Sticking Tetraselmis

[Xalt75]

Hi,

I recently started culturing phytoplankton. I have Tetraselmis and Rhodomonas. Rhodomonas is growing really well, but I have some problems with Tetraselmis. In my hands they tend to stick to the walls of the bottle a lot. It's not just that they settle (which they also tend to do, but airbubbles and swirling every now and then helps), because they also stick to vertical parts of the bottle. Sometimes more than 90% of the algae stick to the walls of the bottle. Also the culture doesn't get very dense (I mean suspended cells), compared to the thick Rhodomonas culture. I have asked someone who said that if the cells have too much or not enough movement (air bubbles), they throw off their flagella and stick to the substrate. I tried to lower the amount of bubbles in one bottle but this doesn't help so far. Does anyone have experience with this or have any ideas how to prevent this from happening?

Thank you for any comments

[Luis A M]

Welcome to MOFIB!
Never seen or heard that.Not a chance of any cleansing chemical sticking to the glassware?.
TET is typically easier than RHO.

[EasterEggs]

My Tet does this too. I thought this problem was normal since this is my first phyto culture. Daily I move the rigid airline around the bottom and sides and do some swirling to loosen the algae. I find more air lessens the problem, but I need to modify my system to get more air to the phyto station. I also find that if I don't loosen the algae from the sides of the bottles that the bottles won't darken. If I swirl and loosen the algae daily the Tet will darken up and need splitting in 7-9 days. I split mine when I can't really see through the "legs" on the bottom of the pop bottles. Also, I've found that temps above about 82F really stunt my Tet.

[Ben]

Mine sticks a bit you just got to clean the sides
I think once it covers the sides it doesnt let the light through as much so the culture slows down ?
I have had mine going for atleast 2.5 years if i see it happening i just clean the bottle better
I just use hot tap water to clean them no chemicals

[Xalt75]

Thanks for your responses!

I cleansed the bottles with hydrochloric acid, and rinsed really well afterwards. In the future I will cleanse with hot tap water, though I doubt that is the problem.

In the meanwhile I observed a few more things:
- The Tet cells have a heavy prejudice of sticking to the lit side of the bottle (because they move towards the light: phototaxis)
- The tendency to stick to the sides (I am not talking about SETTLING) seems to increase if: 1) the cell density is low 2) the amount of nutrients is high (i.e. I tried F in stead of F/2 and sticking was increased dramatically) and 3) air flow is low.

Even with a lot of air and inverted soda bottles they still need a daily swirl. The good thing is that once I dilute them in SW without nutrients (in my case to feed artemia as a trial), the do not seem to stick to the walls at all anymore (maybe because nutrients are low?). Thus, they are available to be eaten

Thanks again!

[Xalt75]

One other thing: why is it that all my posts are reviewed by an administrator first? Also I do not receive any email once it is approved and could not find anything in the user settings to change this...

[Xalt75]

I forgot to mention that I obtained the Tet cells from a nearby University (marine biology dept); they said the Tet was isolated by themselves, and I have no clue as to which Tet I am actually culturing. There may be some differences between the various species of Tet I recon.

[Xalt75]

Hi all,

thank you for all your answers. I have been unable to reply for weeks now, I keep getting the message that a moderator needs to review my posts first, which apparently never happens.... Hopefully it works now.
Anyways back to the topic. I haven't really found a "cure" for the sticking behaviour of the Tet. What works reasonably is to keep them rather dense at all times, I never take out more than about 20% of the culture. I know that's not really good for the nutrional value, but once they're in the sticky mood it's hard to get them out of it again...