Dataset: Acartia tonsa Egg Production

Individual juvenile copepods were isolated to prevent fertilization before the assay began. Developmental stage was monitored each day, and male–female pairs were created within 3 days of individuals reaching maturity. During development and match making, copepods were fed ad libitum using the same mix of phytoplankton as the lab cultures. One day after pairing, adults were moved to petri dishes with fresh seawater and provided with 800 μg C/L of food mix (split evenly based on carbon content between Tetraselmis and Thalasiossira). Females were given 3 days to produce eggs, after which mate pairs were removed. The produced eggs were then given an additional 3 days to hatch. After the hatching period, egg plates were preserved using non-acid Lugols solution. The number of eggs was then visually counted using a dissection microscope. Total egg production (recorded in the Total column) was calculated as the combined number of hatched and unhatched eggs. The number of eggs hatched is recorded in the Hatched column. Hatching success was calculated as the percentage of eggs that hatched (hatched/total eggs produced), and is recorded in the Hatching_Success column. The number of eggs per day was calculated by dividing the total number of eggs produced by the duration of the assay (recorded in the Eggs_per_day column).