anybody culture Isochrysis?

salty joe · Apr 26, 2019

Just wondering if it's more difficult or different than culturing Nannochloropsis or Tetraselmis, both of which I just started culturing.

sghera64 · Apr 26, 2019

No first hand experience here. I would assume you can treat it the same (bubble rate, feed rate, lights and light cycle).

The trick is to avoid cross contamination of one species to the other.

salty joe · Apr 27, 2019

I assumed the same thing and am trying to start an Isochrysis culture. A couple days after pouring the 8 oz. starter in my 2 liter bottle, it turned clear. The guy I bought it from told me that's normal and to give it a few days.

Yep, the good people at Fla. Aqua Farms told me I can easily end up with two cultures of Tetraselmis instead of one Tetraselmis and one Nannochloropsis. I'm being careful.

wesman42 · Apr 27, 2019

salty joe said:
I assumed the same thing and am trying to start an Isochrysis culture. A couple days after pouring the 8 oz. starter in my 2 liter bottle, it turned clear. The guy I bought it from told me that's normal and to give it a few days.

Yep, the good people at Fla. Aqua Farms told me I can easily end up with two cultures of Tetraselmis instead of one Tetraselmis and one Nannochloropsis. I'm being careful.

What kind of aeration are you using? You'll want to make sure the bubbles actually mix the water.

Iso is a little bit different, but mostly the same as something like tetra.

It's not normal for the bottle to run clear, that's usually a sign the culture is about to crash. Make sure you're aerating it heavily to mix it.

Lasse · Apr 27, 2019

@Sallstrom

Sincerely Lasse

salty joe · Apr 27, 2019

I have a rigid tube that extends to about 1/4" from the bottom of a 2 liter bottle. Bubbles are coming out a pretty good clip. Not having any problems with my Tetra or Nanno. The Iso is still clear. I'm thinking it was DOA. I'm giving it a couple more days because I told the vendor I would but I'm not optimistic.
FWIW, the air drawn into the air pump is being run through a HEPA filter.

sghera64 · Apr 27, 2019

salty joe said:
I have a rigid tube that extends to about 1/4" from the bottom of a 2 liter bottle. Bubbles are coming out a pretty good clip. Not having any problems with my Tetra or Nanno. The Iso is still clear. I'm thinking it was DOA. I'm giving it a couple more days because I told the vendor I would but I'm not optimistic.
FWIW, the air drawn into the air pump is being run through a HEPA filter.

Let me see if I understand, when you seeded the water with initial culture, it was slightly green, right? And you added some food (f/2 or miracle grow, at about 25 mL per 2L of medium and water at about 1.018 s.g.), right?

If you did all that, then it sounds like maybe the cells were ruptured upon receipt. That can happen if they are subjected to extreme heat or cold. They eject their cellular matter, but will not grow. There are other causes for them ejecting their intercellular matter, but I’ll leave that to the micro biologists.

I know FL Aqua farms carries iso on disks. I like their disks and they do a great job of checking the weather on the transit routes before sending (although this time of the year that’s easy).

salty joe · Apr 28, 2019

sghera64 said:
Let me see if I understand, when you seeded the water with initial culture, it was slightly green, right? And you added some food (f/2 or miracle grow, at about 25 mL per 2L of medium and water at about 1.018 s.g.), right?.

Yeah, the water was yellowish green when I first added the starter. I set salinity to 19 ppt and added 20 drops of Micro Algea Grow to 2 liters of sterile water.
I got the Nanno and Tetra on discs from Florida Aqua Farms. Very knowledgeable and helpful people. I'll probably get an Iso disc from them too.
I mainly want a greater bug population. Any benefit for other filter feeders is a plus. I'm thinking using a variety of micro algae is a good thing. Once I get Iso growing, I plan to culture a diatom to round things out. Thanks!

sghera64 · Apr 28, 2019

salty joe said:
Yeah, the water was yellowish green when I first added the starter. I set salinity to 19 ppt and added 20 drops of Micro Algea Grow to 2 liters of sterile water.
I got the Nanno and Tetra on discs from Florida Aqua Farms. Very knowledgeable and helpful people. I'll probably get an Iso disc from them too.
I mainly want a greater bug population. Any benefit for other filter feeders is a plus. I'm thinking using a variety of micro algae is a good thing. Once I get Iso growing, I plan to culture a diatom to round things out. Thanks!

I understand your diversity goal. I was aiming for the same thing. I chose to culture different micros based on their size (larger and smaller diameter) in order to feed pods at various life cycle stages. I know FAF carries Iso, but I believe it was sold out at the time I ordered.

Sounds like you are on your way Salty Joe. Best of luck.

salty joe · Apr 28, 2019

Thanks! I can hardly believe it but the Iso culture is taking on a greenish tint!;Happy

Are you culturing several phyto types?

hart24601 · Apr 28, 2019

I cultured this for a while. It was my only phyto so cross contamination wasn't a huge deal for me. I just used a cone from brineshimpdirect and air pump. It wasn't too hard, but I did keep some in the fridge for backup if cultured died which it would from time to time but replaced the backup weekly as it seemed to lose viability after long.

I made 5g jug of nutrient solution and then would just drain and feed some culture to my tank and top off with new solution and then clean the entire thing out every 1-2 weeks.

I ordered starters from a couple places including eBay. I can't remember now where it was from but my 1st commercial cultured didn't reproduce but the eBay one did. I am guessing the commercial one was older.

Adalius · Apr 28, 2019

My friend Miranda works as an aquarist at the Great Lakes Aquarium and literally just posted this 5 days ago because she's started culturing isochrysis (and was super happy its working).