The paper reports on the successful attempt of keeping at low-cost massive laboratory cultures of the Mediterranean splash-pool harpacticoid copepod Tigriopus fulvus. The life history traits of the Tuscanian strain, and the results of two preliminary bioassays monitoring T. fulvus survival in presence of compounds generally found in harbor dredged material (i.e. petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals), both suggest the possible use of this meiobentic species in ecotoxicology studies
