Rotifers

[rkelman]

I don't use any ammonia neutralizers either... They just keep truckin on. That's probably why I crash every so often I'm sure.

 

[billsreef]

They will grow at 64, but slowly as you've noticed. When I culture at home I use small fish tanks and use a submersible aquarium heater to maintain a temp in the mid 70's. I aim for the same temp as my larval culture tanks. At the lab I culture at room temp which runs 70-75 depending on time of year and get good production rates.

 

[Zooid]

When I culture at home I use small fish tanks and use a submersible aquarium heater to maintain a temp in the mid 70's.

I also use small fish tanks (10 gallon, half full) with a heater. I keep mine at about 78 to 80 degrees F. I don't use ammonia neutralizer on the rotifers because I change 2 gallons of water in it every day. I also clean the bottom and sides of the tank once a week. I've never had a rotifer crash doing this (crossing fingers). I do use ammonia neutralizer in my larvae tanks just to be safe.

 

[Romulox234]

What do you mean you do water changes?

How do you change the water without throwing out rotifiers or does it not matter and they will replinsh there numbers?

 

[Zooid]

I take 2 gallons of water out of the rotifers and filter them out to feed to my tank if I don't need it for the fish larvae. I replace the 2 gallons with fresh saltwater. The remaining rotifers multiply very quickly.

 

[Romulox234]

How do you filter out the rotifers? with a brine shrimp net

 

[billsreef]

Brine shrimp net is too coarse, the rots will go right through it. You can get a rotifer sieve from Florida Aqua Farms that works well, or make one yourself with some 40 micron nylon mesh.

 

[Zooid]

What Bill said.
I got my 53 micron sieve from Florida Aqua Farms.

 

[Romulox234]

Thanks for the info guys

 

[Zooid]

No problem. Good luck.

 

[Sig45]

Romulox-
Pour out 50% of rotifers into a clean bucket. Dump the remaining(bottom 50%) and clean vessel. Replace the dumped water with fresh seawater at 1.019 sg or whatever sg you culture at making sure you're at same temp( room 70 deg). Pour rotifers back into vessel and feed.
You end up dumping out half of them with alot of rotifer waste. If you're concerned about a new culture crash save some in another vessel just in case.

 

[Romulox234]

Could i use a rotifer sieve as stated above and filter out the bottom 50% of rotifers or would i have to throw them all out?

How many times should i be doing this?

 

[Sig45]

You could filter the bottom 50% but there's usually alot of 'muck' mixed in. If you discard the bottom half your culture will be back in 2 days with appropriate feeding.

Try every 2 weeks if your using 2L bottles to change water an avoid crashes. Monthly if larger vessel. It really depends on the water and amount of stuff collecting on bottom.
If its really dirty I clean every 2 weeks in 5gal bottles.

 

[Romulox234]

I was planning on using a 5gal bucket to culture them in, how often should i do water changes then? about once every two weeks as you said?

 

[Sig45]

you can go about 4 weeks in a 5 gal with normal feeding( once a day).

Use the buildup on the bottom as an indicator of time to change water.

 

[Romulox234]

Is the buildup really noticeable or do you have to look really closely?

About how much phyto should i be feeding daily?

 

[Sig45]

Increase your bubble count to see the amt of debris. It will well up with increase in bubbles.
General rule is enough phyto to cloud water. It should clear in a couple of hours. If it doesn't use half the amount next time.
I feed 15cc of concentrated rotiRich 2x daily to 5gal vessel. Clears in 2 hours.
I used to dump 1 liter of Nanno or Iso when I cultured phyto into the same container.
For a 2L soda bottle try 10-20cc of phyto 2x per day. If clears quickly double if not half.

 

[Romulox234]

Thanks for all the info Sig45

 

[Sig45]

No problem. Good luck with the cultures.

 

[agsansoo]

OT: Nice hat Bill.