Culture Journal, Species: Brachionus plicatilis

General
Species:  Brachionus plicatilis
Species description:  L type rotifer
Culture source:  Reed's Mariculture www.reed-store.com
Culture Establishment Date:  Sept 2, 2011 (died out at Christmas due to neglect).  Fresh culture started April 5, 2012.
Continuation Date:  July 5, 2012.

Culturing Vessel Details
Salinity:  1.014
Temperature:    Ambient room temp of about 74-76F
pH:  Not tested

Vessel description:  1 gallon fish bowls to start.  Then (2) 5 gallon salt pails with lids set on top to help with evaporation.   Currently using 3.5L grey buckets with clear lids.
Lighting description:  Ambient natural and ambient room fluorescent
Lighting cycle:  14 hours light, 10 hours dark
Aeration description:  Rigid airline open end.  Gentle, mild bubbling.

Methodologies
Split methodology:  Day 1 - decant top 1/6 clean culture, dump rest of culture, gently clean bucket (no disinfectants), return 1/6 clean culture, add fresh saltwater to make 1/3 bucket volume.  Day 2 - add 1/3 bucket volume to make 2/3 total volume.  Day 3 - same as Day 2 to make 3/3 total volume.  Day 4 - repeat starting at "Day 1".
Culture medium description:  Rotifers fed about 2.25 mL RotiGrow Plus per liter of culture water split into 2 daily feedings.  Water is still barely green at the next feeding.  A ClorAm-X solution is made using 4 tsp ClorAm-X and enough water to make 250 mL of solution.  The ClorAm-X solution is used in equal amounts of RG+ at each feeding. 
Cell count:  Not counted. 
Reference links:  

Additional Information

Notes: 

Sept 2, 2011 (first day):

 
 
Sept 3 (split culture, added water volume):

 
 
Sept 20 (first harvesting):

 
 
Sept 23 (current setup, increasing water volume in 2 gallon bowl, will eventually be moved to 5 gallon aquarium):

I had not been using an ammonia detoxifier with the rotifers so I started adding AmQuel+ at the same rate as RotiGrow+.  IE: If I add 1 mL RG+ I add 1 mL AQ+.  I haven't tested the ammonia level.

I found out three days ago that I am supposed to be feeding the rotifers small amounts several times per day rather than one large feeding in the morning.  I also learned that rotifers will feed in the dark where I was keeping the water fairly clean overnight thinking the algae would just foul the water.  I also started using AmQuel in the tanks in equal amounts to food; 1 mL RotiGrow+ and 1 mL AmQuel.
 
Well, I tell ya!  Population explosion!!!  Yesterday the water was tea colored from the rotifers, today it is brown with rotifers.  I can't even see through the 2 gallon fish bowl because there are so many rotifers.  The 5 gallon tank is not nearly as dense.  I just scoped the rotifers in the 2 gallon tank and at least 75% of carrying eggs.  I just might crash it after all...
 
I will take some pics tomorrow if it is sunny tomorrow so there is enough light coming in the window to see the rotifers.

So I did end up partially crashing the one culture.  Shortly after the above post I started feeding the one 5 gallon tank 3 mL RotiGrow+ over 3 feedings per day with an equal amount of AmQuel.  I was not harvesting, and I was not doing any waterchanges.  The culture crashed somewhere around Oct 10th.  I took the lid off to feed and the culture stunk like death (we all know that smell heh).  I removed 30% of the water siphoning out all the gunk on the bottom including all the little dead bodies.  I added back half the water I removed, added an extra dose of AmQuel, and fed the tank 0.5 mL RotiGrow+.  This saved the culture.  I topped the tank up the rest of the way about 5 days later.  It took about a week for the culture to bounce back.
 
Around this same time I transferred the 2 gallon culture into another 5 gallon tank.  I continued to maintain these cultures by feeding 2 mL RotiGrow+ per day and the same amount AmQuel.  I failed to remember to do any waterchanges (I'm not harvesting at all).  One of these cultures crashed completely (the one from the 2 gallon bowl) on Nov 1.
 
