Daphnia are out

Daphnia hunt anyone?

40 gal of green water is ready and waiting.

Wow, I would love to come along to see where I can catch these creature. I have some in a bucket from Sue, but it would be nice to know where to catch more if my bucket decided to go belly up.


Doug

Where to look for? Small pond? big lake? What time? Morning, day time? Evening? Any advice will be much appreciated.

Terry

terry wrote:

Where to look for? Small pond? big lake? What time? Morning, day time? Evening? Any advice will be much appreciated.

Terry

What kind of net? How many sweeps? how are you doing this? Details Details

I have a good idea of where to go, but not too much of the how? does anyone have, or are they using a plankton net? I haven't seen one for years, and don't remember enough about it to jurry rig one, but would love to have one for the various crits.

Linda

you can use a standard aquarium net when the daphnia get large enough. Any area with low current and lots of algae growth/ green water are generally full of daphnia.

Will

I put some daphnia in 40 gal tank. They survived last weeks heat. Time to harvest some for those fish that refuse to breed.

Watching the fish go nuts after daphnia is a lot of fun.

I think the green water is running out. I have attempted to perform a heavy harvest to reduce daphnia load. I added some brewer's yeast to the tank hoping that will feed the daphnia until more green water is formed.

Anyone else have any ideas on how to maintain culture?

Take some pure spirulina flake, about a cup or two of tank water and blend the snot out of it until it's a spirulina slurry. That's what kept my daphnia culture going all winter.

My culture has been going for 13 months on soy flour (with a bit of yeast and sugar). Just shake a bit with water in a covered jar and add it to the daphnia whenever the water is clear.

Just moved a culture outdoors in a 30 gallon tank and will give the sprirulina flakes a try, though it sounds a lot messier than soy flour.

Sue

I lost the daphnia culture. I added some water to culture that I should not have. It contained anerobic bacteria and hydrogen sulfide. Daphnia died but there are some wiggling animals in the water that are still wiggling. Not sure what they are.

Mine is a little bit out of control and I have not changed water in 2 weeks except from the rain. The 2 buckets and a 20H tank are all green on the walls and bottom but the daphnia are blooming. I am using the good old Soy/Sugar/Yeast formula from Sue. If want some to start a new culture, let me know.


Doug

I have not made any attempts as of yet.. BUT.. it is likely too late at this point othr than getting really light cultures..

Contact Phil Palen between the first week in may up to the first week in June... He has several ponds and you shoulld be able to freeze a few pound of Daphnia in less than 15 minutes worth of collecting.

Anchor

Doug helped me out. Thanks Doug.

Doug has an extensive daphnia culturing system.

Are Daphnia spring bugs as a rule, or do their populations ebb and flow throughout the summer? I'd like to collect more if they're still collectable.

me too I have a large pane tank that sits on my deck about halfway full of water. The water is getting pretty green, now it just needs some daphnia to add to it.