YWG - Day 6 and still kicking

[ediaz]

Raise the temperature to 84 that will get your densities high.
I know you don't have the space but for others, I start a new culture in a bucket, tank, anything, everytime i clean/siphon my cultures. I have 3 main cultures and about 10 "emergency" cultures all over the basement, that way I don't have to worry about crashes.

Oh Kathy , you never did the frog? I remember this girl she opened up removed the heart, still beating, and threw it on my book, the book still have the stain.Then I won't tell you about my first whale necropsy, with a machete.

Ed

 

[Kathy55g]

ha, ha! Ed, I am a research biologist. I will not give you details on what I do every day, but suffice it to say, I cannot be squeamish.

In biology class we only dissected the formaldehyde fixed fetal pig. No frogs...

I wonder why girls throw beating hearts at you, Ed? What did you do to her?

 

[NicoleC]

I don't know why, but these starting doing better when I took OUT the heaters. So they are staying about 70-72. Maybe I'll put a heater back in one of them and see how it does compared to the others, which getting the same regimen. I think I have enough to feel comfortable stealing a cup to start a 4th culture.

If it didn't get so cold at night here, I'd stick a bucket or two out back.

I didn't do the frog, or the worm, or any of that. I went to school with dirt under my fingersnails most days from planting, weeding, hoeing, composting, etc. and my prissy little citified biology teacher wasn't going to ever be able to get me to kill something just for the sake of looking at it when there were perfectly good pictures in the book. I was a meek child; I don't know what possessed me to stand up and refuse.

Besides, I'd already dissected dead rabbits and squirrels by then. I guess the difference was I found them dead already.

Kathy - only 1/2 gallon? Isn't that cutting it back pretty far? I sort of hibernated mine by cleaning and restarting a couple of buckets, then had them on light rations twice a day. Pretty low maintence; just dumped out half every few days and topped off with water and Clor-Am-X

 

[Kathy55g]

Yup, it's a half gallon of young, reproducing rots at around 200 rots/ml. Tomorrow there will be 1 gallon of them, and by the time the eggs hatch there will be 2 gallons of them. At 200 rots per ml, thats 1.5 million rots.

I'll need 1/3 gallon to feed my tank (6 gallons initial volume) at 10 rots per ml. At my historical success rate, I never have enough larvae to clear the tank, but there is always hope that this time, I'll have lots of larvae.

If they crash, I have made friends with the University lab down the street that has a jumbo sized rotifer room, and will donate to my cause.

Not likely to crash, having made every mistake known to man and rotifer, and with 50 % harvest each day. Now having said that, I expect I will return home to stinking smelly swamp water.


Cheers,
Kathy

 

[jnowell]

I keep a five gallon bucket under my work table, I use it to syphone the bottom of the rearing tanks into. At any given time, I'd guess that it's got a density of 30-50 rots per mil. I've just been using this as my backup plan, I syphon until it's full, then dump about 7/8 of it out, and start vaccuming again. It gets kinda smelly after a week or so, so I dump it, wash it, and start over again (providing that my rots look good in the rot culture and rearing tanks).

It's easy, smelly, and works effectively. So far, I haven't had to start a new culture from it, but I figure it works good for a backup. It's funny how when you try to maintain a culture, they crash, but if you throw some in a bucket and pay no attention to them at all, they grow and reproduce. Maybe I'll try that with my next set of fry

Jason

 

[Kathy55g]

Sounds like its working for ya!

 

[NicoleC]

It's the 24 hours since I stopped the frozen S-strain. Other than a couple dead ones I saw floating around, I still have plenty of larvae.

I seem to have achieved parity with the rotifers -- I did see a few last night before feeding. Rotifer density took a big jump overnight for some reason, so I will be starting at least one more culture today. As these guys grow, they are going to need a LOT more food in the coming week or two and right up until they are ready to tackle BBS.

Provided I get that far this time!

They are quite energetic and very speedy on demand -- which matches my previous notes, so perhaps there has been no underfeeding issues. I think I will try to get some pics today and I think I had better start a log sincce it looks like these guys are going to have a chance at making it.

Last time I has a mass dieoff the night of Day 9. I never did determine a reason, unless there were too many rotifers in the larval tank and they caused an oxygen problem. That is certainly not the case now, so we shall see...

 

[bjolly]

very cool. what do you plan to do with the babies?

 

[NicoleC]

Sell 'em! I've got more buyers (fish stores, importers) lined up than I could possible service.

 

[bjolly]

that's great - it's always good to see more fish being captive bred.

 

[NicoleC]

A few pics:

 

[LotR Clown]

Great job Nicole. Hoping you have continued success.

 

[mano]

Nice pictures Nicole. Keep them coming!

 

[NicoleC]

That looks like a full belly, doesn't it? I hope my little guys are pigging out.

 

[Kathy55g]

Looks full.

 

[parshmar]

I have been waiting for this thread. I'm glad things are going well so far. thanks for taking pics, eventhough you weren't going to

Out of curiosity, the water is green because it's feeding the rots that you add? making sure they stay alive? Is there any reproduction of the rots in the larvae tank as well?

 

[jnowell]

Looks like full bellies to me too, cool pics Nicole!

Parshmar - I feed my rotifers in the rearing tank, and they reproduce there too, but I add phyto to keep them nutritious, not to encourage reproduction. My fry still eat them faster than they can reproduce, so I'm constantly adding them anyways.

Speaking of, how are the rotifer populations Nicole?

 

[NicoleC]

I have been waiting for this thread. I'm glad things are going well so far. thanks for taking pics, eventhough you weren't going to

Thank you. The pics are because I think these guys official deserve a "Batch" designation. And I needed to see how they compare to the other batch.

Out of curiosity, the water is green because it's feeding the rots that you add? making sure they stay alive? Is there any reproduction of the rots in the larvae tank as well?

The water is green to keep any rotifers in the larvae tank alive and eating, and hopefully more nutritious after the enrichment wears off. Rots certainly could reproduce in the larval tank, but there are very few in the larval tank after the gobies have had breakfast/dinner thus time around.

The other reason is that for some reason larval can see to hunt better if the water is slightly green. This is an aquaculture "fact" but whether it applies to YWG in particular is unknown.

Speaking of, how are the rotifer populations Nicole?

Very good. Once you reach a certain point, double is a heck of a lot of rotifers. I started a new culture today and I think I will start another tomorrow.

 

[spk]

Cool bannanas, Some awesome pics Nicole.

Sounds as if you have your Rotifers growing well again.

Thanks for the posts and pics.

Steve

 

[Kathy55g]

Nicole, are you using live phyto in the larval tanks or the other stuff?