Alright everyone,
Andy has asked that I help out with discussion in regards to phytoplankton culture as it is more of a strong suit for me (that and I love chattin about it). I know there are a ton of questions, answers, basics, and well.... detail devils if you will. In any case feel free to bring in questions and I will try to find the answers to the best of my ability. I really hope that some of you will share your own observations as well because there really is no right or wrong way of doing things! Many of you know my interests and background but for those of you who do not I'll give you a quick intro:
My name is Joe (and I work in a button factory....)
I have around 6 years of experience in the marine aquarium hobby with the majority of it (5 years) spent ignoring the aquarium and spending most of my time playing with plankton. I truly love plankton, algae, copepods, rotifers, cilates, bacteria... it amazes me how much life is in such a small package. Living inland I have had to deal with obvious problems when trying to find new species to play with but I have learned to make due ordering plankters from educational supply shops, hobbyist supply shops, and spending a great deal of time emailing and calling people begging for specimens. In no specific order and not complete list, some of the species I have played with are:
Algae:
Nannochloropsis
Dunaliella
Gymnodinium (various)
Periodinium (various)
Isochrysis
Tetraselmis
Chaetocerous
Oxyrhiis
Rhodomonas (one of my personal favorites)
Chlamydymonas
Zooplankters:
Tigriopus californicus
Tigriopus japonicus
Parvocalanus sp.
Pseudocalanus (various)
Tisbe
Acartia tonsa
Oncea venusta
Mysidopsis bahia (now americamysis)
Gammarids (various)
Brachionis
Pseudomma sp.
Siriella affinis
Siriella aequiremis
Heteromysis sp.
Australomysis
While it may seem like a very long list, I find myself wanting to try more and more species. Do bear in mind I am by no means an expert and do experience quite a large rate of failure in my cultures. Each failure results in me examining what I did and hopefully improving my methods and skill (though it does not always work that way).
I will hopefully be taking part in this workshop more to learn as well, as I have very limited experience with Apocyclops and cannot wait to see what the future holds!! When things settle down (just got back from the workshop and have a lot on my plate) I will try and post up a general primer on algal culture and some images of my culture stations to illustrate how I keep the green stuff green, the red stuff red, and the brown stuff brown. Until then please feel free to post questions and I will attempt to answer them the best I can!
Pelagicly yours,
~J