What are you doing with the rots to crash them? I set my Rotifers up about 12 months ago, and have never had a problem. I'm not doing anything special, it really amazed me how easy it actually is.@Brekel - I would love to have a few other people maintain some cultures.
The second bucket has crashed - I will be setting up two new buckets tonight so hopefully I will not lose then all.
Siphoned out a few dead larvae tonight but still quite a few swimming around - maybe 30+.
Not easy to get a photo of, but this will give you an idea
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:)
I had 2 x 20l buckets going - one is still going strong but I ended up with very few rotifers in the other - not entirely sure what happened.What are you doing with the rots to crash them?
I currently have the buckets sitting in my pond to try to maintain the temperature. The shed they are in is getting very cold overnight - it was close to zero a few nights ago. What should I do? If they get cold and I then put them in the fry tank at 27 won't they die from shock?Temp: room temp is fine, as long as the water is not freezing, they will still multiply.
If I had too pick a reason for the crash this would probably be it - overfeeding.Don't over feed, I know everything you've read says "Do NOT let the rotifers ever run out of food", but trust me, It's better to let them run out of food, then over feed and wipe out the whole culture.
I might have thought that the live phyto would have been cleaner ?? I am largely feeding yeast, with some phyto occassionally, and the buckets don't seem to be very dirty - I will have a closer look tomorrow.Clean your culture containers when they get dirty, to give you a rough idea, the rotifers I feed yeast to, require the bucket cleaning weekly, the rotifers I feed live phyto too, require cleaning twice a week.
This helps a lot - a guide as to how much liquid to sieve has been hard to find. I assume the phto needs to be at the same temperature as the tank to minimise shock?Finally, forget about culture density, 5 per ml or 25 per ml, it doesn't matter, once you harvest the rotifers and place them into a fry tank at 28c with live pyhto, they WILL multiply, I normally add about 6L of sieved rotifers on hatch night to the tank with 450-500 fry, I don't normally need to add any more rotifers again until day 5, just add phyto daily to keep the water tinted nice and green, and it will take care of it self.
Hope this helps,
Dave
Any chance something could be transferring water from the pond to the rotifer cultures, that could explain your crashes.I currently have the buckets sitting in my pond to try to maintain the temperature. The shed they are in is getting very cold overnight - it was close to zero a few nights ago. What should I do? If they get cold and I then put them in the fry tank at 27 won't they die from shock?
I thought it would be too, but it is definitely not the case. I've never fed yeast and phyto at the same time, I would think if you are overfeeding even a little, the yeast would quickly foul the water when it got caught in the gunk that settles on the bottom/sides from the phyto. Could explain your problem, or I could be completely wrong. :)I might have thought that the live phyto would have been cleaner ?? I am largely feeding yeast, with some phyto occassionally, and the buckets don't seem to be very dirty - I will have a closer look tomorrow.
I just pour the phyto into a 2l bottle, and throw it into the sump of my grow out system for 20 mins, that warms it up before adding to the fry tank. I run about 20L of water in the fry tank, and feed around 3.5L of phyto a day.This helps a lot - a guide as to how much liquid to sieve has been hard to find. I assume the phto needs to be at the same temperature as the tank to minimise shock?
24hrs till meta.What lighting schedule do you use?
Thanks Dave, I really appreciate your help.24hrs till meta.
My reason for 24hr lighting is pretty simple, the majority of info I read said that was how it was done, it worked for me, so I've just stuck with it.Thanks Dave, I really appreciate your help.
The lighting is an interesting one - some advocate 24 hour lighting until met, others state that the fry need their rest and a natural lighting cycle is best.
I guess it is one of those 'If it works for you...' type of things but what are you reasons for running 24 hour lighting ? Increased feeding time for the larvae?
One of the arguments I have read for having a normal cycle is that it allows the rotifers to recover whilst the larvae are asleep??
Why don't you try putting some food colouring into the water. When it leaks through it ought to be visible.Finished cleaning out my second hand tank I bought a few months ago - sterilised, rinsed a few times, put it into position and filled with tap water to check my heater was set correctly and ... it leaked Not a big leak, just a small one which is going to be hard to find.
So, tomorrow night I will have to clean out one of the other tanks I just happened to buy yesterday :)
@Dr. Schell - how do you know how many rotifers to feed i.e. 1 litre or 2 litres ?? And, if I am feeding the rots on yeast and then gut loading the rots with nanno prior to feeding to the larvae how much nanno can I expect to use? I currently have 12 litres bubbling away but not sure if that will be enough.
Yes, a few things to report :)Any updates Shane?
Ocellaris are easy on your nanno supply, try breeding Premnas, we don't start on BBS until day 8. I have 85L of phyto growing just to supply a pair of fry tanks. :)Thanks @ezza hopefully it does the job required as I am struggling to keep up the supply at the moment. I will be glad when a few more days have passed and I can stop feeding nanno and rots and try and build up my supplies.
Just need to be a little more careful when feeding/harvesting, if brine shrimp have made it in, what else has? On the plus side, some people suggest keeping several adult brine shrimp in with the rotifers, when the brine shrimp die, you do a large water change, and hopefully save the rotifers from crashing.On the one hand, I need to report that I have crashed my other bucket of rotifers - I suspect that I have been overfeeding. Interesting, I was looking in one bucket this afternoon and saw a fully grown brine shrimp swimming around :eek The only thing I can think of is that I emptied a packet of brine shrimp eggs into a container during the week - somehow one of the eggs must have found its way into the bucket :confused:
That's good news for this hatch. :)Normally, this crash would have been a disaster but whether by good luck or good fortune there is some good news. For the first few days I was putting a fair few rotifers in the larvae tank as I was not sure how many were required. Thankfully, I now have the tank teeming with rotifers - which is basically how @Dave001 suggested it should be done :)