed Mariculture) are culturing these guys in a greenhouse in the San Jose, CA area. For those of you that have been there in the summer; it's hot.  One of the main reasons we are working with this copepod is because we can culture them all year, even in the hottest months when the greenhouse temps get upwards of 38C (100F).  I can assure you that we don't use chillers and don't air condition; that would cost us a fortune! If we had seasonality issues, you wouldn't see Tigger-Pods in stores in June, July, August & September, right?  We have been culturing this species for 8 years now without any wild stock supplementation.  They are fully adapted and domesticated to our greenhouse environment and all the seasonality issues that are associated with this kind of growing area.
 
Now, I can see how people could misunderstand this animal when they see it in a refrigerator in a pet store.  The reason you see them held this way is because it makes more sense for a retail store; they can hold them for longer periods without heavy mortalities. The colder temperatures simply slow them down metabolically, keeping them from using up the oxygen and their energy reserves; plain and simple.  Colder temperatures can also be advantageous with shipping this animal.  They remain inactive at the colder temps while in shipping so that they don’t use up all the oxygen in the bottle. We use their hardiness to our advantage so that when a customer buys a bottle, the animals are alive and well.  
 
I would like for everyone that reads this to share it and help me put this myth to rest.  These animals are tougher than most people think, so let’s give them credit where it’s due! 
 
Cheers! 
Chad M. Clayton

​
​ 
Bradford, J.M. (1967). Genus Tigriopus (Norman) (Copepoda-harpacticoida) in New Zealand with a description of a new species.  Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand-Zoology, 10(6), 51.
 
Egloff DA (1967) Ecological aspects of sex ratio and reproduction in experimental and field populations of the marine copepod Tigriopus californicus. Doctoral Thesis, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
 
Ranade (1957). Observations on the resistance of Tigriopus fulvus (Fischer) to changes in temperature and salinity.
 
Ricketts, E.F., Calvin, J., Hedgepeth, J.W., Phillips, D.W., (1985). Between pacific tides.  Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
 
Scott, L. C. (1995). Survival and sex ratios of the intertidal copepod, Tigriopus californicus, following ultraviolet-B (290–320 nm) radiation exposure. Marine Biology, 123(4), 799-804.
 
Vittor, B. A. (1971). Effects of the Environment on Fitness-Related Life History Characters in Tigriopus californicus, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon, Eugene.

Do you remember years ago garlic was the new "it" item in our hobby? Many of us dipping/soaking our food in it to entice finicky, hard to feed fish or better yet, to treat our fish of ich? I don't know where that came from or what science was actually behind it but since everyone was doing it and many companies were releasing products after products, many of us, including myself just figured and accepted that it was the right and good thing for our fish. 

But were we right? or were we duped?
There has been a lot of back and forth arguments on line that had people divided. 

• People who believe that the garlic is good believes that garlic entices fish to eat more which will boost the natural immune system so that they can fight the parasites on their own.  i.e. marine ick.  
• People who are against garlic in tanks believe that they are bad for the fish (they can't properly digest the garlic) and there are no science behind if garlic does anything for the fish at all.  

I have decided to reach out to couple of experts in the field to find out more about this.  

Larry Dupont, owner and founder of LRS food, whose food is used worldwide in public aquariums, aquaculture facilities and breeding programs. (Yellow Tang, Blue Hippo Tangs and Gramma Dejongi to name a few)

Paul "The Research" Poeschl,  Aquarist at Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. 

Austin Lefevre, owner and founder of Aqua Box, Austin specializes in supplying fully quarantined livestock to the industry and to the hobbyists alike. He was also MACNA 2016 speaker on fish quarantine (Bullet Proof Reef Keeping), as well as Michigan Coral Expo (2016, 2017) and Manhattan Reef Swap (2016) .  

​Lance Ichinotsubo, one of the pioneer in quarantine in our hobby and author of ​The Marine Fish Health & Feeding Handbook. 

​This is what they had to say about garlic in our aquarium.  

