Rotifer help please really need help!!

[simo2004]

Right not sure where to begin here

Ive cultured rotifers in the past no problem but having major problems now

I bought a dense culture of rotifers 500ml i think it was, I added them to 1000 ltr of fresh salt water at 1.020 at a temperature of 25c.

The feed i was using was RG complete the culture was also under a light for 12hrs.

Time after time the culture would crash which i kept restarting buying more rotifers off people.

I changed the temperature and left it un heated and took the light off to, but still didn't get any blooms or real growth then it crashed

I was adding 1ml in the AM and 1ml Pm to start with, i increased this to see if that would change anything but nothing.


I found a new contact who suggested starting the culture in a pop bottle and using live plankton then move to a bucket and use a concentrated feed like RG


Ive been running 2 x 2ltr pop bottles now for a week both did great same water 1.020sg un heated and no light.. i was harvesting them 25% each day and things were on the up i was feeding 10ml a day.

Rotifers 27th July: http://youtu.be/WPAcvFwNyy0
Rotifers 25th July: http://youtu.be/5gPdDj6vyiU
Rotifers 27th July: http://youtu.be/WPAcvFwNyy0


I then decided to take 1000 ml from both pop bottles and add them to a salt bucket and kept feeding live plankton at 5 ml in the AM and 5 ml PM after a few days i upped this to 30 ml of feed.

The salt bucket is still Alive rotifers in but not doing to well.

The two 2ltr pop bottles recovered on live plankton so at least i can keep them going on live plankton in bottles.


I then decided to add 2ml of RG to one of the pop bottles to see if i could get them onto RG!

The next day the culture was still green but half the density i would say so i didn't feed anymore but the next day they were all dead and was a off colour maybe a fed to much!

Im now thinking there maybe something up with my RG so i have ordered this to try


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Rotife...item3358607a67


So to re cap

Im not heating or lighting the cultures they sit at around 19c in the fish shed
salt water is at a concentration of 1.020 and the air is around 2 drops per second.

1 x 2 ltr pop bottle is teaming with life
1 x 2 ltr pop bottle is recovering from RG complete and is on live plankton!
1 x 5 ltr salt bucket isn't doing to well but alive on 30ml of live plankton


Can anyone shed some light on this please as im desperate to raise some clown fish

[gogo7]

hey simo... i use live phyto.... i only add two or three drops of roti rich every other day, per five 600ml pop bottles. i mix the drops in a small 2oz shot with fsw and distribute it amongst the five bottles....your setup looks very 'new'. rotis like to live in pop bottles that are grown over a bit... so don't wash out your rotis. don't worry it won't take long for them to look aged. if you can get hold of some live phyto, you'll have consistent results. culturing rotifers with dead foods only is a pia. i'd also reduce your bubble frequency to one bubble every two or three seconds.
i found using smaller and more containers worked best. no air. using live phyto gives you more breathing room when it comes to feeding frequency. i can go a few days on phyto only.
keep the water green and you should be okay
any cultures that 'crash'. put aside undisturbed for a few days, then check again. even dried out old culture bottles have yielded new roti cultures because of cysts left behind.
also pyto raised rotis are smaller than yeast raised ones.
i rinse the culture bottles about once a week with old tank water. if i'm using yeast or dead foods, i need to rinse more. they get dirty fast. that rotten egg smell tells you when it's time to empty rinse and refresh.
live phyto is definitely the way to go tho.

[shifty51008]

What is your water change cycle like? Also how much air are you giving the cultures?

[simo2004]

as per the you tube links you can see the air bubbles

water change i was doing 250ml haverts then 250ml fresh salt water back in

[shifty51008]

you want to change out between 25-50% of the water a day, I run a 5 gal bucket with 4 gal of water and change out about 1.5 gal. a day and have never had an issue, but have had issues if I didn't change out enough.

also turn up your air to about 3 times as much.

[shifty51008]

I should also add that the water is to clear, you always want the water to be green or they will starve out.

[GreshamH]

Originally Posted by simo2004

Right not sure where to begin here

Ive cultured rotifers in the past no problem but having major problems now

I bought a dense culture of rotifers 500ml i think it was, I added them to 1000 ltr of fresh salt water at 1.020 at a temperature of 25c.

The feed i was using was RG complete the culture was also under a light for 12hrs.

Time after time the culture would crash which i kept restarting buying more rotifers off people.

I changed the temperature and left it un heated and took the light off to, but still didn't get any blooms or real growth then it crashed

I was adding 1ml in the AM and 1ml Pm to start with, i increased this to see if that would change anything but nothing.


I found a new contact who suggested starting the culture in a pop bottle and using live plankton then move to a bucket and use a concentrated feed like RG


Ive been running 2 x 2ltr pop bottles now for a week both did great same water 1.020sg un heated and no light.. i was harvesting them 25% each day and things were on the up i was feeding 10ml a day.

Rotifers 27th July: http://youtu.be/WPAcvFwNyy0
Rotifers 25th July: http://youtu.be/5gPdDj6vyiU
Rotifers 27th July: http://youtu.be/WPAcvFwNyy0


I then decided to take 1000 ml from both pop bottles and add them to a salt bucket and kept feeding live plankton at 5 ml in the AM and 5 ml PM after a few days i upped this to 30 ml of feed.

