Pytoplankton Cultures

[Mattewell]

I know a few of you have tried growing phytoplankton cultures. Have any of you seen an increase in coral health / growth after a period of feeding live phytoplankton? How much work is involved with setting up a phytoplankton factory?

[Mr James]

You've come to the right place my friend!! I cultured phyto to feed my tank weekly and my rotifers daily.

See here for my culturing experience: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=960390&highlight=phyto

And for the rotifers, minus the pictures:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=973808&highlight=phyto

[moonyguy]

Hey Matt

I am not sure about coral growth but it is sure better than some bottled stuff since you are making it fresh. It is not very difficult except that you want to keep things a little clean. If you contaminate your culture it might go bad pretty quickly. Next time you come to the meeting you can see my setup...costed me less than 10 bucks...but then I got my culture from another reefer in MN.
Vishnu

[Mattewell]

James, did you ever get to the point of feeding pytoplankton to mysis shrimp? I think that would be an endeavor that I would be interested in... I have a small 2.5 gallon all-glass aquiaruim that I could possibly raise the mysis in.... How hard do you think that would be?

[Mattewell]

Hey another thought... If you raise the pytoplankton and give me bottles of it, I could feed it to the mysis and give your bottles back filled with mysis..... possible symbiotic relationship ;)

[Mr James]

by Mattewell
James, did you ever get to the point of feeding pytoplankton to mysis shrimp? I think that would be an endeavor that I would be interested in... I have a small 2.5 gallon all-glass aquiaruim that I could possibly raise the mysis in.... How hard do you think that would be?

There ar many things you need to read up on before you start. (1) 2,5g container won't do the job. Because you will need to move them to a new container every couple of days. Now. Are we talking about mysis shrimp or rotifers?? IMO, mysis and brine shrimp are worthless. They say they are cotton candy to fish, zero nutrient value. EXCEPT, when they are first born, Napulii or something like that. I never messed with them myself because of those reasons. Rotifers are very nutritious and are easy to raise. YOU NEED A REFRACTOMETER!!!!

[icereefer]

I would agree on the brine shrimp , but I have used Mysis shrimp for many years and know many others that use it for feeding and my fish have never should any side affects of starvation,discoloring,ect. but then again I do mix there diet too.

[tarax]

You can also gut load both of those before feeding by using things like Selcon.

[Mattewell]

I have been feeding my fish nothing but mysis for the past year, all look great. If they would have ever shown Ill effects, I would have immediately started to vary diet. I would agree that varying their diet is the best for overall health and a longer life span. I feel that they are getting plenty of variation due to the fact that they are always picking copepods, amphipods, and other random bugs off the rock work. They also occasionally take a nip off the seaweed clip. So in my opinion, with my system, I feel mysis are a great food as long as a population of natural food is present.

I once saw some live mysis in a lfs in Rochester. I thought they were kind of interesting. Raising them might be interesting as well as rewarding. Then I'd get to feed my fish some live food and give them some excitement.

As a side note I really like using mysis as LPS food... they really seem to perk up after a couple of months of once a week feedings of mysis.

[Mr James]

by icereefer
...side affects of starvation,discoloring,ect....

Nobody said anything about side effects!! Who said that?? I said that brine is not as nutritious as other foods. A mixed diet is obviously the best. I buy frozen mixed bags of seafood at Wal-Mart, mix it up with Nori, Selcon, some flake foods, maybe some Spirulina and of course (who could live without it) Cyclopeeze!! Blend everything and pour into ice cube trays. On my 180g, I would take the cube and swish it around in the water and the fish/corals/inverts would go nuts. I fed three times a day, mostly because of my (4) Anthias.

See (found only on Reef Central!!):

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m121/floridahoosiers/Jims%20Reef%20Tank/DSC05085.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m121/floridahoosiers/Jims%20Reef%20Tank/DSC05083.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m121/floridahoosiers/Jims%20Reef%20Tank/DSC05084.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m121/floridahoosiers/Jims%20Reef%20Tank/DSC05086.jpg

The Results - Healthy Livestock:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m121/floridahoosiers/Jims%20Reef%20Tank/DSC05145.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m121/floridahoosiers/Jims%20Reef%20Tank/DSC05265.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m121/floridahoosiers/Jims%20Reef%20Tank/CRW_5723.jpg

[Mr James]

IME, Mysis and Brine are tough to raise. I had better luck at rotifers and phytoplankton. I had raised them in 10g tanks before and found it to be very difficult. This method is MUCH, MUCH easier!!!!

Has anyone else cultured live foods and can post pictures and results??

In the picture below, the phytoplankton (Tetrselmis and Iso..... I believe), is on the left (4) bottles and the rotifers are on the right (2) bottles.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m121/floridahoosiers/Jims%20Reef%20Tank/8-5.jpg

[icereefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10632737#post10632737 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr James

IMO,mysis and brine shrimp are worthless. They say they are cotton candy to fish, zero nutrient value. EXCEPT, when they are first born, Napulii or something like that.

saying there worthless and have No nutriental factor to them would lead me to believe your fish would show side effects.

[Mr James]

by icereefer
saying there worthless and have No nutriental factor to them would lead me to believe your fish would show side effects.

You're kidding right??