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•  Rotifer Culture

  Change Page: 123 > | Showing page 1 of 3, messages 1 to 20 of 47 - powered by ASPPlayground.NET Forum Trial Version Author Message Fishtal Total Posts : 5467 Scores: 37 Reward points : 2908 Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Waterford, MI, US Status: offline MBI: 585 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Rotifer Culture Wednesday, October 21, 2009 7:00 PM (permalink) 5 Culturing Live Rotifers   Live rotifers are the most common "first food" for larval fishes.  Unfortunately, rotifers are only nutritious if they are fed nutritious food.  First we will deal with culturing protocols and then move on to enrichment.     Things you'll need:   5 Gallon buckets Flexible airline tubing Rigid airline tubing Air pump Rotifer starter culture Food (Instant Algae, live Phytoplankton, etc.) 60CC Syringe (Available at your local pharmacy.) 120 micron strainer 53 micron strainer     First, a little info on rotifers before I get into the specifics of technique.   Rotifers hatch in 12hrs and are sexually mature at 18hrs Female lifespan at 25degC is 6-8days (males only 2days.) Largely classified as into two strains L & S strain (B. plicatillis & rotundiformis respectively.) Brachionus Plicatillis is the most common Best growth occurs at salinity between 1.007-1.014 Abrupt salinity change of 1.007 or more will cause mortality Optimum temp is 18-25degC  (Room temp in the fish room works well for me.) pH should be between 6.5-8.0 Free Ammonia below 1mg/l For larval feeding suggest feeding nannochloropsis with 20% tetraselmis for optimal HUFA content.  "Rotifer Diet HD" from Reed Mariculture is what I use. Rotifers do not need light to grow   Culturing Method   There are many ways to raise rotifers, the following is how I do it.    Step 1)  Obtain a starter culture from a local source if possible.  Starter cultures are available online as well:  [link=http://www.mariculturetechnology.com/Foods.htm%3C/a%3E%3C/font%3E]http://www.mariculturetec...htm%3C/a%3E%3C/font%3E[/link]  Step 2)  Place the starter culture in a 5 gallon bucket.  Add enough fresh saltwater with a specific gravity of 1.015 to double the water volume in the bucket.  Feed with IA using the recipe below. Step 3)  Insert a rigid airline tube connected to an air pump to provide aeration.     Step 4)  On day 2, add enough saltwater to double the volume again.  Increase the water volume again on the next day.   I find that maintaining about 4 gallons of water volume in a 5 gallon bucket works well.   Rotifer feeding protocols when using IA Rotifer Diet:   Dilute concentrated IA by adding 50ml to a 2L bottle and filling with fresh SW at 1.015SG.   Feed 10ml per gallon of culture size, twice a day.  ie; if you have a 4 gallon culture, add 40ml of the diluted concentrate twice a day.  EDIT: Due to technological advancements since I started this thread I'd like to make some updates. Reed Mariculture has released a new product called RotiGrow Plus. http://rotifersolutions.com/?page_id=231 In a few words, this is an improved formulation of the IA Rotifer Diet specifically targeted at raising rotifers. I dilute RG+ in the same way as the IA RD and use the same feeding protocols. I've found the RG+ to be superior to the previous product.   You NEVER want to allow the rotifer culture to become completely clear.  It is absolutely necessary to keep the rotifers fed constantly to obtain a dense culture. Without a dense culture, you may wake up one day and find that there is no more food left for your fry.  Feeding smaller amounts, more frequently, is optimal. Rotifers should be harvested every few days by using the 120 and 53 micron sieves.  The 120 micron sieve will strain out the larger particles and the 53 micron sieve will collect the rotifers:   After a few days you will notice a build up of detritus on the bottom of the bucket.  This should be removed either by direct siphoning or stirring the culture before straining it. Harvesting:  Using a water pitcher I remove culture water and pour it through the sieves and back into the culture vessel.   Refreshing:  Following the procedure above, 50% of the water is drained into a waste bucket instead of into the culture vessel and replaced with fresh salt water.    This information is a summary of what I've learned from my own experience as well as knowledge obtained from reading "Plankton Culture Manual - Frank Hoff" and "Breeder's Guide - M. Wittenrich".        Enrichment   After rotifers are harvested they need to be enriched before using them as food for the larval fish.  Highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA's) are of prime importance to the survival of marine fish larvae.  Since rotifers themselves offer little nutritional value on their own they need to be enriched with HUFA's.  The fatty acids, EPA and DHA, are the most important, with DHA the most essential.    Nannochloropsis and T-ISO phytoplanktons are commonly used.  Nannochloropsis contains high levels of EPA and T-ISO contains high levels of DHA so a mix of both is commonly used for enrichment.   The ALGAMAC enrichment products are also a great alternative to IA.   After harvesting, back-flush the 53 micron sieve with clean water using a turkey baster.  