easy way to make home grown rotifiers

[supernareg]

Hi, i'm looking for the most inexpensive and easiest way to make rotifiers. My clowns started breeding and I want to try and raise some fry.

can someone give me step by step instructions?


thanksfully,


me.

 

[shifty51008]

5 gal bucket, air pump and airline, rotifer seive, and a starter culture of rotifers. You will also need food for them wether you grow your own phyto or buy some is up to you, i use rgcomplete from reeds mariculture and have had good luck.

 

[D-Nak]

5 gal bucket, air pump and airline, rotifer seive, and a starter culture of rotifers. You will also need food for them wether you grow your own phyto or buy some is up to you, i use rgcomplete from reeds mariculture and have had good luck.

The easiest way to grow rotifers -- aside from putting it together yourself as shift described -- is to buy the Compact Culture System (CCS) from Reed Mariculture:

http://apbreed.com/product_compact_culture_system.php

Add their rotifer culture and some RGComplete and you'll be good to go.

The CCS keeps the water a lot cleaner than just using a 5 gallon bucket. Just make sure to rinse the center column frequently.

I prefer RGComplete because it contains buffers and ammonia remover in one, easy to use food. I also have ClorAm-X but rarely use it.

 

[supernareg]

I dont need any light? how do i harvest them? ie take them out of the 5 gal bucket and put them in my breeding tank?

 

[D-Nak]

I dont need any light? how do i harvest them? ie take them out of the 5 gal bucket and put them in my breeding tank?

In this case, Google is your friend. There are tons of websites that discuss breeding clowns.

For starters you'll need a sieve to filter the rotifers. The websites discuss this in detail.

 

[alyssa46]

I just started a culture 4 days ago and ordered the starter kit from reed mariculture n it seems to be doing quite well! Very easy haven't started to harvest yet but there are a ton in there...I've read u can use a coffee filter in place of a sieve has anyone done this?? I'm going to harvest in another day or so n put them in my reef to try to get the hang of this before I try to raise any fry(I hAve spawning clowns)

 

[alyssa46]

Btw, reed's website has all the info and instructions how to care n culture them as well as YouTube videos. Very helpful u should watch them. If u do order from them they send instructions how to care for them

 

[D-Nak]

I completely agree -- Reed did an excellent job making it easy for us.

My suggestion is to follow the directions as closely as you can, particularly when it tells you to harvest the rotifers every day. It's somewhat counter intuitive and I had a hard time grasping the concept at first, but basically if there are too many rotifers, they could quickly pollute the culture or eat all of the available food -- both scenarios will lead to a crash. Also, IIRC they stop reproducing after a few days and simply become eating machines, so rather than have these adults that aren't being productive, it's best to remove them with daily harvests.

 

[D-Nak]

And BTW, IME a sieve is a lot easier to use than coffee filters. With a sieve, you can quickly invert it and rinse off the rotifers into a container. I usually use tank water for this process, so after I rinse the rotifers I feed them to my babies or reef.

 

[alyssa46]

I'm on day 5 and haven't harvested so do u think I should start harvesting daily now? I've read if people waiting a little longer than suggested and I just want to do this right...I will definitely get the sieve..thanks for the advice

 

[shifty51008]

I would start harvesting daily now, your prob. maxd out of the container your growing them in.

 

[alyssa46]

Thank u I harvested today

 

[MJNTWise]

update????

 

[Wilrok]

How many times a day should baby clowns be fed ?

 

[_shorty_]

I assume you mean rotifer feedings as this changes once you transition to larger foods: But, with rots, it's more about visually being able to judge rotifer density within the fry tank vs feeding X amount of times. Depending on the size of your batch, you can most likely get by with feeding twice a day to keep density up to what is needed.

 

[D-Nak]

I assume you mean rotifer feedings as this changes once you transition to larger foods: But, with rots, it's more about visually being able to judge rotifer density within the fry tank vs feeding X amount of times. Depending on the size of your batch, you can most likely get by with feeding twice a day to keep density up to what is needed.

+1. And keep in mind that if the density is too high that the fry may eat too much. This will cause their stomachs too become too full, which could actually kill them.

 

[woods4542000]

Plus if the fry tank is too heavy with rotifers they will use up all the oxygen. I use a little syringe pull out 1 mil and try to keep about 10 rotifers per.