Culture Journal, Species: Brachionus plicatilis

General
Species:  Brachionus plicatilis   
Species description:  Rotifer - L strain
Culture source (link if possible):  Mike Taylor, CORA Frag Swap - his original was from livebrineshrimp.com
If algae, CCMP # (Optional): 
http://ccmp.bigelow.edu/
Culture Establishment Date:  9/18/11 
Continuation Date:  12/18/11 (is this the date you had the culture for 3 months?)

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity:  1.015
Temperature:  74
pH: 8.3

Vessel description:  5 gallon tank initially, moved to 5 gallon buckets
Lighting description:  Ambient fluorescent shop lights
Lighting cycle:  8 hours / day
Aeration description:  airstone initially, moved to airline tubing in one, airstone in the other bucket

Methodologies
Split methodology:  Removed 64 oz. of culture on 12/6 into new bucket, added 1.015 saltwater to original culture to bring volume back up and then doubled water volume of 2nd culture daily until up to ~4 gallons
Culture medium description:  Saltwater
Cell count: ~50/ml
Reference links:  

Additional Information
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Notes: 
Following Tal's guidelines for start-up of a rotifer culture, doubling water volume every day.  Feeding right now with PhytoFeast until I purchase RotiGrow.


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.

9/18 - Culture obtained, approx. 32 oz., placed in 5 gallon aquarium, added 32 oz. 1.015 saltwater, phytofeast, liquid chlor-amX
9/19 - Added 64 oz. 1.015 saltwater, phytofeast, liquid chlor-amX
9/20 - Added 128 oz. 1.015 saltwater, phytofeast, liquid chlor-amX
9/21 - Added 256 oz. 1.015 saltwater, phytofeast, liquid chlor-amx
 
I am not really keeping track of how much I'm feeding, just enough to keep water tinted - feeding twice/day. 
 
Tried to do a count today ~5/ml
 
I ordered some sieves and they should arrive tomorrow!  Just planning on feeding the coral until I have another use

9/22/11 - fed phytofeast and added chlor-amX
9/23/11 - concentration is increasing, took some pictures of the rotifers
This one decided to show us how her digestive system works during the photo shoot:

Close up of the cilia

Looks like she has an egg!

This was my first look at my rotifers up close - very exciting! 

9/23/11 - Took a picture of the 5 gallon set up of my culture in the shop

What kind of microscope do you have? Those are great pix!

Thanks Kathy! 
 
Unfortunately I don't own the microscope I used and didn't make note of the make or model - I'll take a look Monday and let you know!
 
Amanda

9/24/11 - Harvested ~64 oz., poured post filtration water back into culture and fed rotifers to our coral grow out tanks

 

The microscope I used is a Leitz Dialux 20 with a Pixera Pro 150 ES digital camera attachment.

So the culture has been up and running for over a month now.  I am seeing some swings in density, but right now it seems very healthy!  I have ~50 / ml.
I started using Nite-Out instead of the liquid Chlor-AmX about two weeks ago - no negative affects were  noted in my culture.
I am harvesting about every other day and feeding coral with my rotifer bounty!

On 11/14 I moved my culture into a 5 gallon bucket and fashioned a PVC/standpipe contraption as pictured in the following link:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/new-rotifer-culture-container-from-apbreed
I saw this set-up during MACNA and thought I would give it a shot.  
I think my first mistake was using polyfill (rotifer sponge?) instead of the Rotifer Floss.  I also noticed I tend not to take as good of care of my culture when it's in a bucket vs. an aquarium.  It's more difficult for me to scrape the gunk off the sides in the bucket and taking out the standpipe for rinsing was a pain.  As a result, my culture has suffered and now my density is only ~15/ml.  I am thinking the polyfill might have sucked up the rotifers in addition to their waste.  So, tomorrow I am going to move them back into their aquarium and I'll probably split the culture while I'm at it.
While it's disappointing, at least I don't have any larvae to feed yet so I can use this time to experiment!  
I'll take some pics of the bucket set-up tomorrow before I take it down.

Well, it's 11/27 and the 5 gallon bucket is still up and running.  Culture density is improving since I removed my mesh standpipe covered in polyfill (aka rotifer sucking sponge).  Now there is just an airline reaching the bottom of the bucket.  I think I am still going to move them...
 
Purchased these wee little ice cube trays to portion out my newly acquired RotiGrow+...hopefully the cubes come out easily!

On 12/6 I split the culture by removing ~64 oz. into a clean 5 gallon bucket.  I doubled the water volume daily until ~4 gallons was reached.  The new culture is not as plentiful yet, density is about ~15 / ml.  
 
I am feeding rotigrow+ now and using Chlor-amX.  The cube trays pictured above were an epic fail - I had to beat the trays against the table in order to get the cubes out.  Next time I'll try PAM as suggested by Gresham  I decided to flat pack the rest into ziploc baggies and will break off pieces as needed for feeding.
 
Below is a picture of the rotifer death trap discussed in post #10.  Lesson learned - don't use poly fill.

 
Here are pictures of my culture buckets, first one on the left, new split one on the right:

 
Buckets from the top:

 
Here is a pic of my rotifers taken 12-22-11, these later became coral food:

 
I still do not have any fish larvae to feed, but when I do I will be prepared!

I no longer have access to the schmancy microscope set up I had a few months ago so I purchased a Celestron 44340 recently.  Today was the first day I got to try it out.  Based on MBI report feedback, I was looking to take another micro pic of my culture, however I could not find any females left  I might have found a male, but not too sure.  Will post the pic later.
Interesting thing is the original culture bucket did not exhibit any bad odor, however the one I split into started smelling like sulfur yesterday.  
So dumped the 2nd culture today and still have the original bucket set up.  I would like to get these started again.  Is it possible to try and get the culture going again with potential cysts on the bottom?  Or would I be better off buying a new starter?

No harm in trying.

I purchased a new starter culture at the LEAR Frag Swap in February, put them into my 5 gallon bucket 2-26-12.  It was supposed to be Tisbe, however when I got the culture home I did not see any copepods in the bag.  Luckily, they were being co-cultured with rotifers and that is all I have left.  I have been checking in on them weekly with my microscope just to make sure the culture is still healthy.  It looks like there are ciliates in the culture too based on the size of the organisms and their speed.  Here are some pics:
Rotifers, one with an egg:

 
Rotifer male and female (is this how they mate?)

 
What is this?  Size comparison with rotifer.

 
Ciliates eating a dead rotifer:
Link to the video here: https://picasaweb.google....Tn4YQw?feat=directlink
 
So is the contamination okay going forward?  Or should I purchase a pure culture and start over?