Jestersix

Live Rotifers-who has dealt with them

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L/B Block

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Has anyone put rotifers in their tank?
I read they can self propagate but then read they need to eat a lot (4x a day). So I am not sure then what you need to do to keep them going (dose phytoplankton 3-4x a day?)

I do have a pretty good copepod population going but thinking of adding live rotifers to the food chain. I don’t feel like growing them however.

Any input? Thanks
 
I doubt they will survive in any meaningful numbers in the tank itself. My experience is just in working with L-type rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) but they can be finicky even in fairly "sterile" cultures and will almost certainly experience a population crash within a matter of hours within a reef tank.

They can eat prepared microalgae foods, but live is more ideal. Reed Mariculture makes a good one called RotiGrow. They need quite a bit of food in suspension in the water column (your tank water would need to be lightly tinted green at all times) which means poor water quality for the rest of your tank's inhabitants so I really wouldn't recommend trying to culture in your tank.

They do best with with live microalgae feeds (in my experience they really like Tetraselmis, do fairly well with Isochrysis galbana, and maybe a little less so with Nannochloropsis). The water of the culture vessel they are in needs to remain a very light tint of green (or golden brown if using Iso) at all times. That can be accomplished with a twice per day feed at a minimum, but you could also feed less more often. Too much food will cause their population to crash -- and so will feeding too little.

Your best bet to have a continual source of rotifers for the tank would be to maintain one or two small cultures in 2L bottles, harvest 1/3 to 1/2 each day, dump into the tank, and refill with new saltwater.
 
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biophilia said:
I doubt they will survive in any meaningful numbers in the tank itself. My experience is just in working with L-type rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) but they can be finicky even in fairly "sterile" cultures and will almost certainly experience a population crash within a matter of hours within a reef tank.

They can eat prepared microalgae foods, but live is more ideal. Reed Mariculture makes a good one called RotiGrow. They need quite a bit of food in suspension in the water column (your tank water would need to be lightly tinted green at all times) which means poor water quality for the rest of your tank's inhabitants so I really wouldn't recommend trying to culture in your tank.

They do best with with live microalgae feeds (in my experience they really like Tetraselmis, do fairly well with Isochrysis galbana, and maybe a little less so with Nannochloropsis). The water of the culture vessel they are in needs to remain a very light tint of green (or golden brown if using Iso) at all times. That can be accomplished with a twice per day feed at a minimum, but you could also feed less more often. Too much food will cause their population to crash -- and so will feeding too little.

Your best bet to have a continual source of rotifers for the tank would be to maintain one or two small cultures in 2L bottles, harvest 1/3 to 1/2 each day, dump into the tank, and refill with new saltwater.
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Thank you for the info. This is vey helpful. I am assuming though -you don’t want that “green” water going with the rotifers into the tank? See if i go through with this. Trying to automate much as I can with this tank…
 
L/B Block said:
Thank you for the info. This is vey helpful. I am assuming though -you don’t want that “green” water going with the rotifers into the tank? See if i go through with this. Trying to automate much as I can with this tank…
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's probably best to strain them out before feeding. You can strain them through a 53 micron sieve like this to make sure you're adding just the adults and nauplii to the tank and nothing else:


That being said, if you're just feeding them to your corals (they're too small for most fish to eat), you may want to give Reef Nutrition's Roti-Feast or Hikari's frozen rotifer cubes a try first.

Culturing them may only be necessary if you're trying to raise larval fish that need the movement of the live rotifers to have a feeding response. People mainly culture them to feed clownfish fry and similar.
 
biophilia said:
Yeah, it's probably best to strain them out before feeding. You can strain them through a 53 micron sieve like this to make sure you're adding just the adults and nauplii to the tank and nothing else:


That being said, if you're just feeding them to your corals (they're too small for most fish to eat), you may want to give Reef Nutrition's Roti-Feast or Hikari's frozen rotifer cubes a try first.

Culturing them may only be necessary if you're trying to raise larval fish that need the movement of the live rotifers to have a feeding response. People mainly culture them to feed clownfish fry and similar.
Click to expand...
Once again very helpful. Thank you @biophilia - I’ll check out those options listed. Seems way easier than trying to culture rotifers on my own. The purpose is feed mainly corals.


Any opinions on RN’s phytoplankton? Bought some today-
After the 2nd shipment of phytoplankton in a row from algae barn is no good I think I need to look elsewhere. It’s unfortunate as it really does seem to work well in the tank.
 
L/B Block said:
Once again very helpful. Thank you @biophilia - I’ll check out those options listed. Seems way easier than trying to culture rotifers on my own. The purpose is feed mainly corals.


Any opinions on RN’s phytoplankton? Bought some today-
After the 2nd shipment of phytoplankton in a row from algae barn is no good I think I need to look elsewhere. It’s unfortunate as it really does seem to work well in the tank.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit biased (I worked at Reed for 10 years) but phytoplankton is what Reed does commercially, and what makes it possible for them to do Reef Nutrition. Algae Barn is an aquarium company, Reed Mariculture is an aquaculture company with a aquarium product line. Two very different scales. Their aquaculture customers are extremely demanding in regards to quality and performance of the feeds.
 
BAYMAC said:
I'm a bit biased (I worked at Reed for 10 years) but phytoplankton is what Reed does commercially, and what makes it possible for them to do Reef Nutrition. Algae Barn is an aquarium company, Reed Mariculture is an aquaculture company with a aquarium product line. Two very different scales. Their aquaculture customers are extremely demanding in regards to quality and performance of the feeds.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input on this - Never really thought of it in those terms (aquarium company vs aquaculture company)-but it make sense.

While I do like the concept of cultivating rotifers on my own-it seems that it takes a considerable effort where I’d be better served leaving it to the professionals.

PS
 
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