iamborg Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Hi, First time trying to raise the fry but my rotifers crash after a 10 days. Please let me know what I did wrong 0) Reef nutrition 1M starter package 1) 76F water. Tetra 50W heater. Airpump. low setting. 2) 5G bucket. But only use 3.5G of water. 1.020 fresh salt water. 3) No harvest 3 days 4) Harvest 0.5G everyday after. 5) Feed 3-4 drops of aglae morning and night. Please advise. Link to comment
Pickle010 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Hi, First time trying to raise the fry but my rotifers crash after a 10 days. Please let me know what I did wrong 0) Reef nutrition 1M starter package 1) 76F water. Tetra 50W heater. Airpump. low setting. 2) 5G bucket. But only use 3.5G of water. 1.020 fresh salt water. 3) No harvest 3 days 4) Harvest 0.5G everyday after. 5) Feed 3-4 drops of aglae morning and night. Please advise. Hi... maybe I can help - first off I've never used a heater - room temp is fine. Airpump is probably fine... just make sure it's not boiling the water. I use all 5 gallons of my bucket - I top off to an inch of the rim. First 3 days is fine. .5 gallons is probably fine - I pull 2 32 oz cups of water every evening What are you feeding? 3 - 4 drops seems like not enough food to sustain them. You want to add enough feed to get the water tinted green and to have a light tint by your next feeding. I feed at 7 am and 8 pm - the feed I'm using now Rotigrow Plus from Reeds takes about half of a pipette or 12 - 15 drops to get it where I want it. The rotifer feed is critical as the rotifers aren't proving fry with much nutrition - it's what you are feeding the rotifers that the fry are benefitting from. Quality feed is important. In addition - I change my buckets 2 times a week and when I do I replace about 1/4 of the bucket with fresh salt water mixed to 1.018. You may also want to buy some Prime if you don't have any already - I add @ 10 drops every night between bucket changes. Hope this helps. Edit: I crashed my first batch by over feeding - but the steps above are what I've been doing since and it's been almost a year now. You might also want to split your batch and run two buckets. Always good to have a back up! Link to comment
iamborg Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 Thanks. What is Prime ? Also, it is rather cold in the house. Maybe 65-68 only. Still no heater needed ? I though 1 drop = 0.5ml. The bottle says 3 ml a day, so I total of 6 drops a day. I think I underfed then... thanks Link to comment
Pickle010 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Thanks. What is Prime ? Also, it is rather cold in the house. Maybe 65-68 only. Still no heater needed ? I though 1 drop = 0.5ml. The bottle says 3 ml a day, so I total of 6 drops a day. I think I underfed then... thanks I've had my temps that low all winter - I like it cold and my numbers are great. You will develop an eye for it. Get the water enough green to hold you over with a light tint to the next feeding. The last feed I used was thicker and only took 10 - 12 drops to get the water where I needed it. The feed I'm using now is thinner and it takes more to tint the water. Prime helps neutralizes ammonia - the rotifers water will get really dirty between water / bucket changes and prime helps keep the ammonia down. This is what you are looking for and was recommended over amquel or some of the other products out there: Seachem Prime Link to comment
ericm1205 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 awesome write up pickle. gonna print it out and pin it up in my breeding section when i start my rots up. sounds like he under fed and starved them as well. will the lower temps keep the rots from breeding too fast and starving themselves? Link to comment
Pickle010 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 awesome write up pickle. gonna print it out and pin it up in my breeding section when i start my rots up. sounds like he under fed and starved them as well. will the lower temps keep the rots from breeding too fast and starving themselves? It may slow them down somewhat - but I have to tell you my rot counts are outstanding since going to the roti grow plus. If they have slowed it hasn't been enough to notice. I really think the key is salinity and feed. Link to comment
iamborg Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 where do I get roti + ? I am using roti-diet from Reeds. I am into breeding just for the fun of it. It seems that I have to spend a lot of $$$ on the rotifers food alone ? thanks Link to comment
Pickle010 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Roti grow + is from Reeds too. roti-diet is supposed to be pretty good as well. I wouldn't change it up until you use it all. And yes... even recreational breeding is not cheap. The food should last you a long time. For the best results you should divide your batch among several small bottles and freeze what you do not need right away. I split my culture between 9 or 10 small 6 or 8 oz water bottles - the smalles I could find. I only keep a couple ounces in each bottle - 1 goes in the fridge the rest go in the freezer. Otherwise the feed will go bad in the fridge before you could use it all. Link to comment
iamborg Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 I am using frozen rotifers + frozen baby brine + powdered Thera A + Prime for now while waiting for my live rotifers. Day 4, and I still have 10 out of 20+ left. Link to comment
ericm1205 Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Anyone using Dt's Phyto for their food? the roti feed is ver expensive and i might just try a few bottles of Dt's before i spring for reeds stuff. i talked to a person in my local reef club who raises seahorses that she just uses DT's and all is well. Link to comment
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