culturing rotifers

[Paul_N]

Anyone have a starter culture of live rotifers or know where I can get some? I have been feeding my tank frozen and would like to culture my own live.

 

[Paul_N]

Here is a good article for anyone else interested:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2002/breeder.htm

 

[Paul_N]

I found this starter kit that includes a manual. There are also some links at the bottom with great info to start with.

http://www.reed-store.com/?category=58&subcategory=30&productid=RSK-DLX

 

[bigmatt1992]

paul let me know if you do this. i was planig on doing the same thing. let me know how it turns out.

 

[Paul_N]

Matt, I will definitely start a DIY thread for it. It will be a couple of months. I would really like to get to the point where I make and/or culture all my food. I still need to at least order my new tank first and then I will start on it. I gotta make some room in my basement next to my water barrels and keep it out of the way to keep the wife happy. I think I am at max usage allowed down there. I am making a craft section for her down there using used kitchen cabinets and counters I got off of CL for free.

 

[bigmatt1992]

so you got some projects to do in the next couple of months. whats the smallest size tank you could use maybe a 10 gal. or so.

 

[cloakerpoked]

You can culture rotifers in anything. My mom kept them in a 5 gallon bucket. Its a lot of work though...basically requires daily thinning out of the population through 50% water changes or they'll run out of food and the whole culture will die. I've thought about doing it, but just don't have the time right now. If there was a way to automate the process, I'd be doing it for sure

 

[bigmatt1992]

well you could maybe automate it buy atactching a auto water top off with a whole cut out the 5 gallon buck at near the top when the top off files to the whole im sure some of the pop. would fall threw the hole there for thining it out.

 

[Paul_N]

so you got some projects to do in the next couple of months. whats the smallest size tank you could use maybe a 10 gal. or so.

You can make them in a 5 or 10 gal tank. I was reading up on the differences between batch and continuous. I will probably go continuous to be able to feed the tank daily. I am not 100% sure, still reading up on it. If it is way too much trouble then I will bag it. I have been reading where rotifers are great to feed the coral and my mandarin. I have to weigh the costs also. I am just trying to read as much as I can to make sure I have all the info I need.

 

[Paul_N]

You can culture rotifers in anything. My mom kept them in a 5 gallon bucket. Its a lot of work though...basically requires daily thinning out of the population through 50% water changes or they'll run out of food and the whole culture will die. I've thought about doing it, but just don't have the time right now. If there was a way to automate the process, I'd be doing it for sure

I would definitely love to see if there is a way to automate the process. The thinning would be easy since I feed my main tank daily so it would be no extra work there. You could drip feed the rotifers also.

 

[cloakerpoked]

From talking to my mom, here is the primary challenge with automating the process. You need to add 2 gallons each day to the rotifer culture, and you need to move 2 gallons worth of rotifers out of the culture each day. You also can't add unfiltered tank water, as even a few copepods would wipe out the rotifer culture. So basically you'd have to evaporate about 2 gallons each day out of your system. I know that I could swing that with 14 or 15 square feet of open tops in my 4 tanks in the system, but most people probably don't evaporate that much that consistently. The other challenge would be to keep your salinity down, because the rotifers are saltwater organisms, which means rather than adding fresh water via your top off, you'd be adding saltwater. Would slowly drive your salinity up, and I don't think you'd want that. In short, it probably wouldn't save any effort at all to use floats and dosing pumps....

 

[Paul_N]

I evaporate about 1 1/2 gallons per day. Can you store the rotifers for any period of time when you thin the rotifer tank or would I have to feed all that I remove? I am thinking if I can store for a week or two it might be better to do the batch culturing. hmmm...... as Jethro said, "I got to do some ciphering."

 

[bigmatt1992]

ok this seems like alot of work paul hahah best of luck to ya.

 

[bigmatt1992]

oh by the way im still better then you in astroids ahhaha.

 

[Paul_N]

oh by the way im still better then you in astroids ahhaha.

Don't you have homework to do! Better yet, the street lights are on, get to bed! :snicker:

Enjoy your time at the top, your days are numbered...:tongue:

 

[bigmatt1992]

haah im on spring break and no my mommy said i dont have a bed time no more im a big boy nowha hahahahh. and seems like those number days just keep adding up.

 

[bigmatt1992]

ohh and dont stay up to late trying to beat the score you probly have work tommorw. haha

 

[cloakerpoked]

The reason you pull them out is to keep the population from getting too big and killing itself by outcompeting all the other ones in the culture. You could dump them down the toilet if you wanted to and it would work if you didn't want to add all of it to your tank. Or just run them through a coffee filter and then swish it around in your tank...

 

[Paul_N]

I know I just hate wasting them. If I can store them or sell them dirt cheap it would be better than just dumping. I wonder if thinning a 5 gal tank daily would be too much to feed my 75 gal?

 

[bigmatt1992]

well when your talking almost micro scopic organism that can reprduce at a lighting fast rate it might be to much but only a trial and error would tell for sure.