pamsreef said:
Kathy,
My thought was to use water from my main system diluted with fresh RO water to start the process in 2 five gallon buckets. Would I then harvest a gallon out of each bucket daily and replace with more diluted tank water. I imagine that the food that I purchase will be quite a bit more concentrated than what you're making.
sounds like a plan. Depending on their concentration, you may not need 2 gallons daily. You only need to grow 4 times what you need each day, to harvest 25% (which I've heard is a good harvet rate to keep them from crashing.).
I'm wondering if there might be a market in the Atlanta area for selling the rots that I harvest.
I don't know, I don't sell them. They have a very short shelf life, though, if you want them to be live.
How would you know how many you have (can you see them) and how much to used in tanks for feeding?
How young are you? If you are over 40 as I am, you can't see them unless they are in high concentration and there is sufficient light. I have a microscope and a pipet. I count how many rotifers are in 0.1 ml rot soup, and multiply by 10 and that is how many rots per ml that I have.
For clownfish, one starts with 10-15 rots /ml in the larval tank, and I don't know what it is for dottybacks.
I wish there was a way to raise the babies in my large refugium, if there was a way to keep them separate from the rest of the system. Any ideas? I only have a pistol shrimp w/goby and recently a seahorse in there. It's approx. a 75 gallon tank with low flow and lots of pods and calerpa. The problem would be keeping them separated and feeding them without poluting my tank. If that's not possible, I have a 10 gallon tank that I'm not currently using.
I am afraid I have no helpful ideas or advice. I think you may wish to start a thread of your own to attract the kind of experts you need for this project.
I've read a little of Martin Moe's book and so far it seems quite discouraging. I would love to hear from people that have succeeded with raising orchid dottybacks recently and learn from them what worked.
Yes, me too. Martin did have great success but not at the beginning. He was very analytical and instead of getting discouraged he tried to think of the reason things went south. He learned from each failed attempt. He kept trying and he got there in the end.
I'm sure my 1st batch of eggs were a snack and I may have a new batch by now. I don't want to get too invested in this project and lose hope. I know it won't be easy plus I'm sure it will be time consuming.
Any thoughts?
Pam
Most likely it won't be easy and I'm sure it will be time consuming. Dottybacks may be more difficult to raise than clownfish. I have no experience in either. I think you need a thread of your own to attract the kind of expert help you need to help you succeed. I will be very interested in following your progress. Good luck!
