Anyone grow their own? Aquaculturing?

[Photobug]

I am thinking of starting aquaculturing some phytoplankton. It looks fairly easy. Once I start I was thinking of adding rotifers and whatever else can be done in a similar setup.

I was wondering how many grow their own and what do you raise for consumption in your tanks? Is it possible to create one system that can grow phyto, rotifers and some type of shrimp in one system?

 

[Epicreefer]

I've done some smaller things and they work but it takes a bunch of time trying to grow things big enough for most fish and you need to produce a lot of algae, like a gallon a day. I would suggest you look into copepods, parvocalanus seems to have the best growth rate but the smallest size. Also grow brine shrimp to full size. Mysis shrip are as big an item as you can grow and its nice having live mysis but the best way to grow volumes is feed live baby brine which you might as well just feed the fish at $70 a lb for eggs.

The system could be built but return on investment begins to be an issue. I think I was looking at something like $2-300 investment to harvest a cube or two of live mysis a week not going the baby brine route. Good for special circumstances but not worth the effort for most. Part of the problem is you need 100 dry grams algae to get 10-20 grams of pods to get 1-5 grams of mysis. So forget the shrimp and just grow pods and rotifers for now. Maybe some brine shrimp too as they eat algae but aren't the most nutritious when not gut loaded, shouldn't be a prob though if they're growing. Macro algae is another good one to grow as many fish are omnivores and like certain types. There are a number of good books on growing plankton but all the info can be found online easily. Look up marine fish breeding on google and lots about plankton culture for hobbyists pops up too.

 

[billsreef]

Take a look at this thread from the breeding forum. All sorts of info on culturing foods. As for doing it all in one system, the phyto really needs to be done seperate from rots to prevent any of the rots from getting into your phyto and being wiped out.

 

[GreshamH]

I've done some smaller things and they work but it takes a bunch of time trying to grow things big enough for most fish and you need to produce a lot of algae, like a gallon a day. I would suggest you look into copepods, parvocalanus seems to have the best growth rate but the smallest size. Also grow brine shrimp to full size. Mysis shrip are as big an item as you can grow and its nice having live mysis but the best way to grow volumes is feed live baby brine which you might as well just feed the fish at $70 a lb for eggs.

The system could be built but return on investment begins to be an issue. I think I was looking at something like $2-300 investment to harvest a cube or two of live mysis a week not going the baby brine route. Good for special circumstances but not worth the effort for most. Part of the problem is you need 100 dry grams algae to get 10-20 grams of pods to get 1-5 grams of mysis. So forget the shrimp and just grow pods and rotifers for now. Maybe some brine shrimp too as they eat algae but aren't the most nutritious when not gut loaded, shouldn't be a prob though if they're growing. Macro algae is another good one to grow as many fish are omnivores and like certain types. There are a number of good books on growing plankton but all the info can be found online easily. Look up marine fish breeding on google and lots about plankton culture for hobbyists pops up too.

parvo's are about the hardest one available. I suggest starting with Tisbe or Tigriopus.

 

[KCombs]

Take a look at this thread from the breeding forum. All sorts of info on culturing foods. As for doing it all in one system, the phyto really needs to be done seperate from rots to prevent any of the rots from getting into your phyto and being wiped out.

:thumbsup:

I wouldn't even put rotifers in the same house....
EVERYTIME I've cultured both, it seems I contaminate the phyto.....

 

[Andrew17030]

Rots and phyto = no beuno. Yes what you are talking about is possible. Phytoplankton is not as easy as it looks. Researching what you want to do and where you want to go will save you lots of money and frustration. If you just want to feed your tank, rots probably aren't the way to go. I have read much research that shows the studied species did not especially like rots and or could not digest them completely. These are not ornamentals but it's something to think about. What is happening is the commercial aquaculture industry is a mass realization that although brine and rots are easy to produce they are not complete even when gut loaded prior to feeding. Producing live foods is all about technique and understanding the species you are planning to cultivate. Without proper research attempting to do so would almost certainly be unfruitful. When I wanted to start doing what you are talking about I found it difficult to find meaningful concise information on culturing live foods. I am still researching and really like it. You can go to a site like deepdyve and pay a little to have access to tons of very helpful research, if you are serious. I hope I didn't overstep any of RCs rules by pointing one to this resource. Anyway, good luck.