Can I restart my rotifer culture?

[Levinson]

It's been a while since my rotifer culture crashed but I've been lazy and the culture bottle had been left alone with the aeration going.
It's got the gunk at the bottom and the water level had dropped a bit due to the evapration. I've read that the rotifers produce resting cysts when the conditions go bad and people can restart their culture from these resting cysts.
Would it be possible for me to restart the culture using the cysts? If so, how is it done? Do I scrape some of the gunk settled at the bottom and put them in a new vessel with freshly mixed saltwater?
I thought I've read about it somewhere before but I can't seem to find it.
I don't really NEED the rotifer culture at the moment but I thought maybe I'd have one going if it's not too difficult to revive them.

 

[Uncle99]

You are correct.
They will go dormant when water conditions deteriorate.
Split the batch and restart in new water.

 

[Levinson]

You are correct.
They will go dormant when water conditions deteriorate.
Split the batch and restart in new water.

Thank!
So will the scraping the gunk (which hopfully contains some cysts) and putting it in the new bottle work? Is that how it's done?

 

[Modell]

We’re you able to restart your rotifer culture? I am in the same boat. Crashed culture, not sure if I need to buy and start over or if I can resurrect my original culture.

 

[Levinson]

We’re you able to restart your rotifer culture? I am in the same boat. Crashed culture, not sure if I need to buy and start over or if I can resurrect my original culture.

Yeah, I moved some culture water and only a tiny bit of the gunk to a new bottle, added some freshly mixed saltwater and food, and I had the culture going again in no time.
But judging by how quickly they multiplied, I think there might've been some live rotifers in the water.
I managed to revive what appears to be a crashed culture (might not have been one) once more after that using the same method.
You should give it a try. Not much to lose is there?

 

[Modell]

Yes, I just ordered a new bottle of RGComplete. I’ll give it a try as soon as I get it. Thanks!

 

[Modell]

Yes, I just ordered a new bottle of RGComplete. I’ll give it a try as soon as I get it. Thanks!

I restarted my rotifer culture 2 days ago. I scraped some gook from the bottom of my rotifer bucket and put into a fresh bucket with 1.019 water and a little rgcomplete, heater and air.
About how long before I begin to see rotifers?
Thanks.

 

[DrZoidburg]

If conditions are right they will hatch kind of like brine shrimp needing specific parameters. For any phyto that could be in it. If that goes bad you can filter it out. In a lab setting they use filters and centrifuges if a sample gets contaminated. Had to do that a few times with 10 micron filter, worked great. Also if you know what type, and how big the cysts would be you could pass them through the right size filter probably.