Is the co-culture of phyto, rotifers, and pods possible in a tank setup?

[kdx7214]

I'm currently house shopping with the plans for a 300-500 gallon reef setup mainly for mandarins. I'd like to provide a more varied live diet to emulate what occurs in the ocean (at least in the limited sense of what we can do in a controlled environment). I've read the details of culturing each of these individually but was wondering if it's possible to culture them all together. I realize there would have to be a larger culture of phyto to keep things fed.

 

[Peach02]

To some degree they live in the tank like bacteria so yes however you couldn’t do it at the density you see people doing in water bottles to my understanding

 

[sde1500]

Rotifers will completely overtake any phyto you try culturing with it. A tank that big shouldn’t struggle to support mandarins. I’d think live food cultures is unnecessary.

 

[sabeypets]

The culture would be considered contaminated, for bet results culture individually. One will typically out compete the others.

 

[FishDoc]

Rotifers will completely overtake any phyto you try culturing with it. A tank that big shouldn’t struggle to support mandarins. I’d think live food cultures is unnecessary.

This is the correct answer. Rotifers do not play nice with others. Coculture of multiple species of calanoids, maybe, but keep in mind the different demands of each. you will likely end up with one being victorious over all others and the phyto struggling to keep up long term. Generally you have to cycle (batch culture) phyto for long term success.

 

[ichthyogeek]

You'd also have to run the tank without a skimmer to keep the phytoplankton in the tank alive. And the water might be constantly hazy green (phyto), or brown (rotifers). You'd also have to contend with the fact that mandarins are a benthic species and probably won't go after the pelagic species.

Hydroids would most likely be an issue, so dipping everything prophylactically in fenbendazole would most likely be necessary.

This could work for if you were trying to work with xmas tree worms/coco worms. Or if the tank was actually a lot more shallow, dwarf seahorses and pipefish would probably also appreciate a setup like this.

 

[ThRoewer]

I actually have Tigriopus cultures with very dense algae and Brachionus (as contaminants). The cultures are outside and ran at hypersalinity (40 to 70 ppt). I would think the high salinity and fluctuating temperatures (30°C during the day and 16°C during the night) may seriously curb the reproduction of the rotifers.

Now, if you try to do this at normal or lower salinities the Brachionus will reproduce exponentially and exhaust the algae in days or even hours. The Tigriopus usually don't mind and do just fine feeding on dead rotifers. Other pods may not do so well.

 

[andrewkw]

Ideally you want to culture rotifers in a different room with completely different equipment. I thought I was being careful with mine after initially get some contaminated ones but I inadvertently cross contaminated my second batch. At the very least different corners of a room would be a good idea.