On Nov 1 I moved the culture station to the new fish room.  I split the one good culture 50/50 so there was about 2 gallons in each 5 gallon tank.  I added another 50% fresh saltwater to make a total of about 3 gallons.  I continue to feed them 2 mL RotiGrow+ per day and the AmQuel.  This is where they sit today.  Today I will top up the tanks to the full 4.75 gallons or so.
 
I will start to maintain the cultures properly...I'm just not totally sure how to do this.  I think I will start off by removing 30% of the cultures once per week and replacing with fresh saltwater.  Maybe I need to do this more often, I am not sure.
 
Feel free to chime in with advice! 

Brine shrimp invading my culture!  Ack!  Once culture has a couple dozen adults easily visible, the other has fewer, but both cultures are infected.  Will sieve them out in the next couple days.

I just did a 30% waterchange on each tank and sieved the Artemia out.  I used a reusable coffee filter so it should have caught eggs too.  I didn't clean out the bottom of the tanks though so I may have missed some Artemia eggs.
 
The tank on the left has a much smaller population as I did crappy job splitting the culture on the right when the one on the left crashed a week ago.  That's the return line for my broodstock system running vertical in front of the tanks.  This is how the tanks look just before I feed them.  They are hungry.
 
I will try to start doing twice weekly waterchanges on the rotifer tanks.

Conventional wisdom is that you need to remove 25-33% of your culture water and rotifers DAILY. Replace with clean saltwater. In this way, you won't crash, and your cultures will stay "young".  Young rotifers (0-2 days old) reproduce every 18 hours.  3 days and older do not reproduce.  Removing a quarter to a third or so of the population daily, consistently removes older ones while the younger ones keep reproducing and replacing themselves.
 
Love the marble lid handle!

Ohhhhhh......!!!  Thanks for clearing that up Kathy!  I had read about this 25-33% daily harvesting many times, but thought that was just to keep the population down.  I get it now.  That's a lot of work...and a lot of saltwater!

Ya, I filter, dilute, bleach and dechlorinate my used broodstock water change water, then use it for the rotifers and other cultures.  Works for me.

Kathy, you have a crap load of good ideas1  I sediment filter (pour through 200 micron filter sock) and dilute water from my reefs for the broodstock system.  Bleaching is smart as a treatment for cultures.  Time to find (a reasonable amount of!) sodium thiosulfate!

 
Well,…I do like to be cheap and recycle when possible.

New culture methods recorded in the DataSheet above.
 
I read the rotifer section today in Hoff's Plankton Culture Manual and decided to lower the air amount.  I thought that the rougher you tumbled the rotifers the higher density you could keep so I had it turned way up.  Hoff recommends just enough air to provide just enough circulation to keep the food suspended.  This is actually very little air, so I'm trying this out.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Last I heard, Gresh recommended quite a bit more air flow than that. I have mine turned up.

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

In my experience, my cultures would become contaminated with bacterial blooms with very little air flow.  I probably have 5 to 10 bubbles per second bubbling my half gallon glass jars and I've been able to keep my cultures going for years now.

Yes, you guys are right, it seems more air is better.  I didn't try the low air method for very long before I noticed the density dropping.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

The old thinking (and outdated) is to use just enough air to keep the culture moving as so you don't knock the eggs of the rotifers.

We do not subscribe to that and put ours on a near boil

It would be fine if you added oxygen as so to keep the DO up.

 
Yes, this seems to work much better for me as well!

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Here is a pic of the density I'm getting with my "lazy man method".  This is straight out of the bucket.  This is the scoop I kept as a starter when I dumped the bucket.  The water is clear of food in the pic. I realized this density is costing me over $1 per day though, so I'm thinking I might cut down on the feeding. There are so many rotifers in the water that I can't see through 3" of the culture when the water is clear of food.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]