Rotifers?

[jwildman]

Is anyone actively growing Rotifers? Willing to give/sell a small amount to start my culture.

 

Thanks,

 

John

[treesprite]

Is anyone actively growing Rotifers? Willing to give/sell a small amount to start my culture.

 

Thanks,

 

John

Post in WTB/FS section - there should be at least a couple people.

[ctenophore]

I am. Someone else has my culture right now though. I can give you some in a few weeks if you want to wait.

[jwildman]

I can wait .... will PM in a week or so.

 

Thanks,

John

 

I am. Someone else has my culture right now though. I can give you some in a few weeks if you want to wait.

[dbartco]

Thinking of starting a culture as well. Will split an order if you want to John. I have a few other things as well I want to get, like strainers. $13 an order of rots I beleive.

 

Maybe 2 strains might be good?

[ctenophore]

I think the only strain useful for saltwater is B. plicatilis. I will bring a 5 gal bucket of them to the frag fest for anyone interested in starting a culture. I can group buy some cryopaste for anyone interested. Some of the local shops might have it though.

[Jon Lazar]

ctenophore,

 

If you can spare a couple liters, I'll bring an empty 2l bottle to the meeting so I can restart my cultures.

 

Jon

 

I think the only strain useful for saltwater is B. plicatilis. I will bring a 5 gal bucket of them to the frag fest for anyone interested in starting a culture. I can group buy some cryopaste for anyone interested. Some of the local shops might have it though.

[dbartco]

I think the only strain useful for saltwater is B. plicatilis. I will bring a 5 gal bucket of them to the frag fest for anyone interested in starting a culture. I can group buy some cryopaste for anyone interested. Some of the local shops might have it though.

 

 

I saw that s strain that did better at higher temps, but seems like it is not around anywhere I can find. Cryopaste - You not feeding live micro?

 

Missing the fragfest, so stock these guys closer to me so I can steal from them.

[MisterTang]

I would love to start a culture of rots, as I want to breed clownfish. Count me in for a cup, if you don't mind. Also, can you direct me to a good reference on growing them? The article I read indicated that you fed them "Green water", and it appears you're using some kind of paste?

 

EDIT:

Will pick some up for Doug if he's interested, as I believe he lives close to me.

Edited July 2, 2008 by MisterTang

[ctenophore]

I feed them Reed mariculture's cryopreserved algae. It comes in a bottle that keeps in the freezer for about a year or two, or you can get a smaller bottle for about $20 that only needs refrigerated but lasts less time. A year's supply of nannochloropsis runs about $70. Way easier than dealing with live phyto cultures.

 

I have not had any problems growing L-type in my garage nearing 90F.

 

Growing them is simple:

1) feed twice per day or more (ideally keep the water light green at all times)

2) harvest half of the bucket daily by pouring into tank etc.

3) refill bucket with tank water by pouring it through a coffee filter

4) optionally add some amquel or chlor-am-x if your culture gets dense, in order to control ammonia (daily)

 

5 minutes per day tops. I'm working on an automated system and will post DIY instructions once I have a working system.

[Jon Lazar]

MisterTang,

 

You can feed rotifers live or dead phytoplankton (greenwater) like nannochloropsis. It's easy to culture your own nanno, but rotifer cultures are higher maintenance. Rotifers aren't hard, but culturing them requires a little bit of time each day and the culture is more prone to collapsing than nannochloropsis. Rotifers are functionally a smaller version of brine shrimp: they have no nutritional value of their own, but when you enrich them with phytoplankton or other nutrients, they are an excellent food source.

 

If you're serious about breeding clowns I would buy Joyce Wilkerson's book Clownfishes. You can pick it up online for around $25.

 

Jon

[MisterTang]

MisterTang,

 

You can feed rotifers live or dead phytoplankton (greenwater) like nannochloropsis. It's easy to culture your own nanno, but rotifer cultures are higher maintenance. Rotifers aren't hard, but culturing them requires a little bit of time each day and the culture is more prone to collapsing than nannochloropsis. Rotifers are functionally a smaller version of brine shrimp: they have no nutritional value of their own, but when you enrich them with phytoplankton or other nutrients, they are an excellent food source.

 

If you're serious about breeding clowns I would buy Joyce Wilkerson's book Clownfishes. You can pick it up online for around $25.

 

Jon

 

Jon,

I have spray-dried phyto that I scoop a tiny little spoon of 3X weekly into my tank for my filter feeders. Is this similar to what you're talking about?

 

I definitely want to culture rotifers, and I can spare 10-20 minutes a day to maintain them. Since I don't even have Clownfish yet, I have plenty of time to learn how to do it, and I figure something in my tank will eat them if my culture gets too large and I need to dump some.

[Jon Lazar]

Jon,

I have spray-dried phyto that I scoop a tiny little spoon of 3X weekly into my tank for my filter feeders. Is this similar to what you're talking about?

 

The product you're using is probably a dried phytoplankton and if so, should work fine. It may be more expensive though than culturing your own phytoplankton, which is nearly free.

 

Jon

[jwildman]

I woulld like a couple of liters for a starter culture, will bring a container to the Fragfest.

 

I would also be interested in a group buy of Cryopaste, just let me know.

 

Doug ... I will be happy to transfer some over to you or give you a culture when mine grows out a little, just let me know. Also would be interested in a strainer, if you order let me know and if I order I will too. What are you going to feed them?

 

Regards,

 

John

 

I think the only strain useful for saltwater is B. plicatilis. I will bring a 5 gal bucket of them to the frag fest for anyone interested in starting a culture. I can group buy some cryopaste for anyone interested. Some of the local shops might have it though.

[MisterTang]

The product you're using is probably a dried phytoplankton and if so, should work fine. It may be more expensive though than culturing your own phytoplankton, which is nearly free.

 

Jon

 

You're right, my little canister was about $14 dollars, which seemed pretty ridiculous for smelly dust particles. The sites I've read online make this rotifer/phyto thing seem more difficult than it ought to be.

[Lee Stearns]

I always have rotifers as well if you are in my area.

I used to grow green water

But Reed mariculture's cryopreserved algae as ctenophore says is much much easier.

Just PM me if you need some

[MisterTang]

Lee,

 

Thanks for the PM.

 

Are you guys coming to the Fragfest? If so, let's meet up then. I'm going to be working on getting my first big setup until then, and don't want to worry about starting ANOTHER project before this one is done!

[MisterTang]

I am still interested in some of these. Could I bum a half cup or so at the FFE tomorrow?

[ctenophore]

I will bring ~3 gal of rotifers tomorrow. Anyone who wants them should know that they need fed every 12 hours minimum with phyto. So if you want to keep the culture alive you should have a food source ready when you get home. This can be live or cryopreserved phyto (available from several LFS in the area). I will provide culture care instructions to anyone who needs them.

 

Justin

[MLazar]

I will bring ~3 gal of rotifers tomorrow. Anyone who wants them should know that they need fed every 12 hours minimum with phyto. So if you want to keep the culture alive you should have a food source ready when you get home. This can be live or cryopreserved phyto (available from several LFS in the area). I will provide culture care instructions to anyone who needs them.

 

Justin

 

Justin,

 

We'll be bringing a container to take some off your hands tomorrow. Our sincere thanks.

 

Maureen and Jon

[Jon Lazar]

Justin,

 

Thanks again for all those rotifers! I split them up into two batches for redundancy, put them under light aeration, and fed them a bunch of nanno.

 

Jon