There are a number of clades of
zooxanthellae not all have been successfully cultured. I am not an expert on this either but in quickly reviewing where some of the clades in culture have been isolated from, the hosts, and the recommended growth media, it looks like
zooxanthellae isolated from corals(mostly) grow on f/2without silica-normal microalgae media- whereas those clades isolated from clams or anemones require a sugar added to the media. The link below is for an alternative media called K and you can find the media recipe for the f/2 without silica as well. I believe that these guys also sell pre-made media.
(
CCMP - The Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton)
There are a number of clades of
zooxanthellae that have been isolated. How do you plan to isolate the
zooxanthellae? Are you going to have the isolated zooxan identified? Do you know what clade you should be getting? There may be some in culture all ready and all you would have to do is purchase a starter culture.