The salt bucket is still Alive rotifers in but not doing to well.

The two 2ltr pop bottles recovered on live plankton so at least i can keep them going on live plankton in bottles.


I then decided to add 2ml of RG to one of the pop bottles to see if i could get them onto RG!

The next day the culture was still green but half the density i would say so i didn't feed anymore but the next day they were all dead and was a off colour maybe a fed to much!

Im now thinking there maybe something up with my RG so i have ordered this to try


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Rotife...item3358607a67


So to re cap

Im not heating or lighting the cultures they sit at around 19c in the fish shed
salt water is at a concentration of 1.020 and the air is around 2 drops per second.

1 x 2 ltr pop bottle is teaming with life
1 x 2 ltr pop bottle is recovering from RG complete and is on live plankton!
1 x 5 ltr salt bucket isn't doing to well but alive on 30ml of live plankton


Can anyone shed some light on this please as im desperate to raise some clown fish

Have you emailed Reed Mariculture and asked for assistance?

[anothermineral]

Originally Posted by shifty51008

you want to change out between 25-50% of the water a day

I think the above water change regiment is a bit extreme.

I run three 5 gallon buckets of rotifers and change ~50% of my water once a month.

However, I would propose removing rotifers each day, even if you don't need to feed them to your fry. This will help keep the culture healthy and not over tax your water quality. I would also not have the culture lit. I keep my cultures covered and dark. I use ~7 drops of algae paste a day.

[GreshamH]

Originally Posted by anothermineral

I think the above water change regiment is a bit extreme.

I run three 5 gallon buckets of rotifers and change ~50% of my water once a month.

However, I would propose removing rotifers each day, even if you don't need to feed them to your fry. This will help keep the culture healthy and not over tax your water quality. I would also not have the culture lit. I keep my cultures covered and dark. I use ~7 drops of algae paste a day.

Its not all for water quality, its mainly for culling (as you mentioned). If you remove 30% of the rotifers, you won't have old non egg producing female rotifers... the ones that suck up your algae but don't help your rotifer population.

[iamchadster]

I'm in the same boat hear. I am using RG complete, keeping my water green. Had a ton of rotifers for about 2 to 3 weeks. Then withouth warning my culture has also dwindled from too many to count in a pint glass looked through with a flashlight, to maybe 100 or less in the same sample. 5 gallon bucket with about 3 gallons of water keeping temp at 78, large airstone with a lot of flow and a suspended piece of floss. I also have 2 pop bottle cultures going, not heated and change 250ml of that water daily as well. These seem to be doing fine. The big culture is not though.

I am reading online and in this post some conflicting info. Do we change the water daily or just harvest some of the rotifers? I can see little bubbles on the surface of the culture each a.m. when i check it and have read this means NH3 is getting high and a water change is due so I have been scooping out about 1 gallon of rotifer water a day and dumping into my reef tank then replacing with new water at the same salinity. Although the 1 gallon added causes a temp swing I'm sure.

So, should the culture be heated? Are we removing just rotifers daily via sieve etc, or should we be changing the water out daily? On a side note I have 2 1 gallong bottles of Nanochloropsis culturing and I should be able to use to feed in the next week or so. Maybe I will have better luck with this food.

[Sport507]

You have to use phyto and do a 25% water change ever day plus take a sponge and wipe the bottom and edges of the container. I use only 5 gal bucket the phyto need light as well. I raised three hatches of clowns on one culture of rots

[GreshamH]

Originally Posted by iamchadster

I'm in the same boat hear. I am using RG complete, keeping my water green. Had a ton of rotifers for about 2 to 3 weeks. Then withouth warning my culture has also dwindled from too many to count in a pint glass looked through with a flashlight, to maybe 100 or less in the same sample. 5 gallon bucket with about 3 gallons of water keeping temp at 78, large airstone with a lot of flow and a suspended piece of floss. I also have 2 pop bottle cultures going, not heated and change 250ml of that water daily as well. These seem to be doing fine. The big culture is not though.

I am reading online and in this post some conflicting info. Do we change the water daily or just harvest some of the rotifers? I can see little bubbles on the surface of the culture each a.m. when i check it and have read this means NH3 is getting high and a water change is due so I have been scooping out about 1 gallon of rotifer water a day and dumping into my reef tank then replacing with new water at the same salinity. Although the 1 gallon added causes a temp swing I'm sure.

So, should the culture be heated? Are we removing just rotifers daily via sieve etc, or should we be changing the water out daily? On a side note I have 2 1 gallong bottles of Nanochloropsis culturing and I should be able to use to feed in the next week or so. Maybe I will have better luck with this food.

The main part of the ~30% sieving daily is for culling, the removal of the water does help with water quality. Water quality is an issue, but a MUCH bigger issue is keeping your rot culture you and thus viably producing eggs. If you don't do that, in a few weeks you'll always experience a crash *if* you maintain the same feeding regimen. The less you feed, the less you produce.