I usually do this into a small plastic food container.  After you have all the rotifers in the container add the enrichment and allow them to feed for 8-12 hours, depending on the instructions from the manufacturer.  The specific type of enrichment you use will depend on the needs of the type of larvae you're working with.   Once the rotifers are enriched they should be rinsed with clean tank water before being added to the larval tank. <message edited by Fishtal on Monday, July 11, 2011 11:30 PM> http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage "Making captive breeding easier."   #1 Fishtal Total Posts : 5467 Scores: 37 Reward points : 2908 Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Waterford, MI, US Status: offline MBI: 585 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Re:Rotifer Culture Tuesday, November 24, 2009 2:42 PM (permalink) 0 Rotifers in action:         http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage "Making captive breeding easier."   #2 clownfishman Total Posts : 13 Scores: 0 Reward points : 57 Joined: 12/15/2009 Location: Toronto, ON, CA Status: offline MBI: 0 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Rotifer Culture Tuesday, December 15, 2009 8:28 PM (permalink) 0 Tal, for the IA RotiferDiet, are you refering to the Reef Nutrition line or the RotiferDiet 3600 line?  They are of different concentration.   #3 Fishtal Total Posts : 5467 Scores: 37 Reward points : 2908 Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Waterford, MI, US Status: offline MBI: 585 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Re:Rotifer Culture Tuesday, December 15, 2009 8:41 PM (permalink) 0 I use the Rotifer Diet HD: http://www.reed-mariculture.com/microalgae/rotiferdiet.asp http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage "Making captive breeding easier."   #4 Umm_fish? Total Posts : 2835 Scores: 10 Reward points : 953 Joined: 11/4/2009 Location: Boulder, CO, US Status: offline MBI: 775 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado Re:Rotifer Culture Thursday, December 17, 2009 8:29 AM (permalink) 0 For my rots I use a more expensive food, Reed's RotiGrow Plus, but it's fantastic. I've had no culture crashes in the months since starting with it, and the rots don't need enrichments before they get used. My cultures average out to about 50/mL at 1 mL of rot food per gallon of culture given twice per day (at SG 1.025) without a whole lot of effort. I've just started increasing the food a little to see if I get more concentrated cultures.   #5 Fishtal Total Posts : 5467 Scores: 37 Reward points : 2908 Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Waterford, MI, US Status: offline MBI: 585 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Re:Rotifer Culture Thursday, December 17, 2009 10:12 AM (permalink) 0 I guess I should've mentioned that I also use Reed's T-ISO.  I switch between the two products.  One in the morning and the other at night. http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage "Making captive breeding easier."   #6 THEJRC Total Posts : 1006 Scores: 4 Reward points : 555 Joined: 10/23/2009 Location: Colorado Springs, CO, US Status: offline MBI: 210 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Rotifer Culture Thursday, December 17, 2009 6:52 PM (permalink) 0 you guys and your refrigerated algaes..... yuck...  Awesome work tal! you got it up at your site as well?     Pelagically yours, ~J         #7 Fishtal Total Posts : 5467 Scores: 37 Reward points : 2908 Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Waterford, MI, US Status: offline MBI: 585 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Re:Rotifer Culture Thursday, December 17, 2009 6:57 PM (permalink) 0 Originally Posted by THEJRC you guys and your refrigerated algaes..... yuck...  Awesome work tal! you got it up at your site as well?     I use the IA for rotifers as it's easier for me.  I do use live phytoplankton for greenwater.   Actually, I pulled this from my site. http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage "Making captive breeding easier."   #8 Umm_fish? Total Posts : 2835 Scores: 10 Reward points : 953 Joined: 11/4/2009 Location: Boulder, CO, US Status: offline MBI: 775 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado Re:Rotifer Culture Thursday, December 17, 2009 9:46 PM (permalink) 0 Originally Posted by you guys and your refrigerated algaes..... yuck... Ah, you crack me up, Joe. I need to get a new bag of my goop if I ever get over this throat thing. (Back to the doc today after a whole day lost to pain. Back on steroids again so feeling better again.) I'll give you some to play with. It's really nasty in a lovely high-HUFA sort of way.    #9 Gomojoe Total Posts : 6 Scores: 0 Reward points : 45 Joined: 5/19/2010 Location: , MI, US Status: offline MBI: 0 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Re:Rotifer Culture Wednesday, May 19, 2010 8:12 AM (permalink) 0 So what difficulties do you guys run into using the live phyto vs. the refrigerated kind?  I would imagine that the refrigerated kinds are more concentrated and probably a good blend of algeas for good nutrition, but if you are already cultivating live phtyo, why buy the other stuff?   #10 Umm_fish? Total Posts : 2835 Scores: 10 Reward points : 953 Joined: 11/4/2009 Location: Boulder, CO, US Status: offline MBI: 775 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado Re:Rotifer Culture Wednesday, May 19, 2010 9:25 AM (permalink) 0 Live phyto is a lot more work and is subject to culture crashes. And because of that, honestly, is just about as expensive as algae paste. Also, you don't have a lot of quality control on a live phyto culture grown in your house.  Paste algae is expensive-ish (but see above). Quality control is good. You probably should use an ammonia blocker with it (something like ClorAmX). It's just flat-out easier to maintain rot cultures with paste. --Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886   #11 Caesra Total Posts : 317 Scores: 2 Reward points : 195 Joined: 7/4/2011 Location: Cherry Valley, IL, US Status: offline MBI: 80 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Rotifer Culture Thursday, July 7, 2011 7:20 PM (permalink) 0 Looking for tips on this topic.  I seemed to be having problems and I read and hear lost of different techniques on rotifers but I seem to keep having an issue.   Last attempt to keep I seemed to be doing fine for about two weeks, then the bucket started requiring alot of paste to keep it green.  The rotifers were being harvested every day, roughly 25%.  Eventually I could not see any rotifers in the culture, yet the bucket seemed to have no issue consuming the algea.  I looked for other life, such as pods, but did nto see any.   I gave this another whirl, this time setting up the rotifers in another room, as well as in the room I had them in origianlly.  We started off well, and this time around I actually started up several different buckets.  All have been doing fine up till a few days ago, when all of the cultures seemed to be suffering from teh same thing again.  Rotifer counts are dropping (was around 20ish/ml now down to probably 7-8/ml) and the buckets seem to have no problems consuming the algea.  While the cultures were doing well, i setup several differing types, such as 2L bottles, 2.5g pails, 5g pails and a glass tank, just so I could learn.  Seeing as how they all seemed to be dropping off around the same time, all I can assume is I am doing something in general wrong.   I tried doing partial water changes this last weekend on two of the buckets.  But there seems to be no difference in the result with the water change or not.  I am using Reeds rotigrow plus.  Bubble rate is roughly 2-3/second on the 2.5g buckets..slight higher on the 5g and glass tank and slightly lower on the 2L.  Some of the buckets have light for 14 hours, some do not have light barely at all.  Salinity is at 1.019.   Advice?   #12 Fishtal Total Posts : 5467 Scores: 37 Reward points : 2908 Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Waterford, MI, US Status: offline MBI: 585 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Re:Rotifer Culture Thursday, July 7, 2011 7:24 PM (permalink) 0 Sounds like you're doing everything right. I need to update this thread now that I'm using RotiGrow. http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage "Making captive breeding easier."   #13 Umm_fish? Total Posts : 2835 Scores: 10 Reward points : 953 Joined: 11/4/2009 Location: Boulder, CO, US Status: offline MBI: 775 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado Re:Rotifer Culture Thursday, July 7, 2011 11:06 PM (permalink) 0 How often do you sieve the rots out into new buckets? You do have to move them to new homes every once in a while. --Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886   #14 Caesra Total Posts : 317 Scores: 2 Reward points : 195 Joined: 7/4/2011 Location: Cherry Valley, IL, US Status: offline MBI: 80 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Rotifer Culture Friday, July 8, 2011 7:49 PM (permalink) 0 Well, these are the topics I can't seem to get the same opinion from two different people.  Thus far, outside of starting a new culture, I have not.  Some people say clean every day, some people say once a week, some say change to new water, some say do a water change, some once a week, some once a month, some never. =)   I guess one of my first questions is how/why does the algea disappear if there is nothing (i.e. rotifers) to consume it?   #15 Caesra Total Posts : 317 Scores: 2 Reward points : 195 Joined: 7/4/2011 Location: Cherry Valley, IL, US Status: offline MBI: 80 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Rotifer Culture Friday, July 8, 2011 11:40 PM (permalink) 0 Well, it is looking like all the cultures crashed.  I have no clue what I am doing wrong.  There are a tiny amount of pods left in most of the cultures, but they are in a very sad state.   Every culture, no matter when started, type of container, what room, etc... appears to have crashed in the last 24 hours.  No water changes, I increased food slightly as I thought maybe I was not feeding enough and this was causing more males to be produced causing a decrease in the population.   This is basically the scenario from the last culture: 1) Culture arrived from Reed 6/29 2) Divided culture into two 2.5 gallon buckets 1.020 water, bubbles at a rate of about 3-4/second 3) Fed with Roti grow plus until very very light green through 5ml vial, very noticably green looking through water..could still see bottom (density definately was increasing quite a bit) 4) Allowed to sit, repeating step 3 every 8-12 hours as needed to maintain 5) Day 3, started two 2L cultures, one from each bucket. Feed the same as 2.5g 6) Day 4, started sieving roughly 25% of the water volume with coffee filter.  