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Culturing Rotifers in Small Systems
(Home or Lab)

Rotifers are VERY  EASY to culture at home. I say that up front because rotifers have received a bad reputation in the past from people that try to grow them using live algae or artificial feeds. Live algae requires too much water turnover and can only produce low densities because of the small volume of algae in the water, and artificial feeds will quickly foul the culture. Using a microalgae concentrate eliminates both of these problems.

Rotifers feed best on microalgae, typically in the 1 to 10 micron range. The most commonly used algae is called Nannochloropsis, a small green non-motile (non swimming) cell that is high in protein, carbohydrates, and lipids. Other commonly used algae are Isochrysis and Pavlova. Rotifers have a very high metabolism and need to eat every 4 hours. Fortunately this is easy to do by keeping a supply of microalgae in the water with them. Microalgae concentrates like Instant Algae ^® and Rotifer Diet^® can be added to the water once or several times each day to maintain a healthy culture rotifers. Simply add a few drops of Nannochloropsis or Rotifer Diet to the tank until you have a light green color. If the tank still has a light green color at the next feeding you are adding the right amount. If not add a bit more algae each time until there is a residual color. Note that the rotifers culture will be growing rapidly at first so checking on the color several times each day and adding algae if needed will help your culture. The most common practice is to feed the rotifers in the morning and the evening.

If you choose to set up a more sophisticated rotifer growing system please check out our Rotifer Recipe for Aquaculture.

If you have not cultured rotifers before we recommend purchasing a Rotifer Starter Kit.

Receiving your Shipment

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Setting up your Rotifer System

Key Points:

1. The basic components are a container (tank, bucket, etc), micralgae, an airstone, and declorinated, room temperature, salt water (25-28 C / 77-82 F is best, 20-25 ppt / 0.015-0.019 Specific Gravity)
2. Keep enough microalgae in the container so that the rotifers never go hungry
3. Rotifer do NOT need light

Your rotifer culture system should be set up as a stand-alone tank - typically from 1 to 10 gallons, not an in-line system like a refugium. Unlike many refugium organisms that are benthic (live on the bottom and in the rocks), rotifers are planktonic (in the water column) so if your tank is in-line too many of your rotifers will be pulled out of the system and you won't be able to maintain the densities you need.

The Plankton Culture Manual provides several examples and details on setting up rotifer cultures. We recommend a very simple model consisting of nothing more than a bucket or tank with an air stone. For a 10 gallon system:

Start Up

1. Add 3 drops of Ultimate per 10 gallons (ammonia control)
2. Put the bag of rotifers in the receiving tank to allow it to slowly warm up.
3. Wait 5 minutes then open the bag and add the rotifer starter culture
4. Add 7 drops of Nannochloropsis or 30 drop of Rotifer Diet

Daily

• Add enough Nannochloropsis or Rotifer Diet to maintain a light green color between feedings.  Typically this will be 2-3 ml's of Nannochloropsis daily per million rotifers.
• Add 1 drop of Ultimate for each 10 gallons.

Harvesting the Rotifers

To harvest the rotifers we recommend scooping water from the tank with a jar, such as a glass mason jar. By removing water and rotifers from the rotifer system you will significantly improve the quality of the culture because you will also be removing the rotifers detritus (droppings which will break down in your biofilter almost immediately).

1. Remove a portion of water from your aquarium
2. Pour the water from the aquarium into the rotifer tank through a 1 to 5 micron filter (a coffee filter will work very well). This will prevent animals from your aquarium from getting into your rotifer culture.
3. Vigorously stir the water in the rotifer tank, lifting all the debris from the bottom and cleaning the walls. This will not damage the rotifers at all.
4. Remove a matching portion (step 1) of rotifer culture from the rotifer tank with your jar.
5. Pour the rotifers into the tank you will be feeding
6. Turn off the filtration system for 30-60 minutes.

Tips

• Rotifers do not need any light, and will do best in the dark
• Do NOT let the rotifers ever run out of food.  The survivors will take up to 24 hours to recover and start producing again.
• For more detailed information about growing rotifers click on the "Rotifer Recipe" link at rotifer.reed-mariculture.com.
• The rotifers are shipped to you at a salinity of 20 ppt. They can be gradually acclimated to range from 4 ppt to 45 ppt.
• It's difficult to measure your rotifer densities without a microscope, so it might take 2-3 weeks before your find 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.

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