Catching copepods

So, i want to start a separate culture for copepods/amphipods outside of my fuge. Any ideas on how to catch the copepods off the walls? I tossed in some sponges about 2 weeks ago in hopes that they would hide in it like live rock, but they are so small and the sponges are white so i cant tell if they are in it or not. i can see amphipods in there but no copepods. I was thinking i could take a sponge and gently and slowly scrape the walls in hopes the copepods will jump to the sponge, but idk if this will work or if ill just kill a bunch of pods... any ideas?

 

I read somewhere that they eat/ hide in cheato if it's in tank. I'd tie some to a rock and drop it into the tank for a few weeks, then carefully move it over w/ sand to a bowl and see what you have .

 

trust me if you put a sponge in your fuge there is copepods in it. That is how I give mine away or start a new culture of them. Put a sponge in my main culture tank and leave it in there for about a week. Them I move it to another tanks and feed, wait about 2 weeks and boom I have another culture of them.

And Yes they hide in the Cheato but unfortunately so do other things like bristle worms and such. Sponge holes are much to small for them to transfer via the sponge to tank.

 

I have chaeto also, but i dont want to use that in a seperate culture as i want to mainly keep dim lighting on it since i believe copepods and amphipods are mostly nocturnal.

 

Great idea. Why didnt I think of that?