Phytoplankton vs Zooplankton- Differences and can I culture both?

[apuhl20]

I am a little confused as to what the difference is. I understand they are two separate species, but what are the differences in the aquarium. I am currently culturing phyto, but was wondering if I can and need to do the same with zooplankton?

Can someone go into some of the details of this for me?

 

[jdegrasse]

Simply put, phytoplankton are more plant like and produce energy by photosynthesis. Zooplankton feed on other plankton and detritus..more animal like. Zooplankton tend to be larger than phytoplankton. Fish would eat zooplankton like copepods, but generally not phytoplankton because it is too small. If you wanted to culture some zooplankton then you could simply feed that culture some of your home brew phytoplankton. phytoplankton is great for filter feeders. Zooplankton is great for the coral or anything with a non filtered mouth.

 

[apuhl20]

so how would I go about culturing zooplankton? and where would I get a starting culture?

 

[doctorgori]

so how would I go about culturing zooplankton? and where would I get a starting culture?

Florida Aqua Farms (recommended) or
Aquatic Eco Systems (also recomended, but more $$)...
you can also get bottles of "Phyto2" or whatever its called from Premium Aquatics....

Culturing: YouTube is your friend.....

....beyond that, here are some of my tips (I'm no expert, but I've done it before)

1) make sure whatever you do: mitigate cross contamination: don't place rotifers ANYWHERE near your phyto (or above it)...clean airlines in bleach, blah blah blah

2) you can culture phyto (and roti's) in white 5gal buckets with plain ole 26W CF bulbs above it, 1.017-1.019 SG ASW and some F2 (recommended) or Miracle Grow (works, but...)
or you can get a decent production from 2L bottle and point blank light

3) personally I feed my rotifers mostly some yellow powder stuff from AES ....FAF sells Roti-rich (probably same crap) ...i also fed them some of the phyto I was culturing (nano mostly)

4) I used air....opinions vary, but I don't see how you can get by w/o it

 

[apuhl20]

I already culture phyto, so I've got that down. I am questioning culturing zooplankton.

 

[disc1]

I already culture phyto, so I've got that down. I am questioning culturing zooplankton.

You can get rotifer starting packs from a number of suppliers. I know Reed's Mariculture sells them and one of our local guys has had some great success growing them. Mysis or Tiger Pods would be another good choice. They seem to be pretty easy to grow.

 

[apuhl20]

are rotifers zooplankton?

 

[disc1]

Absolutely. Zooplankton is a big "catch-all" term for all the little tiny creatures in the sea.

It is even fair to consider fish larvae as zooplankton.

 

[billsreef]

Take a look at this on culturing phyto and zooplankton. Everything you could want to know, and more

 

[apuhl20]

will reef tanks benefit from adding live rotifers to the water stream? Will this feed any fish, or will it feed any coral. Also, I'm assuming rotifers are not large enough to feed seahorses or pipefish?

 

[billsreef]

Rotifers are too small for fish, other than early larval stages. However, they are good for filter feeders like feather dusters and some corals

 

[disc1]

And rotifers make great food for filter feeding pods too.

 

[apuhl20]

so the benefit of rotifers is to corals then? I thought phyto was the one that benefited the corals the most.

 

[billsreef]

Actually few corals directly eat phyto. However, they do eat things like pods that eat phyto Also some other filter feeders such as feather dusters and clams eat phyto.

 

[apuhl20]

So do the corals eat rotifers then? Would it be better to grow rotifers or copepods then?

 

[billsreef]

It depends a bit on what corals you have Figure the larger the polyps, the larger the desired food...in most cases.