so the first nest i tried out did not do well because i was struggling with my rotifer cultures. about 20 fry lasted about a week, mostly due to my inability to maintain any sort of rotifer density. over the next few weeks i nailed down the issues. today while changing the water i was shocked to see that my density seemed to have exploded. this is good since i have a hatch coming up on sunday evening. i also added some copepods from a fellow breeder and they seem to be reproducing rapidly and doing well coexisting with the rotifers.
i have two colonies going, each in 5 gallon buckets. salinity is at 1.019-1.020. one is heated to 80 degrees, the other maintains around 75 degrees.
i do a quick squirt of prime into each bucket every morning and feed 1 mL twice a day. copepods are all attached to the heater. and the haze is the mass of rotifers. i have been using RGcomplete for over a week now. the water stays clear and not murky, ammonia doesnt rise and my populations of rotifers and copepods seem to be doing quite well. i am pleased.
the phyto i had been growing is a different story however.
none of my colonies lasted long after their first split. the iso was the first to fail. it grew well for several days, i leave for an over night camping trip and come back and both bottles are now hazy white. my tetraselmis was doing very well. i split it after 10 days and three days later they both went white. my nanno lasted the longest, but then failed as well. initially i had my grow lights on 24/7. i have since switched to a 16/8 schedule.
i will have some new samples of tetra and iso arriving next week. i have a new bottle of dense nanno i plan on trying to maintain and grow out. my plan is to use the phyto i grow as a supplement to my RGcomplete.
i was also told that i should feed some selcon to my rotifers 8 hours before feeding them to fry. has anyone tried this?
any additional suggestions? particularly with the phyto side of this?
