How to raise rotifers

Austin R · Aug 5, 2017

hey guys I'm thinking of breeding clowns but before I started I was curious how to raise/culture rotifers. I've been looking online but everything is kinda vague I was hoping someone could explain it better (how to set it up and run everything)maybe pictures to or somthing. I know after a bit I need to switch to brine shrimp and I understand how they work. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Blue Lip · Aug 6, 2017

a 5 gallon bucket with lid, air pump with tubing, rigid tubing, rotifer diet by Reed Mariculture and your set. You freeze the rotifer diet and use a small chunk daily. It's that easy.

Austin R · Aug 6, 2017

Blue Lip said:
a 5 gallon bucket with lid, air pump with tubing, rigid tubing, rotifer diet by Reed Mariculture and your set. You freeze the rotifer diet and use a small chunk daily. It's that easy.

So I don't have to do daily water changes or take some out daily? Or only when I have fry to feed? And you always want the water to be somewhat green/yellow right?

Blue Lip · Aug 8, 2017

I break a small chunk of frozen rotifer diet and put it in a glass. Then add water from 5 gallon bucket and stir. Dump contents into bucket. That's it. Keep your water tinted green.

Centerline · Aug 8, 2017

You will find that they grow so fast the culture will crash under its own weight if you feed them. One rotifer can turn into thousands of them in a few days and consume a dense green 2 liter algae culture in no time - and then crash if not strained and used. My suggestion would be to rotate 3, 2 liter bottles. The first two for feeding and the third to restart the used and crashed cultures. It is a good idea to clean the containers with bleach when rotating because they will end up with a bunch of dead rotifers and bacteria in them after a few days of growth. You don't want to transfer the bacteria to the larval tanks as it will slime up the bottom of the tank and make it harder to clean and harder for the larval to move around. The larval will move to the bottom of the tank when the lights come on. You can use a credit card to clean the scum off the bottom but its best to avoid it all together.

sde1500 · Aug 15, 2017

Some breeders on a website I found once, dedicated to propagation of saltwater critters, don't even bother with air lines. Fill a 2 liter bottle with phyto, add some rotifers. Have more bottles ready. Within a week if you need to feed, feed most of the bottle, add the rest to another bottle of phyto, and there you go, continuous culture.

Centerline · Aug 17, 2017

sde1500 said:
Some breeders on a website I found once, dedicated to propagation of saltwater critters, don't even bother with air lines. Fill a 2 liter bottle with phyto, add some rotifers. Have more bottles ready. Within a week if you need to feed, feed most of the bottle, add the rest to another bottle of phyto, and there you go, continuous culture.

Ya, I sometimes added a rotifer culture to the larval tanks and just keep adding a little bit of green water everyday to keep the rotifers growing and packed with nutrients. The larva really do best if the rotifers are packed (green water and selco) but this doesn't work well with a continuous culture as the tanks slimes up pretty quick from bacteria. To avoid this you have to strain the rotifer culture, then acclimate them to water from the larval tank in a small container, feed then the green water and selco, strain again and then feed the larva tank, bit of work there. There is however a noticeable difference in how lively the larva are, morbidity rate and post morph health.

leahfiish · Aug 30, 2017

@Centerline do you have pictures of your setup?

Centerline · Aug 31, 2017

leahfiish said:
@Centerline do you have pictures of your setup?

Really just three 2 liter bottles with air stones. And actually you don't need the air stones. If you culture your own green water be sure to use separate tools for handling them as one rotifer will turn into a bunch and contaminate the setup. For a more professional setup check this out

http://reedmariculture.com/support_rotifers_recommended.php - look at the compact culture system.

But consider two of them for redundancy. You will also need a harvesting sieve - same place. Not having rotifers when you need them for larval is bad news. They also have a product called Rotigrow Onestep that looks like a pretty good feed and will allow you to skip growing your own green water. The reason I like the product is not that its a substitute for green water but that it effectively "packs" the rotifers with nutrients that the larval will need.
--------------- From their site---------------
Optimal HUFA enrichment with high protein content
This eliminates any separate enrichment steps. Typical analysis (ash free) of rotifers grown on RotiGrow OneStep:

70% Protein
12% lipid
25% DHA (% of fatty acids)
7% EPA (% of fatty acids)
2% ARA (% of fatty acids)

--------------End---------------------------------

So the important part here pretty much everything. A lot of growers do not pack rotifers and wait until feeding brine shrimp to start packing with selco or something like this stuff. But my personal experience has been that packing the rotifers really increases the number of larval that morph and the seem to be much healthier post morph.

leahfiish · Aug 31, 2017

Thanks. I'm really interested in starting cultures of Phytoplankton, zooplankton, brine shrimp, rotifers, and copepods to feed my mixed reef, give to other local hobbyist, and to possibly raise some baby fish when the time comes. I'm trying to figure out the amount of time and effort required for these things to see if I should set it up at home or at work, and to decide whether I should diy it with 2l bottles or invest a little more. I've never really done anything like that so it's a lot of info at once and it seems like everybody has a different method.
Sorry to hijack the thread though, I may have to make a new one.