Larry: In all my travels and discussions I've had with professional aquarists, curators and marine breeders I've found no one who added garlic to their foods as part of any QT protocol. I also could find no evidence that garlic, or the active ingredient allicin has ANY effect on crypto in a marine system. There is more information surfacing discussing how marine fish organs cannot process the terrestrial enzymes in garlic and that in high doses over time it could be harmful. It seems that this fact is becoming more widely understood by experienced hobbyists, but browsing the FB groups all day you can still find dozens of posts about people recommending garlic as a proper way to cure crypto. People start feeding garlic, see the "white spots" disappear and believe they cured their fish when in actuality that is the natural progression of the parasite's lifecycle. In addition I still see posts that "I only add garlic as an appetite stimulant." Well to counter that argument I offer that in December 2015 we deleted garlic from ALL our blends and we never said a word publicly. I wanted to error on the side of caution for the health of the fish and see if anyone noticed the deletion. Throughout 2016 consumers continued to post that LRS was a "go-to" food for finicky eaters and no one even noticed garlic was gone. In my honest opinion, if you are using quality seafood, which is fresh with a natural smell why would you need to make it smell like a pizza to get your fish to eat it? When we started making foods for aquaculture projects garlic was NEVER requested as an ingredient by the researchers which further confirmed my decision to leave it out of our foods. If people want to add garlic to their fish foods there are plenty of additives which permit them to do so right before feeding time. However, I'll continue to stick with what science says about the subject and not add it if it shows no benefit in a laboratory setting.

Paul: The garlic myth comes from the basics of the life cycle, and a fishes natural immune system ability to fight infection. As someone who originally was duped by people so confident in the method, I was a fan of garlic in the beginning of my hobbyist days... When I started getting more experience through keeping fish in stores and having more encounters with Cryptocaryon, I quickly and expensively found out that it was nothing but a myth. Fish treated with garlic would sometimes get better, sometimes not... Same results without garlic at similar ratios... What made a huge difference was when I started actually looking into the science behind Cryptocaryon, and began quarantining fish properly. This carried over to the public aquarium side as well, since everyone tends to quarantine with proper quarantine methods on this side of the industry. As far as garlic toxicity and issues with the heart and liver goes, it is a cautionary approach. Garlic is known to affect several animal species with health issues. Many terrestrial greens have also been shown to give marine fish in particular, issues with the heart and liver. So my logic is garlic has so little value as a "drug" and so much risk as a terrestrial plant why use it?

Austin: Our industry is littered with anecdote, which is necessary since there's not much funding for real science in reef aquaria. However, more often than not we see utter drivel being passed around as fact. Using garlic to cure Cryptocaryon irritans is one of them. There is zero science to support this claim. Some have said garlic entices fishes to feed, however after working with tens of thousands of fishes over the years I have not found this to be true. With that said jump starting the metabolism of any newly imported fish is crucial, so if all else fails it could be a viable option. Although it will still do nothing to directly combat Cryptocaryon irritans.

Lance: Though current evidence of it's effectiveness is mostly anecdotal, especially in the treatment of ongoing or severe marine ich (Cryptocaryon irritans), some hobbyists have reported success with garlic. It is also thought that it may help kill internal worms such as nematodes. Kelly Jedlicki (click on the name to see her credentials), a puffer and shark enthusiast, reported success feeding oil caps to newly acquired fish" "On many occasions, worms have been expelled in a garlic-oil blob or slick." 

In conclusion, it looks like general consensus by the experts are against using garlic in our reef tanks.  

1. We have gone over the possible health issues (heart and liver failures) that is associated with garlic.
2. We went over enticing the finicky or sick fish with it and was told from Larry's experience as food maker and interacting with many public aquarists and breeders that providing fresh seafood would be more beneficial and effective.
3. All the experts agreed that it has no medicinal benefits in treating for cryptocaryon irritans in our aquarium.  

It's your choice whether you go ahead and use the garlic or not but we will advise against it for treating for parasites as myths surrounding garlic curing crytocaryons are FALSE however we found something interesting in talking with Lance that garlic may be possible anti-nematode medication. I hope more studies will be done on this matter to shine more information for us hobbyists further enhancing our knowledge about what we keep in our slice of ocean and how to take even better care of it.  

Happy Reefing!