is it worth culturing your own rotifers?

[DMK]

??? is it?
if it is really better than frozen rotifers i'll think about it.

 

[jsweir]

Where can you get the frozen ones?

 

[Ewan]

It depends what you're culturing them for. If it's for fry, go for it.

I cultured rotifers and phyto (nanochloropsis... to feed the rotifers) for one year. I fed the tank nightly. I never really noticed the polyps caturing the rotifers. After a year of culturing, I was given a bar of frozen cyclopeze at a MACNA. That night I noticed the polyps were actually capturing the CE. I stopped feeding live rotifers shortly afterward.

It was fun, and educational, and it only took about 10 minutes a day. After I stopped feeding, I saw no negative side effects. If I had clownfish fry on the way, I'd start up a culture once again.

JM $.02.

 

[parshmar]

live rotifers are a great addition to your ecosystem

 

[Greg 45]

Rotifers are easy to cultivate , they are easy to aquire and they are cheep. They multiply on there own.All you have to do is add them to the tank. Florida Aqua Farms sells them live .Give them a call.:eek2:

 

[km133688]

Like the other guy said, "depends on what you are doing with them".

Why culture when you can get frozen?
Why feed them at all when there are othe fine foods?
What actually eats them?
Do you have any of this rotifer eating stuff in your tank?

Like any speciality food item it has its place. To use them correctly you must know why you are using them. Just adding them to your tank because you can is as dumb as just adding anything else to your tank because you can. You should have a reason for doing so.

Good luck, Kevin

 

[Greg 45]

Kevin why not just purchase snake oil and put it in your tank, who knows what comes in those plastic bottles. I have tryed Zeovit and that doesnt work . They dont even want to buy it used at a good price on there Zeovit post.
Good luck with your tank.

 

[shred5]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7046418#post7046418 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jsweir
Where can you get the frozen ones?

http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/pricelist.html#cat_frozenfeeds

 

[gizmo7718]

I just started dosing Roti-Feast. I'm monitoring closely to see if my SPS improve in color or growth. I've heard a lot of good things about feeding rotifers to SPS from my fellow club members. We'll see how it goes.

"Roti-Feastâ„¢ is a super-concentrate of 5 million rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis, 150-275 microns) and 2.5 million eggs (40-75 microns), gut-packed with Phyto-Feastâ„¢, and formulated specifically for your hungry reef carnivores. Roti-Feastâ„¢ can be fed to hard corals (SPS, LPS), marine fish larvae, seahorse larvae, ricodrea, mushrooms, anemones, gorgonians and many other marine micro fauna. Roti-Feastâ„¢ is not a live product and is shelf stable, not needing refrigeration."

More info here: http://www.reefnutrition.com/

 

[km133688]

Yes, my fish store has a self made "expert" in corals. He uses rotifers. He says the frozen rotifers are excellent for many corals and get a good feeding response. He also uses Oyster Eggs. Says they are also great. I am not saying dont' use this stuff, just that like anything you put in your tank, you should know why you are using it, or ... be doing like you are doing, a home experiment where you observe to see if you can correlate cause and effect. Go Gizmo... its this kind of hobbiest exploration and observation that advances our hobby.

Good luck,

Kevin

 

[Lordhelmet]

I use Roti feast as well and i have noticed a change in my SPS frags. i ran out of it and didn't dose for 2 weeks and say things were still fine but have since dosed again and can say polyp exstension has never been better. thats not to bad IMO