Rotifer Culture

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• 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

• 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

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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.

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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".   
 

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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.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Rotifers in action:
 

 
 
 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Tal, for the IA RotiferDiet, are you refering to the Reef Nutrition line or the RotiferDiet 3600 line?  They are of different concentration.

I use the Rotifer Diet HD: http://www.reed-mariculture.com/microalgae/rotiferdiet.asp

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

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.

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."

you guys and your refrigerated algaes..... yuck... 

Awesome work tal! you got it up at your site as well?    

Pelagically yours,
~J      

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."

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. 

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?

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

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?

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."

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

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?

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

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

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

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.

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.

Isn't the idea of keeping the bubble count low, to keep the ph low so that the ammonia is not so toxic?  Can you expand on your belief regarding how much air should but injected?
 
Thanks

Not how I've heard it play out over the years, it was a long time myth that too much movement could knock eggs of rotifers.
 
BTW, Gresham Hendee from Reed Mariculture Inc here   I'll be commenting on how we do things.
 
For our massive rotifer systems we:
aerate the heck out of them (read: BOIL)
inject O2
continually feed RG
Continually dose Cloram-x in a 1:1 ratio with RG (ask us for the formula)
daily 50% harvest.. at times 70% harvest
system runs ~5K per ml but can be pushed to ~10K per ml when needed.
 
If you are using paste for rotifers, Cloram-X is a must.  That eliminates ammonia thus giving you no reason to suppress the PH.

Thanks for sharing Gresh! I started this thread a while ago when I was new to things. I need to update it.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

  Oh no, was I necroposting ? ? ?  sorry

Not at all. You just reminded me that I needed to make an update to the original post, which I have done.

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"Making captive breeding easier."

OK, so the suggestion is to use alot of cloram-x..equal doses of paste and coralm-x (I am asking =) )
 
The idea is the use something like cloram-x to control the ammonia and airiate the heck out of the water to allow densities to rise.  correct?
 
Now if you wanted to keep a passive culture in place (i.e. maintenance culture(s)) that you do not need currently and are not trying to acheive a high density, but high survival and low maintenance...suggestions?

You have to mix the CloramX (it's a powder). The dosage that Gresham gave me a long time ago (and I can no longer find the original) is 16 teaspoons of CloramX per 1 liter of mix-up water. Then you dose the mix-up water at an equal ratio to algae paste. I just use a 1 liter water bottle with an eyedropper (and in fact, I tend to dose CloramX at a 2:1 ratio).
 
Good to know about the aeration. I'll turn mine up today. Thanks, Gresh!
 
I do the same things with my maintenance cultures. I just lower the total water volume of the culture.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

IMO regardless of your intentions, the method should remain the same as far as culturing rotifers.... the only thing I would change is the feed rate.  Your culture will only get as dense as the feed source allows.  Cloram-X should be used at all times.
 
Andy we've changed the ratio I am pretty sure. The RG series needed it to be switched.  I will get the ratio later today, right now I am dealing with getting 3oz Otohime packets stocked up for retail release shortly
 
FWIW if you really need info from me, email is best:  greshamATreedmariculture.com
I try to come check here often but the next few months will be hectic so i doubt I will make it here to respond. 

Good luck with marketing the top-dressed oto. Every fish I have show interest, even when they are way too big to take the feed. Good stuff.
 
Thanks!

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

That's next.  I'm working on Otohime at the moment.  TDO won't be released till the entire line is released and that date is TBA
 
FWIW we're doing A,B1,B2,C1,C2,EP1 and EP2 in TDO.  EP1 is 1.7mm and EP2 is 2.3mm so there will be large sizes for large broodstock. 

Nice to hear on the EP1 and EP2 Gresh!

Pelagically yours,
~J      

OK, so wanting to get a good idea of paste to cloram-x...just ordered some.  Don't think it shipped today, so I wont see it until next week...so ultimate will ahve to due, although the last two cultures are going down hill.  I added some extra Ulitmate to the bucket I turned the air up and they look like they are all goners..so down to one now.
 
Will try it the way you suggest gresh once I have the cloram-x, assuming I have any rotifers left.  just one culture still running and it is way to short on count to try to split, although I suppose I could try a very small container and see if I can get some density in there to build.
 
In anycase, the question is...so we are trying to match the actual paste to the cloram-x mixture?  So just a hypothetical..if I put 16 tsp of paste in a 1L for dilution and a cloram-x mix of 16 tsp to 1L, then I would dose both in a 1:1. correct?

email is bet is you have a time senstive question.  I just happen to be on hold so I hit the forum
 
no not correct.  You do not dilute the IA "paste".  1 drop of paste (its liquid, not paste) to 1 drop of the Cloram-X mixture.  Like I said earlier, I am pretty sure the formula has changed so 16 tsp may not be the number now.

Well, nicely so my cloram-x showed up today (saturday)..odd but happy.  Now the question is what ration should I use?  I will use the 16 tsp for now.

Good luck, Caesra! I hope it works better for you.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

So far I have two running that seem to be doing ok.  following all of your guy's advice so far and things seem to be improving.  Still running one at low bps and one at high...the lower one seems to be doing better in reproduction, but they are both going good.

OK I thought I had posted this but I cannot seem to find the info on this. I see it is a 2:1 ratio of the Paste to ClorAm-x but that is the powder that you mix. What if you are using the bottle of the Liquid as that is what I am using. Not sure if it would be the same but it seems as it would as it is a 16oz bottle and that seems to be what everyone is mixing up. I an dosing 15 drops of ClorAm-x to 30 drops of  Rotigrow. If this is not right can someone post what I should be mixing as I do this twice a day to feed the rotifers and that is per 5g bucket.

I haven't used the pre-mixed stuff so I'm not sure.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Hi all,
Sorry to be susing this thread to make some questions but i realy need some advice, cause someone said, " the more i read the more i missunderstand some rules of culturing this guys ".
I want to try and breed clownfisehs, my pair is hatching for some months now, and i have already all the stuff i think i need for them:
- Ive already bubbling and geting greener a 7x 2Liter Bottles with Nannochloropsis, and im waiting to get a sample of rotifer type L.
 
- Im thinking on culturing in a 5G Bucket with 4G of culture water at 1.020, with a slow bubbling rigid tube ( 3-6 bps?).
 
I think i should start using the double of amount of the water in wich the rotifer arrives here, and then doubling each day the amount till i get 4 G, is this right?
 
My serious questions are: Do i need or is advisable to get rotigro+ and cloramx- or RG complete, to add to the phyto or this is enough for feeding the rot´s?
 
How much phyto shall i give daily? the same amount of the water i take every day?
Shall i toilet the rot´s i sieve every day when replacing 25% of the water or i shall put them back in culture bucket?
 
If i understood correctly you guys say i shouldnt clean the muck on the bottom of the culture? Some say, just clean all the bucket once a week and put new SW...
 
Plz guys, Be patient and just try to answer all this questions and if possible give me some advices on how to be sucessfull on culturing this rot´s.
 
Ty

If you're feeding live phyto you don't need to feed RGrow too. I prefer using RGrow instead of live because it's easier and cheaper over the long run.
 
How much phyto you need to feed will depend on which product you use and how dense your culture is. Ideally, you want to feed enough so the water doesn't go clear between feedings. Drip feeding is the best way to feed but I just feed twice per day, 12 hours apart, and have no problems.
 
I only harvest rotifers when I need them or when someone else wants some. I know this is not the best thing to do but it works for me. About once a month I will "refresh" my cultures by siphoning out 1/2 of the culture and add it to a new bucket 1/2 full with fresh SW. 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."