Culture Journal, Species: Brachionus plicatilis

General
Species:  Brachionus plicatilis
Species description:  Rotifers, large strain I believe
Culture source (link if possible):  Friend
If algae, CCMP # (ref http://ccmp.bigelow.edu/ ): 

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity:  35 to off the refractometer!
Temperature:  Room temp, 68` to 70`ish
Vessel description:  Salt bucket
Lighting description:  Home depot shop lights
Lighting cycle:  24/7
Aeration description: none 

Methodologies
Split methodology:  No method to the madness in my basement!

Culture medium description: 
I squirt in some nanno paste as the water clears, every few days or so.

Cell count:
 (if known) Very dense because I forget to harvest....

Reference links:  

Additional Information
Notes:  I have grown rotifers in buckets for years in my basement. I have a very lax method of growing them because I am convinced they can be grow in a toilet! Sometimes I forget about them for weeks, and then I check them, add some paste and they come back.

 

I am wondering if they even are rotifers anymore! I will try to get some micro photos of them to see if they are still rotifers!


You will be required to provide photographic evidence and as much detail as possible about your project in this thread.
If your thread does not contain detailed enough photos  and information the MBI Council will not be able to approve your reports.

Guys, how important do you feel it is to have pure cultures? My buckets have both visible copepods and I am sure other creatures. I am wondering if it is time to get some cysts and start a pure culture? Or I can try to isolate them using a few different sizes of strainers....

The goal is of course to get the cultures are "Mono" as possible but that is often hard and in some cases darn near impossible in our homes. Really documenting the attempt and the trials and tribulations is what is ultimately important here. Sharing your ups and down, failures and successes.

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

My rotifer cultures:
 

What is the PVC for?

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

I don't bubble, so I stir it up every once in a while. When I add a few drops of paste.
 
 

Just curious..Is there a reason why? Have you gotten better results this way?

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

No reason really. It is just because when I drop the paste in, it just sinks to the bottom. After I stir, the detritus and crapoola form the bottom settles quickly, and I can give my babies a snack pretty quickly. I am not really very dedicated to these cultures because they seem to grow better with less tinkering. So, the buckets have an inch or so of old paste, poop and detritus on the bottom. I think that is why I can get away with so much. The detritus has a great biofilm of bacteria which seems to filter the water. I never add anything except more ASW, fresh water, and paste.

Hmmm...Actually that kinda makes sense...

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

Kinda?
 
I have been doing it for a long time so I had to find ways to make it so I could go on vacation and all those other crazy things, like work and shower and stuff....
 
My mortgage company wants money every month! Greedy B word s!

Vacation? I don't know that word....

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

lol the stirring and letting it settle is an awesome idear actually when one thinks of the delicate nature of many plankters.  Consider guys how damaging an air buble is when it gets lodged within the carpace of a naupliar pod....
*shudders*
 
poor pod!!  Even so, the bacteria that settles in with less flow might be more of a benifit here.  Stirring dispatches the bacterioplankters into the column where they can be fed on by algal cell, rotifer, pod, and fish alike.  Interesting thoughts here.....

Pelagically yours,
~J