Rotifer Questions

[FB]

I started my first attempt at rotifers on Wednesday night. The rotifers were packed in a pouch with very green water. I sat the pouch on the counter to get it to room temperature. The package was small about 250 ml. I checked the Salinity of the water and it was 1.023. I took 250ml of tank water and diluted to 1.023 and put it in the microwave for 3:00 minutes on high. Let it cool to room temperature. I then mixed the two together. And started to bubble away with a slow bubble rate. I had to readjust the rate to stop the bubbles collecting rotifers on the side of the container. The water was a green colour from the packaged phyto. It has now been 36 hours and the water still has a distinct green tinge to it. I would have expected the rotifers to have eatan all the phyto by now however culture was under contnious light for approxiamtely 24 hours then 8 hours of dark. The lights just came back on. They are in a total of 500ml of water. Is their any way to tell if the rotifers I bought were actaully alive.

Thanks

FB

["Umm, fish?"]

Did you check the salinity of the tank water after you microwaved it? You tend to have a lot of evaporation in the microwave. 1.023 is kind of pushing it on the high end for rotifers, and if you salinity went up in the microwave, ... well, I have absolutely killed off rotifer cultures by screwing up and letting the salinity get off on the high side.

Good luck!

[FB]

Originally posted by "Umm, fish?"
Did you check the salinity of the tank water after you microwaved it? You tend to have a lot of evaporation in the microwave. 1.023 is kind of pushing it on the high end for rotifers, and if you salinity went up in the microwave, ... well, I have absolutely killed off rotifer cultures by screwing up and letting the salinity get off on the high side.

Good luck!

I never thought of checking it after the microwave but of course it makes perfect sence. Although it appeared to be ~ the same volume as when I put it in. Is there anyway to tell if it is dead. Smell, colour, settleing.

Thanks

FB

["Umm, fish?"]

Put 'em under a microscope is how I do it. You could also use a small loupe from a camera store (I got mine at a locally owned hardware store--they carry everything).

It also may be that, since you've added quite a bit of water volume it'll take a while for them to reproduce enough to clear that volume of water, especially at your high salinity (with greatly reduced reproduction). I'd add some freshwater to try to reduce the salinity, if I were you. I'd aim to go down a few points per day until you were at 1.014-1.017, depending on your target water where you want to use the rots.

[FB]

Would an 8X loupe be enough.

["Umm, fish?"]

It ought to be. I don't have any rots right now to check, but you ought to at least be able to see them moving around. I believe that I could see them fine at 10x, but I wanted a little higher resolution to be able to see details (20x, probably). At least, I think that's how my dissecting scope works--1x, 2x, and, 4x objectives; 10x eyepieces. It's hard to tell as it's written in Russian.

[FB]

My wife was able to bring home a microscope from work for the weekend but she didn't grab any slides. Is there anything around the house that you think could work as a slide. I can't off the top of my head think of any glass that small around the house. Could acrilic work or a piece of plastic.

Thanks

FB

["Umm, fish?"]

I bet it would. Give it a shot.

I usually just stick a small tupperware under the dissecting scope, but I guess a compound would be a different matter.

[FB]

Well I definitely have rotifers. Although they were few and far between. Most that I did find were not moving. I don't know if they were dead in the culture or died on the slide. Some were just booting it across the slide and I could not keep up with them. It is pretty cool to watch them consume algae like a little vacuum.

Heres one

[triggerjay]

Cool pic! You asked a few questions I was wanting answers to. Saved me the trouble. Good luck with them.

Jason