BonsaiNut
Premium Member
I ordered my zooplankton cultures from Florida Aqua Farms. I just went to their web site and see that they only offer rotifers now (at least online). Perhaps if you contact them directly they have other zooplankton cultures (they used to).
Rotifers work very well and you can actually screen them to get larger or smaller populations (in size). For example, if you want smaller rotifers just run your group through a 200 micron screen, let them multiply, then run them through a 150 micron screen, etc. I think you can get them down close to 100 microns. Once you get a population at 150 microns or smaller, you don't really have to worry about it - just keep screening the population to filter out the big ones. I always used 50 micron screen to keep them out of filters, etc, so I know they never got that small. As adults, they are normally about 1/3 the size of newly hatched brine shrimp, though you can get them down to 1/4 or 1/5 if you work at it. The larger rotifers are a little on the large size for anemone fish larvae, though they will work - you will just lose some of your smaller larvae early on because they won't feed. If you can get them smaller go for it. Note that newly-hatched brine shrimp are MUCH too large. You need to wait for a couple of weeks before you start feeding newly-hatched brine.
Just to reiterate my earlier note - rotifers reproduce asexually. That means that ONE little rotifer can become billions in a short period of time. It is very easy to contaminate your work space with rotifers so that all of your phyto cultures start growing rotifers at the same time. Water on the countertop, drops on your air hose, a wet net, etc. Keep your phyto cultures away from these little guys! They are so small as to be barely visible with the naked eye
Have fun!
Rotifers work very well and you can actually screen them to get larger or smaller populations (in size). For example, if you want smaller rotifers just run your group through a 200 micron screen, let them multiply, then run them through a 150 micron screen, etc. I think you can get them down close to 100 microns. Once you get a population at 150 microns or smaller, you don't really have to worry about it - just keep screening the population to filter out the big ones. I always used 50 micron screen to keep them out of filters, etc, so I know they never got that small. As adults, they are normally about 1/3 the size of newly hatched brine shrimp, though you can get them down to 1/4 or 1/5 if you work at it. The larger rotifers are a little on the large size for anemone fish larvae, though they will work - you will just lose some of your smaller larvae early on because they won't feed. If you can get them smaller go for it. Note that newly-hatched brine shrimp are MUCH too large. You need to wait for a couple of weeks before you start feeding newly-hatched brine.
Just to reiterate my earlier note - rotifers reproduce asexually. That means that ONE little rotifer can become billions in a short period of time. It is very easy to contaminate your work space with rotifers so that all of your phyto cultures start growing rotifers at the same time. Water on the countertop, drops on your air hose, a wet net, etc. Keep your phyto cultures away from these little guys! They are so small as to be barely visible with the naked eye
Have fun!
