How to culture Rotifers
Basic Components
• Bottle or bucket 1-5 gallons
• Airpump and subing
• Salt water
• Temperature 20-28ºC/65-82ºF
• Salinity 10-35 ppt (Specific Gravity 1.0075-1.026. We run ours at 1.017)
• Live Rotifers
• Phyto Microalgae rotifer food
Key Factors
a) Keep enough microalgae in the system so that the rotifers never go hungry 1-2 times a day.
b) Harvest frequently.
Your rotifer culture system must be set up in a stand-alone tank – they cannot be raised in a reef tank or co-cultured with other organisms. Glass aquariums do not work as well as buckets. We recommend a very simple model consisting of nothing more than a bucket or tank with an airstone.
Starting Your Culture
- Float the bag of rotifers in the bucket with salt water.
- Wait 5 minutes then open the bag and add the rotifer culture.
- Add a few drops of Phyto to set a green tint to the water.
- Add phyto daily but wait at least 3 days before starting to harvest them if it is desired to build up the population as rapidly as possible.
Daily
• Add enough Phyto to maintain a light green color between feedings.
• Harvest regularly (yes you can harvest daily).
Tips
• Rotifers do not need any light. They are phototrophic (attracted to light) but do not require it.
• Do NOT let the rotifers ever run out of food. The survivors will take up to 24 hours to recover and start producing again.
• Air must be bubbled through the culture. Rotifers have a very high metabolism and can quickly deplete the oxygen in the water. If excess foam accumulates on the water surface a water change is suggested.
• Rotifers will do best in a pH range of 7.0 to 9.0.
• It is difficult to measure your rotifer densities without a microscope, so it might take 2-3 weeks before you find (by experimenting) an equilibrium in your system for how much algae to feed and how many liters of rotifers to remove each day without affecting your culture densities.