Rotifer Culture Crash

[Katowoo]

One of my 2 rot cultures crashed after 2 weeks. According to the "bible" Joyce Wilkerson says you cann salvage a new culture from the crashed one by using all the "muck" from the bottom of the culture and starting a new one as the hardened rot cysts that have gone into "hibernation" in the crashed culture are at the bottom. Any thoughts on this?

 

[landlord]

It is doable, but it will take time to bring the population back to harvestable levels. If your in a pinch it isn't really gonna help.

--landlord

 

[landlord]

I believe that you'd be better off doing a small sized split on your remaining culture and building up from there. Just feed the crap out of it for several days without harvesting should bring up the numbers relatively quick.

 

[Katowoo]

Thx. LL. That's what I was thinking as well. If I'm going to start a new culture from my remaining then i would rather start with all new fresh water. On another note, on my second batch of eggs, I decided to try and move the rock (a little large) over to the fry tank. It didn't work out that well as only 5 hatched and the rest didn't. My first batch I let the fry come out in the parents tank and scooped them up (lot of work). If you move the rock over, do you leave it close to the airstone or position the rock OVER the airstone so as the bubbles are actually flowing right over/into the eggs? I left the rock next to the airstone and I guess it didn't fan the eggs enough. My next batch is due next Wed.

 

[landlord]

I have never done anything except collect the fry from the Display Tank. Many have said that you need to achieve a nice gentle flow of bubbles to keep the eggs aerated but not too much as to cause physical damage. I imagine it would simply be an exercise of trial and error until you achieve a good hatch.

Good Luck and Have Fun with it!

Kurt

 

[rkelman]

You want the bubbles flowing (contacting) over the eggs. I find medium flow and medium / large bubbles work best. I haven't had good luck with airstones that make tiny bubbles. They get stuck in the eggs.

 

[Zooid]

I normally use rigid tubing without a stone to aerate the eggs. I take the pot (rock in your case) out of the main tank and put it in the hatching tank about one hour from lights out. Then I blacken the hatching tank out while aerating the eggs. After two hours if all the eggs haven't hatched, I put the pot back in the main tank and try again the next day. The last time I did this method, I had over 400 larvae make it past metamorphosis. Good luck.

 

[rkelman]

If mine don't hatch I just leave them bubbling until the next night. I haven't had any issues. I've done 3 days before with no problem.

 

[Katowoo]

Thx Guys. I'll let the next batch on Wed hatch in the brood tank and scoop them. On the next batch after, I'll definitely try and move the rock again so that the bubbles are contacting the rock. I have a coral attached to the rock so it's kind of awkward to get the rock in a position so that the bubbles are making contact. I''m sure I can do it with some help of some other rocks and a little ingenuity. Wow Zoo... 400 larvae past meta!!! awesome!! How many eggs hatched originally?