proper care for daphnia?

[scott]

i have yet another question. i just received a starter culture of daphnia pulex today. the instructions were rather vague. could someone give me "step by step" instructions for care, maintenance, feeding and harvesting. currently they are in a 20 gallon plastic barrel in my cellar. i have lighting to go over it if necessary. please advise.

 

[mummymonkey]

I've kept daphnia alive indoors but the best way I've found is with an outdoor waterbutt. Feed on dried yeast every day in the summer and a couple of times a week in the winter.
During the summer you can harvest daily, though this summer we had a lot of poor weather and they were less productive.
Even in the winter you can take the odd netfull.
A friend has a fishless pond which is loaded with daphnia. He doesn't harvest in the winter but he never feeds them either.

 

[tjnelson44]

Scott, check out this link
http://www.livefoodcultures.com/Daphnia.html
Hope this helps.
Trevor

 

[scott]

thanks that link had all the info i needed

 

[fishgeek]

if you have suffiecent light over the culture you may be able to skip the growing green water in a seperate conatainer and make it an all in one type culture
i used an old bathtub outdoors in england (cooler weather) during summer it was prolific , i never feed , just put the old tank water through and occasionally top up with garden hose - has more minerals for algal growth

larger containers are less maintaince

 

[scott]

i have a 65 watt compact flourescent not in use at the moment that i could use. i'm in RI and it only gets into the 40's in the day and teens and 20's at night and it's only gonna get colder. that's why i have them in the basement. how can i grow green water in this climate, is it possible? if not i heard that liquifry, yeast or peas can be an alternate food source.

 

[tjudy]

Light, very little water movement (just enough bubbles to break the surface tension), dried green-pea soup mix (a powder) and red ramshorn snails... I have a vague idea that the snails eat the soup mix and excrete the nutrients for the algae which grows profusely and feeds the daphnia. Regardless, the system works.

 

[scott]

well, ive been trying to "grow" green water for about 2 weeks now. the set up is separate from where i am keeping the daphnia which i have been feeding a few drops of liquifry daily with some success. for the green water i have a 33 gal tupperware container with 2 100 watt incandescent bulbs burning 24 hrs(i was told this is the best lighting to promote algae growth). there is cushed anarchrist, some lettuce and a bunch of snails. there is a very slowly bubbling air stone and i have also been adding a little liquifry once in a while. the water is crystal clear! When i first bean keeping fish years ago i was an expert at growing algae :lol: , i wish i could remember what i did then. does anybody have any suggestions? maybe i just have to wait longer? would a bit of green water help, the lfs has a green water tank in the basement.

 

[cootwarm]

I've found that a pinch of "Miracle-Gro" or "Rapid-Gro" per gallon works good when added to the greenwater tank. I read about it on a website and found it to be effective.

I haven't tried it yet, but I also read that goldfish in the greenwater tank is also effective.

Michael

 

[scott]

i have heard about goldfish being used before as well. maybe i'll try both. if the ice would melt on my pond i'de have and endless supply of shubunkins

 

[aspen]

use the miracle grow for flowering plants, this is the one with the higher phosphate levels.

rick

 

[scott]

thanks for the info, that won't kill the goldfish will it?

 

[cootwarm]

Hi Scott,

What I had read was 2 separate articles about 2 separate methods. I don't believe they were ment to be used together.

On the other hand, goldfish are hardy and might be tolerant of the few pinches of fert. Besides you can usually get comets 3 for $1, it might be worth a try.

Michael

 

[aspen]

using regular land plant food in a fish tank means introducing nitrogen as ammonia. that is very risky. i thought you wanted to create green water. i wouldn't addd the daphnia to the green water till the ammonia has gone down to acceptable levels for living water animals, ie 0.

rick

 

[farm41]

I rotate Roti_Rich and yeast for my daphnia magna. Had the culture going for more than a year now. Light on 24/7, temp 70F

 

[scott]

what is the proper amount of yeast to add per gallon? i am trying to grow the green water seperate from the daphnia so i don't kill them while experimenting. in the mean time i feed the daphnia liquifry. i would actually rather just feed yeast and Roti_Rich as farm41 does. it works for him. by the way what is Roti_Rich and how much of that do you feed also?

 

[farm41]

I add 1tbs yeast to 1 liter water, shake well and let sit for 30 minutes, then add only enough to daphnia tank to slightly cloud water. I add 2 times daily. Same with roti rich in rotation. Keep both in the fridge.

https://3kserver7.com/~frank/secure...326.29406*hs2LE6&product=ENRICHMENT_DIETS

 

[scott]

thank you

 

[farm41]

Oh, and I buy the dry roti-rich. Keeps a long time.