Pytoplankton Cultures
- Thread starter Mattewell
- Start date
Mr James
Premium Member
You've come to the right place my friend!! I cultured phyto to feed my tank weekly and my rotifers daily.
See here for my culturing experience: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=960390&highlight=phyto
And for the rotifers, minus the pictures:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=973808&highlight=phyto
See here for my culturing experience: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=960390&highlight=phyto
And for the rotifers, minus the pictures:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=973808&highlight=phyto
Hey Matt
I am not sure about coral growth but it is sure better than some bottled stuff since you are making it fresh. It is not very difficult except that you want to keep things a little clean. If you contaminate your culture it might go bad pretty quickly. Next time you come to the meeting you can see my setup...costed me less than 10 bucks...but then I got my culture from another reefer in MN.
Vishnu
I am not sure about coral growth but it is sure better than some bottled stuff since you are making it fresh. It is not very difficult except that you want to keep things a little clean. If you contaminate your culture it might go bad pretty quickly. Next time you come to the meeting you can see my setup...costed me less than 10 bucks...but then I got my culture from another reefer in MN.
Vishnu
Mr James
Premium Member
There ar many things you need to read up on before you start. (1) 2,5g container won't do the job. Because you will need to move them to a new container every couple of days. Now. Are we talking about mysis shrimp or rotifers?? IMO, mysis and brine shrimp are worthless. They say they are cotton candy to fish, zero nutrient value. EXCEPT, when they are first born, Napulii or something like that. I never messed with them myself because of those reasons. Rotifers are very nutritious and are easy to raise. YOU NEED A REFRACTOMETER!!!!
Mattewell
Member
I have been feeding my fish nothing but mysis for the past year, all look great. If they would have ever shown Ill effects, I would have immediately started to vary diet. I would agree that varying their diet is the best for overall health and a longer life span. I feel that they are getting plenty of variation due to the fact that they are always picking copepods, amphipods, and other random bugs off the rock work. They also occasionally take a nip off the seaweed clip. So in my opinion, with my system, I feel mysis are a great food as long as a population of natural food is present.
I once saw some live mysis in a lfs in Rochester. I thought they were kind of interesting. Raising them might be interesting as well as rewarding. Then I'd get to feed my fish some live food and give them some excitement.
As a side note I really like using mysis as LPS food... they really seem to perk up after a couple of months of once a week feedings of mysis.
I once saw some live mysis in a lfs in Rochester. I thought they were kind of interesting. Raising them might be interesting as well as rewarding. Then I'd get to feed my fish some live food and give them some excitement.
As a side note I really like using mysis as LPS food... they really seem to perk up after a couple of months of once a week feedings of mysis.
Mr James
Premium Member
Nobody said anything about side effects!! Who said that?? I said that brine is not as nutritious as other foods. A mixed diet is obviously the best. I buy frozen mixed bags of seafood at Wal-Mart, mix it up with Nori, Selcon, some flake foods, maybe some Spirulina and of course (who could live without it) Cyclopeeze!! Blend everything and pour into ice cube trays. On my 180g, I would take the cube and swish it around in the water and the fish/corals/inverts would go nuts. I fed three times a day, mostly because of my (4) Anthias.
See (found only on Reef Central!!):
The Results - Healthy Livestock:
Mr James
Premium Member
IME, Mysis and Brine are tough to raise. I had better luck at rotifers and phytoplankton. I had raised them in 10g tanks before and found it to be very difficult. This method is MUCH, MUCH easier!!!!
Has anyone else cultured live foods and can post pictures and results??
In the picture below, the phytoplankton (Tetrselmis and Iso..... I believe), is on the left (4) bottles and the rotifers are on the right (2) bottles.
Has anyone else cultured live foods and can post pictures and results??
In the picture below, the phytoplankton (Tetrselmis and Iso..... I believe), is on the left (4) bottles and the rotifers are on the right (2) bottles.
