Risk of rotifer contaminating your other cultures?

[Levinson]

I'm posting this here since I thought the people in the breeding forum would have the most experience culturing rotifers.
I'm thinking whether or not I should culture rotifers at the moment but...

The thing is though, I heard some horror storys about how the rotifers can easily contaminate your other cultures like phyto and copepod cultures and I got scared.
I read that it can ruin the other cultures and it isn't easy to prevent even if you tried. Is this true?
Yet I also see people culturing phyto as well as rotifers.
I had a very hard time getting hold of my phyto and copepods where I live and I really don't want to lose them.
I might not bother if the risks are too high.

 

[Doctorgori]

Every time and I mean everytime I tried rotifers my pHyto and pod cultures got over run/contaminated…. I’m not sure what lab procedures or protocols mitigate cross contamination….so I got nothing

 

[Levinson]

Every time and I mean everytime I tried rotifers my pHyto and pod cultures got over run/contaminated…. I’m not sure what lab procedures or protocols mitigate cross contamination….so I got nothing

Thank you! So I guess it was true after all.

 

[Eldredge]

They are a big contamination problem in my experience. If you keep them in a totally separated room and never go from rot room to the other culture rooms, it is possible to stop the cross-contamination, but you have to be diligent. If they are in the same room, I don't think you can keep them from spreading.

 

[Levinson]

They are a big contamination problem in my experience. If you keep them in a totally separated room and never go from rot room to the other culture rooms, it is possible to stop the cross-contamination, but you have to be diligent. If they are in the same room, I don't think you can keep them from spreading.

I currently culture my phyto away from the display tank and the copepod culture in a different room and it would be difficult to spare another room for rotifers.
Even if I did, I'm not sure if I can trust myself to stop the contamination issue with the rotifers.

I guess I won't try to culture rotifers. Thank you for your input.

 

[taricha]

I'd keep a good set of filters that I could use to size separate and get some phyto that was free of whatever contaminating pods or whatever I was trying to grow with it.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

You need to keep them in a separate room with their own equipment that doesn't leave that particular room . Make sure you wash your hands also before leaving said area . But yeah you get the point they can spread like wild fire and destroy a culture in just a few short days. Rotifer L and S type egg drop rates are HOURS not days . Once contamination happens it's over you will need to completely reboot your copepod or phyto cultures .

 

[Stoneyed]

You need to keep them in a separate room with their own equipment that doesn't leave that particular room . Make sure you wash your hands also before leaving said area . But yeah you get the point they can spread like wild fire and destroy a culture in just a few short days. Rotifer L and S type egg drop rates are HOURS not days . Once contamination happens it's over you will need to completely reboot your copepod or phyto cultures .

This. Separate rooms, and dedicated, labelled equipment. Also helpful to do all phyto maintenance before rotifer maintenance. 0.2um filters on the airline, and a positive pressure to prevent contaminants blowing in.

 

[floridareeflabs]

This is all true, but if you cant keep in separate room keep lids on and dont use reuse equipment to feed them or do water changes etc. have dedicated piping and equipment to deal with them always and you will be fine. Also, our rule of thumb is, if someone deals with rotifers a particular day they do not deal with anything else that day; go home shower and change and return. This goes for phytoplankton when dealing with multiple species as well as other species of copepods etc.

 

[Max Ohm]

I'm posting this here since I thought the people in the breeding forum would have the most experience culturing rotifers.
I'm thinking whether or not I should culture rotifers at the moment but...

The thing is though, I heard some horror storys about how the rotifers can easily contaminate your other cultures like phyto and copepod cultures and I got scared.
I read that it can ruin the other cultures and it isn't easy to prevent even if you tried. Is this true?
Yet I also see people culturing phyto as well as rotifers.
I had a very hard time getting hold of my phyto and copepods where I live and I really don't want to lose them.
I might not bother if the risks are too high.

Put cultures in different rooms. Each culture system should have it's own set of implements which should be rinsed and sprayed with alcohol after each use.

Spray your arms and hands with alcohol after rinsing and drying them before moving between systems.

Honestly it's really up to how closely you stay to this regimen.