Spirulina for rotifers

broncofish · #1 01/22/2007, 01:25 PM

Has anyone tried using spirulina for growing rots? I have a few extra hours at school today due to exams and I'm going to try and grow rots on just about anything and everything laying around.

ediaz · #2 01/22/2007, 01:42 PM

theyll eat it but it will pullute the water quick

Ed

broncofish · #3 01/22/2007, 02:08 PM

Thanks Ed. Any idea why? Could feeding in moderation help the pollution issue?

RCS · #4 01/22/2007, 03:08 PM

Anything that's not alive will degrade quickly. Live phyto has the additional benefit of utilizing rotifer waste for its nutrients as it grows.

broncofish · #5 01/22/2007, 03:56 PM

Isnt instant algae "dead"? Why doesnt that pollute the water as fast as a spray dried algae? We currently use live phyto, but I'm just doing some thinking.

tmays · #6 01/23/2007, 01:33 AM

you can use yeast, and it does work well. Just be sure not to over do it or you will foul the water. Live phyto just gives you a little more security as far as that goes. you can always enrich the rots before you feed them to whatever your feeding.

tmays · #7 01/23/2007, 01:41 AM

I have used both live phyto and yeast. The rots seemed much more prolific on the yeast believe it or not. I also ended up with more crashes do to poor maint. Stay on the job and you'll be fine. Clean the rot tank and harvest them when you are supposed to and there should be no problems! Good luck!!!

mwp · #8 01/23/2007, 01:53 AM

Tmays, FWIW I harvest my rotifers "rarely" (i.e. maybe once in a blue moon). I feed each culture roughly 3 to 6 fl. oz. of live, refridgerated phytoplankton, once per day. If the vessle gets full, I harvest 50%. Rarely does a culture crash. Granted, I'm running at fairly LOW densities in the cultures - "greenwater technique" brings rotifer populations up in no-time when larvae are expected, and I have enough that at any given moment I can heavily seed 1 larval tank. It's been going like this for at least a year.

I don't think I could do this with my cultures were I NOT using live phyto. Not saying that Live Phyto is necessarily "right" for your needs, but it seems to work very well for mine

FWIW,

Matt

broncofish · #9 01/23/2007, 05:54 AM

We have been using live phyto for several months with great success. However, I was just looking at an alternative source for sustaining, then enriching when I needed to. I know ed uses yeast as well but how long does a packet last? I know this topic has probably been covered but we start our marine biology class this week and I'm looking for some long term projects some of them can work on.

tmays · #10 01/23/2007, 08:04 PM

Hey Matt, How are you? I too, am using phyto for my rots and brine shrimp. I was just giving him an alternative to phyto, and since I have used yeast with success, I thought I would tell him what worked for me. Who knows? I may go back to yeast and culture less live phyto. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

tmays · #11 01/23/2007, 08:06 PM

Or should I say,"more than one way to feed a rot." Ha,Ha,Ha!