Water went back into bucket as it left seive.  food fed to DTs. 7) Day 5, allowed all buckets to sit, witht just feeding. 8) Day 6, started new culture in glass 10g.  Fed same as others 9) Day 7, started new culture in another 2.5g from one culture.  Sieved other for DT feeding. Again using coffee filter. 10) Day 8, started seeing substantial decline in population in all cultures.  2Ls crashed..nothign noticable in them. 11) Day 9, started new culture in a two other 5gs in diff room. One from each of the origianl 2.5gs 12)  Day 10, Everything looks to be crashing. End of day (now..everything is either crashed or almost crashed).  1 5g bucket seems to ahve a density of roughly 2 per ml and two of the 2.5gs are around the same.  Everything looks pretty much empty.   All new cultures were started with same water @ 1.020-1.019 salinity.  All fresh water from new mix...aged.   This is frustrating..as everyone says this is so easy.  I can figure out how to raise bangaii on 100% frozen food but I cant keep rotifers alive for two weeks. -flame   #16 Umm_fish? Total Posts : 2835 Scores: 10 Reward points : 953 Joined: 11/4/2009 Location: Boulder, CO, US Status: offline MBI: 775 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado Re:Rotifer Culture Saturday, July 9, 2011 9:14 AM (permalink) 0 Please sieve what you have left into new containers. You have maybe hundreds of thousands of animals living (emitting waste the whole time) and dying (and sinking to the bottom) in there. In addition, any algae that's going uneaten is sinking to the bottom. Ammonia builds up and kills. You really can't just expect one bucket to run forever, especially when you start it from scratch and don't have a bacterial cycle going (and that may be the real problem).   When you sieve them out, use tubing and try not to suck the muck off the bottom of the bucket. Unless, of course, the culture has crashed completely. Then suck up the muck and hope you get some resting rots.   Do you have access to a microscope? It does help to see what's in the water with the rots. --Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886   #17 cmpenney Total Posts : 2772 Scores: 8 Reward points : 1443 Joined: 7/18/2005 Location: Reading, MI, US Status: offline MBI: 70 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Re:Rotifer Culture Saturday, July 9, 2011 9:58 AM (permalink) 0 Eric, I seem to have a terrible time keeping rot cultures too. Though I admit it has a lot to do with the fact that I don't care for them as well as I should. Chad Penney - MBI Council Agis quod Adis   #18 Caesra Total Posts : 317 Scores: 2 Reward points : 195 Joined: 7/4/2011 Location: Cherry Valley, IL, US Status: offline MBI: 80 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Rotifer Culture Saturday, July 9, 2011 11:10 AM (permalink) 0 This was essentially what I did at day 9 and 10.  I can certianly do it again, but I would expect those two cultures to be ok if that was the issue, which of course they are not.   I tested one of the older cultures and it did have an ammonia level of 2.0.  Very little waste or junk on bottom though.  I have been using the Ultimate ammonia remover from Reed, but I guess it isn't doing the best.  so this goes back to my original attempt to culture.  Originally (1st attempt about a month ago) I was just doing a 25% water change daily when I harvested to ensure that I didn't have ammonia build up.  It was suggested by a local reefer here to not do that, as it would cause a crash.   So I guess going back to the original post here, for 'Refreshing' how often do you do it?  Are there any concerns as it was suggested that a sudden ph shift will kill the rotifers.  Do you use an ammonia control agent?   I don't have access to a microscope, unfortunately.  I told me wife a few weeks ago, guess what the kids are getting for xmas =P   penny, right now I seem to be spending more time trying to figure out what I am doing wrong with the rots than I am on all of my other stuff combined.  In general I probably spend more time messing around with my fish stuff than I should.   #19 GreshamH Total Posts : 757 Scores: 16 Reward points : 600 Joined: 4/27/2011 Location: SF Bay Area, CA Status: offline MBI: 0 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Rotifer Culture Monday, July 11, 2011 4:45 PM (permalink) 0 bump the bubble rate WAY up.  I'd try using an airstone as well.   Ultimate is OK but Cloram-x is much better for what you need to do giving how you can dial it in, and it's only Chloram-X.   25% water change keeps them young and viable.  Older ones only eat your algae and produce waste, but do nothing for expanding your culture.  Rotifer eggs are also great bundles of nutrition and older rotifers do not produce eggs.   #20 Online Bookmarks Sharing: Facebook Digg Google del.icio.us StumbleUpon Change Page: 123 > | Showing page 1 of 3, messages 1 to 20 of 47 - powered by ASPPlayground.NET Forum Trial Version

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