Rotifer culture question

[Pearfish]

I looked at my culture today and i have lots and lots of rotifers floating. They are not dead because i look under the microscope and i see them moving. Why are they so close to the top, is this normal?

 

[gar732]

How do you have your culture set up?

 

[Pearfish]

Started with a gallon of water and an 8 oz bag of rotifers. With a rigid airline.

 

[Pearfish]

Also,Is it true that rotifers grow at a slower rate in a white bucket? Also how much would u start feeding a 5 gallon culture of Rg complete? Reeds calculator says 3.2 ml does this sound right?

 

[kizanne]

I don't think the white bucket is true, of course I don't know. Rotifers grow pretty quick no matter what as long they have food and moderate water quality. They just aren't that fussy. Are you doing continuous culture or batch?

 

[hbrochs]

Rotifers

Rotifers

This is just my first time with rotifers, but I split my culture into two buckets.
One is orange home depot bucket and the other is dark blue. The dark blue bucket seems to be growing more rotifers for some reason.

The best advice that I read about how much phytoplankton to feed was from www.breedclownfish.com where they say that if you can see the bottom of the bucket, then you need more plankton.

The rotifers will grow quicker if you use a heater, but I have read that there is a higher risk of them crashing if you use a heater. I am not using heaters.

I did not harvest any rotifers for the first three days, then I began harvesting about 25-30% everyday whether I need them or not. I replace the harvested water with 1.020 fresh saltwater.

Lastly I've read different opinions about how briskly the airstone should be operating. I spoke to Chad from Reed Mariculture, and he suggests brisk flow through the airstone. "Really get it boiling"

Best of luck,

Howard

 

[Pearfish]

Im doing a continuous culture and i picked up frank hoffs book on culturing plankton and started to read it and hopefully it answers my questions.

 

[gar732]

I used just a rigid airline in a white 5g bucket with about 3 1/2-4 gallons in it. I kept the air rolling pretty good but not enough where it started to foam. Once my culture grew enough I split it in two and had two 5g bucket going just in case I lost one. I would pull two 16oz cups everyday and replace with .020 new salt water like hbrochs mentioned. They multiply faster in that salinity. Once a week I would change out the buckets with clean ones doing a slightly larger water change. I like the white buckets better because I can judge how much I need to tint better than in a colored bucket and they reproduced just fine. I ran these cultures like this for at least 6 months or more with no issues. Also I didn't run a heater, not even in the winter, no need. I never even came close to running out of rots. I believe I was adding about 10-12 drops of rotigrow+. Here is a pic of how I had it set up.