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Growing Daphnia & more on worms
An update on the daphnia tank.
It was reported that daphnia like both a current and clean water. It was
suggested that I keep a separate container of green water, to feed the
daphnia periodically. I decided to go ahead and keep a bucket of green water
and keep the daphnia tank separate and clean. I had a 5 gallon tank with a
bubble wand going to keep the water moving.
I pulled all the algae-covered plant matter out of the daphnia tank (which
seemed to be helping to clear the water as well), all the *sludge* (from
sponge squeezings, etc.), and put all this into a tank of tank change water.
My thinking was that some daphnia may have been hiding in the mess and I
would let it sit for a while until they emerged and grew, and catch them
before I threw the mess out. I also put in two very large snails, which had
been gotten from a walmart, and passed on to me by a neighbor, somewhere
between the size of a golf and tennis ball) to help clean up all the plant
stuff. I had no water movement in this tank. Just a big mess.
It turned out this tank was the successful daphnia tank. The first one has
grown a very small daphnia population. Tank #2 with the thrown out plants
apparently contained enough to start a culture, and it was blooming. So I
decided to add population from tank 1 to tank 2. Or should I say water and
population from tank 2 to tank 1. I figured the water was more to their
liking. Also Tank 2 has a crack and had to go.
I skimmed out everything from tank 1 and dumped the water. I then dumped
everything from tank 2 into tank 1, including the muck that had been on the
bottom. As I was down to the last bit of water in the bottom of the tank,
what appeared, but WORMS. (This must be karmic.) Similar looking to those
hideous cammallanus that killed my rams, but whitish in color. (One had a
brown coloring). Maybe the largest was 1/4 inch long.
Knowing that part of the life cycle of worms takes place in either snails or
copepods, I think perhaps I am breeding parasite-ridden daphnia for my fish.
I'm wondering if I should throw the whole mess out and go with flake.
OTOH, I'm thinking how common these things are. I can't seem to get away from
them. Maybe I should just accept them as a part of life? Serve 'em up w/ some
butter and garlic and enjoy it?
And, I would be very happy if somebody could point me to an informational
site about various aquatic nematodes and parasitic worms. I couldn't find
anything out there but terrestrial, mainly horticultural nematodes. I'd like
to try to i.d. them.
(Hmmm, maybe now I should de-worm my snails and daphnia.)
Sylvia