Dosing Rotifers
- Thread starter ZachsZoo
- Start date
phender
Active member
Why do you need to feed rotifers 5-6 times a day? When I was raising clowns I would put just a little phytoplankton in the larval tank and add rotifers to the proper density. Depending on how many babies you have in the tank, the rotifers might even reproduce faster than the babies eat them. I would add more rotifers after the daily water changes, but I never add them more often than that. Making water and doing water changes took up most of my time in the early phases of growth.
D-Nak
Active member
Me too. I only added rotifers maybe twice a day at most, and it was because I added less than the proper density to begin with. I've heard that if you add too many rotifers, the babies will over eat, but I never ran into that problem.
manfrog
New member
I agree. You end up feeding the tank phyto which feeds the rotifers and in turn the larvae.
Although rotifers, it seems, are essential to newly hatched larvae this stage really is short compared to grow out.
Once you get to brine shrimp and then dry and frozen foods it is better to feed less but more frequent. It seems the fry have a better feeding response, at the post larval/growout stage, with feeding sparingly but more often.
MarinaP
Active member
The reason behind multiple feedings (certainly not 12) is to feed enriched rotifers. Nano is not optimal. Basically you set up rotifers with 2 or 3 different enrichment products in separate containers and time feedings in such a way that babies get gutloaded rotifers. Reed mariculture has many docs on the site with charts for different enrichment products.
phender
Active member
That's interesting. When I was raising clowns, the rotifer density was such that the babies wouldn't need to swim more than a body length to find a rotifer to eat.
I could see feeding rotifers with different enrichment product everyday, but to feed multiple enrichments everyday, wouldn't you also need to get all the previous rotifers out (full water change) to make sure the babies were eating the ones you enriched for them?
Based on the results I am seeing in the market, I am not seeing anything better than when I was raising babies in the 1990's and early 2000s when I used Nano to raise the rotifers, DT's Live Phytoplankton in the grow-outs and newly hatched San Francisco Bay brine shrimp as soon as possible, then to a food called Vita-Grow which is no longer on the market, but was one the the first foods to contain astaxanthin.
After my 2nd batch I was able to get no mis-marks, less than 5% head/gill deformities and bright vibrant colors. I don't see that happening today with all the research and better technology. It is beyond me how hatcheries can't produce clowns without pug noses, flared gills and dull orange coloration in this day and age. It just wasn't that difficult. Its even more confounding why people would buy such deformed fish, for a premium price no less.
I could see feeding rotifers with different enrichment product everyday, but to feed multiple enrichments everyday, wouldn't you also need to get all the previous rotifers out (full water change) to make sure the babies were eating the ones you enriched for them?
Based on the results I am seeing in the market, I am not seeing anything better than when I was raising babies in the 1990's and early 2000s when I used Nano to raise the rotifers, DT's Live Phytoplankton in the grow-outs and newly hatched San Francisco Bay brine shrimp as soon as possible, then to a food called Vita-Grow which is no longer on the market, but was one the the first foods to contain astaxanthin.
After my 2nd batch I was able to get no mis-marks, less than 5% head/gill deformities and bright vibrant colors. I don't see that happening today with all the research and better technology. It is beyond me how hatcheries can't produce clowns without pug noses, flared gills and dull orange coloration in this day and age. It just wasn't that difficult. Its even more confounding why people would buy such deformed fish, for a premium price no less.
