Phyto bottle- smells okay, looks okay. Is it okay?

[Tired]

I got a small bottle of phytoplankton as a freebie in an order of supplies, and promptly forgot about it for about a month. It was in the dark and unrefrigerated the whole time. A couple days ago, I found it, opened it for a minute, closed it, and set it in very indirect sunlight. It's the normal green color of phyto, just settled, and it doesn't have any smell except a very slight tinge of sweetness. I know the nutritional value isn't exactly going to be stellar after sitting for a month, but is this safe to dose, and would it provide any benefit? I'm trying to feed copepods, with a side dish of tiny feather dusters. 

 

(Also, do feather dusters eat copepods? I'm reading online that they like phyto, and that larger particles are usually just used to make the tube, but it doesn't say if they can catch copepods at all.)

[Jakesaw]

I'm new to phyto as well.  Read online that it last up to a month in the fridge as long as it smells ok.  Turn over the bottle a few times before dosing as well.  Keep things from settling to bottom - I don't remember why this was important. 

 

Mine is 3 weeks old and still smelling fresh so I'm continuing to use. 

[LazyFish]

I dont beleive dusters eat pods the particle size they capture and ingest is quite small they have no sting or real mucous coating to trap pods with either. I mine are noted to consume the same food that I give my clams and gorgs.

[DaJMasta]

Live phyto?  If it is(was?) live and smells ok, it's probably fine.  Higher temperatures and light can be bad for storage because it runs out of nutrients by growing, but in the dark it may just have been dormant and settled, which is better for longevity than otherwise.

 

Turning over the bottle helps keeping them from settling and smothering each other, and while I'm sure at least some of the contents is dead, the dark again helps slow metabolic function, so smothering is less of an issue as less is required of the cells under the top layers.

 

 

The real test would be mixing some with some fresh, similar salinity seawater, adding some fertilizer (even regular household ones can work), aerating, and seeing if it darkens after a few days in the light, but if it doesn't smell bad it is probably at least safe to dose.  I've had a colony of phyto crash and it definitely did not smell normal nor good.

[Tired]

Yep, live phyto. Definitely doesn't smell like rot. Probably has gone dormant. 

 

I might put a dash of it in my experimental bowl; gallon of saltwater in a bowl in front of a window, UV film on the window so it doesn't cook, fertilizer and macroalgae in the water. Absolutely no aeration except what it gets when I top off. So far, ulva, brackish-water-tolerant thin chaeto, and an unidentified filament algae that came in on said chaeto are all growing. The ulva is full of swiss cheese holes, but it's growing!

[DaJMasta]

I think the trouble of trying phyto without aeration is that it settles out - even motile species seem to end up just collecting at the bottom.  So while it does reduce relative O2 levels in the water when the plants are photosynthesizing, it may be necessary just to keep it in the water column.

[Tired]

Yeah, I'm not expecting it to work well in a bowl with no circulation, I'm just curious if it'll work at all. I didn't really expect the ulva to work, but it's definitely growing.

[DaJMasta]

I think a bunch of common macros may be able to - I was looking into some sort of vegetation for a brackish tank for the Hawaiian Opae Ula shrimp and ended up deciding to run a similar experiment with macros I had on hand as it seemed at least a few I saw documented seemed to tolerate a fair bit less salinity than ocean levels.  We shall see, but a sunlight driven, low maintenance, no pipes/wires tank seems like the right kind of excuse for a new one 🙂

[mcarroll]

On 10/28/2021 at 12:44 PM, Tired said:

I got a small bottle of phytoplankton as a freebie in an order of supplies

What brand?  Does it say whether it needs to be refrigerated on the bottle?  Does it have an expiration or "best by" date on it?

 

On 10/28/2021 at 12:44 PM, Tired said:

I know the nutritional value isn't exactly going to be stellar after sitting for a month, but is this safe to dose, and would it provide any benefit? I'm trying to feed copepods, with a side dish of tiny feather dusters. 

I can guess from your smell test that it would be safe to dose – as in won't be toxic from rotting.   But the nutritional condition of it depends on a lot of factors.  (The question above, just for one.)

 

But whether you'd want to bother adding it to your tank (due to the other issues mentioned) is another matter.

 

On one hand, I'd say why not reach out to the company that made it and asked them?   They know what phyto species they are packing, how/when in their cycle they are packing them, and what that phyto likes/doesn't like.  (All we can do is make wild-a$$ guesses. 😉)  It could be they 

 

On the other hand, do copepods like yours hunt/eat the species of phytoplankton you have?  If you aren't sure, then that's another layer of uncertainty....the pods could end up breaking down and just becoming bacterial mass and dissolved nutrients....which may not be needed and is probably a better function for fish foods to fill.  (Certainly avoid making a nutrient spike by keeping doses moderate until you can gauge the impact.)

 

On 10/28/2021 at 12:44 PM, Tired said:

(Also, do feather dusters eat copepods? I'm reading online that they like phyto, and that larger particles are usually just used to make the tube, but it doesn't say if they can catch copepods at all.)

What you're describing about your worms using it to make their tubes sounds like they are simply using it as detritus from the water column.  Just as if it was a particle of calcium carbonate, fish poop, etc.  (I would not add it if that's the only use you've found.  I definitely don'y know for sure tho.)

 

This article might be interesting: 

Growth and Survival of Juvenile Feather D uster Worms, Sabellastarte spectabilis, Fed Live and Preserved Algae

 

If you have preserved phyto (ie no expiration date) it might be worth skipping even tho your duster might eat it.  Other forms of phyto worked MUCH better in their experiments.

 

Also, I don't know if you'll be feeding any/many copepods at the low concentration you'd be using the phyto at in a reef tank.

[Tired]

It's from Aquarium Depot, says to keep refrigerated, and doesn't have an expiration date that I can see. I probably won't add it, since at this point it might not do much good. It's definitely meant to be live, it's a bottle of green water. Unless preserved phyto comes in forms other than a dry powder? 

 

I've read a couple sources saying that feather dusters only eat very small particle sizes, and use any larger particles they catch to build their tubes, as if the larger particles were detritus. Which might explain why some people have dusters they 'feed heavily' and still have them starve. 

[mcarroll]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

Unless preserved phyto comes in forms other than a dry powder? 

Yes...liquid format preserved in something like acetic acid I think is the idea.  It just got the worst results of the three types offered.  (See if they named the product they used in that article....I can't recall whether they did, but it's not uncommon to call out the products used on a paper like that.)

 

All said, I think I agree with this....

5 hours ago, Tired said:

I probably won't add it, since at this point it might not do much good.

What about trying to use it to culture some brine shrimp or something else with it?  You'd need more than just that bottle of phyto, but it would at least put that bottle to use.