Wes888
Reef enthusiast
Why do we need it?
New born larvae cannot see more than 1-2 bodies away and their instinct only allow them to "try" to eat something that moves right in front of them. Rotifer is the food of choice to raise larvae.
Some clownfish larvae would eat non-live food, such as frozen rotifer or pulverized flake, but the successful rate is about 1% compare to 90% from the commercial hatchery. My personal successful rate is 100%, just for comparison. :D
To start a rotifer culture, you'll need:
1. Container - Pretty much any container will do
2. Air pump
3. Rigid air tube - you can get that from pet store air line/pump area. Cost about $1-$2 for a 3 footer.
4. Rotifer Starter culture
5. Food for Rotifer - either using the commerical product such as Rotigrow or live phytoplankton.
For the container, preferably using a white color one for easy cleaning. We'll talk about it in the later post regarding maintenance. I got mine from Home Depot.
Air pump, nothing fancy. Pick the biggest one you can get since you'll need it for the phytoplanktic as well. At first I used the Whisper Air Pumps and hoped that it would be as quiet as it names imply. Later on i found out the Tetra Whisper Deepwater Pumps is much stronger and much quieter.
This is one of the Whisper Air pump I have:
Rotifer. I got mine from reedmariculture. But all you need is just a small bottle from someone to start your own.
Rotifer Density in the rearing tank
Rotifer density is one of the most important point. Since larvae cannot see more than 1-2 bodies away, you must have a minimum of 15 rotifer per ml in the rearing tank. It doesn't matter if you have just 5 larvae or 50 larvae in a tank gallon tank, you still need 15 rotifer per ml or the larvae will starve to death. This is the number 1 reason that most people cannot get their larvae to survive more than 2-3 days.
How can you tell if you have 15 rotifer per ml? I think everyone here would have those Ammonia, Nitrate or whatever liquid test kit. They come with a little glass tube that measure 5ml up to the line. 1/5 of it is 1ml. :)
Scoop 1ml of the rearing tank water out and count the rotifer using a 20 or 30x jewelry lope. You can get a jewery lope from Amazon for under $10.
1ml of rotifer water and a jewelry lope:
New born larvae cannot see more than 1-2 bodies away and their instinct only allow them to "try" to eat something that moves right in front of them. Rotifer is the food of choice to raise larvae.
Some clownfish larvae would eat non-live food, such as frozen rotifer or pulverized flake, but the successful rate is about 1% compare to 90% from the commercial hatchery. My personal successful rate is 100%, just for comparison. :D
To start a rotifer culture, you'll need:
1. Container - Pretty much any container will do
2. Air pump
3. Rigid air tube - you can get that from pet store air line/pump area. Cost about $1-$2 for a 3 footer.
4. Rotifer Starter culture
5. Food for Rotifer - either using the commerical product such as Rotigrow or live phytoplankton.
For the container, preferably using a white color one for easy cleaning. We'll talk about it in the later post regarding maintenance. I got mine from Home Depot.
Air pump, nothing fancy. Pick the biggest one you can get since you'll need it for the phytoplanktic as well. At first I used the Whisper Air Pumps and hoped that it would be as quiet as it names imply. Later on i found out the Tetra Whisper Deepwater Pumps is much stronger and much quieter.
This is one of the Whisper Air pump I have:
Rotifer. I got mine from reedmariculture. But all you need is just a small bottle from someone to start your own.
Rotifer Density in the rearing tank
Rotifer density is one of the most important point. Since larvae cannot see more than 1-2 bodies away, you must have a minimum of 15 rotifer per ml in the rearing tank. It doesn't matter if you have just 5 larvae or 50 larvae in a tank gallon tank, you still need 15 rotifer per ml or the larvae will starve to death. This is the number 1 reason that most people cannot get their larvae to survive more than 2-3 days.
How can you tell if you have 15 rotifer per ml? I think everyone here would have those Ammonia, Nitrate or whatever liquid test kit. They come with a little glass tube that measure 5ml up to the line. 1/5 of it is 1ml. :)
Scoop 1ml of the rearing tank water out and count the rotifer using a 20 or 30x jewelry lope. You can get a jewery lope from Amazon for under $10.
1ml of rotifer water and a jewelry lope:
