Rotifer Crash-Only signs of life are...

[cabrego]

Hi all,

I was out of town for a couple of weeks and my Rotifer culture did not make it. I the nitrites and nitrates were kind of high so I am guessing ammonia build up was the culprit.

I inspected culture and the only signs of life were what looked like microscopic earth worms. Indeed, they do behave like earthworms, burrowing in the debris, and wiggling their noses as they protrude from the rough knolls.

On Saturday I strained the entire 5 gallon contents using my 53 micron sieve and started over after 12 hours I added nano paste to color the water green. Today, I checked a sample that I acquired after using my sieve. Again, the only life are these little earthworm like creatures and no signs of Rots.

Any guess at what these creatures are? Do think there is any hope in salvaging this culture?

 

[Zooid]

did you restart the culture with all the gunk you filtered out? There were probably cycts in the bottom debris so it will take a few days to see rotifers.

 

[cabrego]

I did use the the gunk at the bottom of the culture. I am hoping there were some cysts that made it,hopefully they will hatch soon...

I just hope those little worm looking things aren't hazardous...

 

[timmmysli]

When I've had rot crashes I've just performed a large waterchange keeping all of the gunk at the base. After a few days once the rots come back a bit I then transfer some of the rots into a new culture and ditch the old container with gunk included

No idea what the worms are but sounds like you have a new culture, wish I had micro worms for my little bangers.