Beginners Guide to Rotifers?

[NewMariner]

My clowns have started spawning. I would like to attempt to raise the fry. Is their a beginners guide to raising rotifers? I have done a search and havent really come up with anything....just about having them in 2L bottles.........

So whats the scoop? How do I go about raising rotifers?

[TippyToeX]

A great read that will explain everything you need to know.
Read Me (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2002/breeder.htm)

Good luck with the clown fry! :)

[JHardman]

Read the article that was already posted by TippyToex. Excellent article. And read the chapters in Joyce Wilkerson's book on culturing. You do have it right? If not get it, you will need it if you are going to raise clownfish.

A couple of things that people tend to gloss over that can get you into trouble...

1) Rotifers are sensitive to salinity changes. A difference of SG 0.007 can cause osmotic shock and kill the rotifers. So make sure you are culturing within the 0.007 difference between the larva tank and the culture.

2) Make sure you rinse the rotifers before feeding. Those little buggers can produce a lot of ammonia and nitrite is a very short period of time.

3) Keep some phyto in the larva tank water to help keep the rotifers fed and nutritional.

4) You may need to adjust the pH of the phyto which can be as high as 10pH, you feed the rotifers. The rotifers can take a hit in reproduction if there is a big change in pH. A little distilled white vinegar add to the phyto will drop the pH. Just add a little (1mL) at a time and measure.

HTH

[JB NY]

I wrote up a piece on cultivating rotifers on my website.

www.cnidarianreef.com (http://www.cnidarianreef.com) click on culturing live food.

[NewMariner]

Thanks for the response guys...those are some great links.......

I havent read through all of them but have scanned through em...

Joe-
Thanks, your tank is how I picture my 180g to be. I hope one day that mine looks half as good as yours....

[mocha4sale]

If your rotifers crash, can you bring them back or do you have to throw it out? How do you know it has crashed?

[JHardman]

Originally posted by mocha4sale
If your rotifers crash, can you bring them back or do you have to throw it out? How do you know it has crashed?

You will know that a culture has crashed when there are no rotifers in the culture.

You could try to restart from the crash, but frankly you would be not doing the smart and easy thing. For one you do not know for sure if the rotifers went into cyst mode and created cysts or not. For another you do not necessarily know what caused the crash in the first place, so why chance starting it again with crud that might contain whatever it was that caused it to crash in the first place.

So the smart and easy thing to do is to toss, clean with bleach and restart the culture(s).

[mocha4sale]

Sorry, I am new to this. The whole thing is I spent over $70 on rotifers and copepods and I don't see any evidence that it is living. The copepods on my aquarium are obvious cause they are stuck to my glass. As I am from Canada, it is VERY difficult to get new organisms. If this batch didn't work, then the next wont either. I have to mandarin gobies that I want to feed. My pods have been reproducing themselves nicely for the last month, but eventually these babies will grow and I don't think my live rock will keep up with it. Better safe than sorry, but I wasn't expecting this batch to crash.

I looked under a microscope, but couldn't see anything. It was a crappy microscope. To the naked eye, my copepods look hairy (fuzzy???) and brown. on my tank they are white. The rotifers' bottle has a green tint with brown spots, but the plankton feed is clear. REALLY CONFUSED!!!

Thanks for the reply