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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 11:10 AM
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I find it is hard to determine how well my O marina cultures are doing. A bright light through a jar of the culture does resolve into individual specs, but they never seem to take on a brown color between feedings. They get the lightest of green tint to the water, but the O marina seem to be white. Maybe I'm feeding too much, but I don't see detritus or uneaten algae settling to the bottom. I'm feeding about 5-7 drops of RGComplete to a gallon of culture twice a day. The A panamensis culture appears to be doing fine. It's been a week, and while I haven't seen a decline in pods, I haven't seen a dramatic increase in density either. I'm currently chalking that up to waiting 48 hours for the O marina cultures to beef up before I started feeding. I haven't started a culture journal for either since my club is currently going through the process of becoming an MBI portal site and the journal board on our forum only just got started. It's on my to do list though.
- David Gibson Denton, TX
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 11:17 AM
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They'll be white when you are shining a flashlight through them (it's reflected light). The brown that I see is in a white bucket under room lights. Part of it is likely the food that I'm feeding (it's mainly brown). But, 5-7 drops of RGComplete per gallon is not much for them. They eat a lot. I'm feeding 7 drops of food per gallon twice per day, and my food is three times more concentrated. So once your culture gets up to speed, you should be aiming for 21 drops (a little more than 1 mL) of food, twice per day. I would up the food quite a bit.
--Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 11:32 AM
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Ah. I'll do that then. I keep forgetting that the RGComplete is only a third the density of RG+. Means I'm underfeeding my rotifers too.
- David Gibson Denton, TX
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Thursday, November 3, 2011 6:19 PM
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In my case, I'm on my third try, this time in a five gallon bucket. First two cultures just died off using the 2 liter bottle method Jim uses. I'm using RG Complete, but going by the water tint and not a specific amount (might be my issue). My first two attempts lasted about two weeks, actually split the second culture and both crashed. The first just seems to have withered away, I was feeding regularly and the green would dissipate mostly and feed again, then the green stayed the same tint and I found no live copepods. I'm starting to suspect my source since I got the from another (almost) local reefer and not a "normal" source. My rotifers have also gone down hill and I'm going to restart them. But this has happened before to me. Jeff
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Friday, November 4, 2011 1:40 PM
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Jeff, what cultures are you talking about failing? Copepods? O. marina? Both?
--Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Friday, November 4, 2011 2:56 PM
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 Originally Posted by Umm_fish?
Jeff, what cultures are you talking about failing? Copepods? O. marina? Both?
I have the same questions, Jeff. Also, the only thing I remember saying I cultured using 2 liter bottles was my phytoplankton, so I'm confused. Can you refresh my memory about what method of mine you are referring to? It is hard to tell from your post what cultures are crashing on you.
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Monday, November 7, 2011 4:39 PM
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My copepods are doing great.... BUT My O.Marina are all dead. I think I let the cultures go too long between the times I siphoned "1/5 or more" out of each culture. I'll have to hit up one of the locals for some more O.Marina. *Sigh*
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 2:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Umm_fish?
Jeff, what cultures are you talking about failing? Copepods? O. marina? Both?
Sorry. Actually both. O.marina was what I originally started the topic on and then strayed.  Jeff
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 3:13 PM
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Originally Posted by JimWelsh
I have the same questions, Jeff.
I don't even understand what I wrote. Here's the basics on my o. marina: I received a culture locally, put it into a 2 gallon bucket. Fed RGComplete and lost the culture after about four days (no more living cloud swimming around). No real idea what happened, never even got the bucket filled and saw no life. Got a second starter culture, put it in two buckets, added water for about a week until the buckets were full. Fed the same, still had the swimming cloud and recognized larger particles swimming in one bucket. Ran it through a 53 micron sieve. Started siphoning out 1/5 a day and putting it into my refugium on the display tank (better than nothing) and got a bacteria cloud on one bucket (really cloudy, no specs). Dumped that bucket, split the first bucket into two and started adding water again. Within a few days there was no life in either bucket, similar to the very first run. In the mean time I started copepods and was just ready to feed the o. marina when the o. marina crashed. As a result, I'm pretty sure the pods just starved. My rotifers crashed about the same time, but that's not an unusual event for me. Right now I'm wondering if I contaminated the o. marina culture when I started copepods. Only I saw nothing in the water sample, no copepods, rotifers, o. marina, or anything alive. I need to get a 27 micron sieve to follow the rest of Andy's maintenance schedule, and I'm going to move the cultures to opposite sides of the room. When I first started rotifers I went through 3 or 4 cycles before I had a handle on them so I'm not thinking this is any different. I have switched to algae pastes and/or Rotigrow and that's solved some of my issues with roitifers, hoping I don't have to culture phyto again (phyto is what I learned from Jim's bottles...) for o. marina. I may not set this up again until after Thanksgiving, but I'll start again. Thanks for all the help, I may be slow but I'll get there. Jeff
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 3:14 PM
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Adam-- Well, if you're copepods are doing great then you don't really need the O. marina. Rejoice! I still have not managed to do without, though. I haven't tried very hard lately, I have to admit. The O. marina eats tons and water quality can go downhill fast. The water changes are pretty darn necessary. Jeff-- Sorry, man. Tell us more about what happened and we can try to diagnose it for you.
--Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 3:42 PM
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Of my two cultures of A. panamensis, the one in the black bucket is doing quite well, the other one isn't. The O. marina in the shallow tray did better that the deeper one or the flask.
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Re:So, some of you should have cultures. How's it going?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 6:48 PM
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Originally Posted by jeff@zina.com When I first started rotifers I went through 3 or 4 cycles before I had a handle on them so I'm not thinking this is any different. I think this attitude is a VERY important one to have when working with new cultures! I've had to attempt almost every copepod species at least twice before I was able to be successful at them (and that includes Tigriopus!).
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