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Re: Wild Daphnia - marketing

I guess before we get too far into this, I should say that the conditions
under which this daphnia bloom occured may be very fleeting.  I'm just
hoping that they're still there when I get back from my weekend camping
trip.  I at least want to freeze some more for my own use.  I will place
some live in breathable bags too to see how they do in the frig.  Handling
may be an issue, as they seem kind of delicate.  Dipping them out in such
large quantities is probably pretty hard on them.


>Shipping with ice works very well, I am told. Also, would suggest
>packing the daphnia then refrigerating overnight, then packing in
>crumpled newspaper to prevent convection currents and provide
>insulation. Ice (in a sealed bag) or a cold pak would be advised for
>shipping in hot weather or to a location in the sunny south.  Daphnia
>pulex is less heat  tolerant than daphnia magna, so a good way to
>determine which you have is to keep a small population in an 80 -85
>degree environment for a week and see if the daphnia make resting eggs -
>if so, probably is the pulex variety, as my pulex daphnia made eggs but
>my magna daphnia did not when exposed to this heat level for about a
>week.
>
>BTW, buying a commercial culture of daphnia will get you about 12
>individuals for $3.00 - $5.00.  Full pound live food cultures (which may
>not contain a full pound of organism) retail for $15-$20, so the three
>pounds of daphnia Mark collected should be worth about $50. Not bad for
>10 minutes worth of work.  Should be quite lucrative if he can stockpile
>live daphnia in wading pools or capture them as orders come in. Where
>else can you make $300 an hour?  Suggest advertising to NFC and NANFA
>members on the lists, maybe placing an ad in FAMA, AFM, TFH, local
>aquarium club newsletters, etc.
>
>PS: suggest trying to keep daphnia alive rather than frozen, as it is my
>understanding that when daphnia are frozen, the ice crystals perforate
>their tissues and let all the good stuff leak into the water when
>thawed, leaving essentially an empty shell.  Same is true for frozen
>adult brine shrimp but not frozen baby brine shrimp - don't have the
>hard shell and freeze/thaw better. Already frozen daphnia should not be
>thawed before feeding - break off a chunk and hope the fish eat them
>before they are fully thawed.  Also, need to have really good filtration
>and scavengers to prevent liquids from the frozen daphnia from causing a
>major bacteria bloom due to free proteins, etc. in the water.
>
>
>>From owner-nfc at actwin_com Fri Aug 21 09:05:32 1998
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>>To: nfc at actwin_com
>>Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 10:02:25 -0500
>>Subject: Re: Wild Daphnia
>>Message-ID: <19980821.110108.-5459.3.robertrice at juno_com>
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>>From: robertrice at juno_com (robert a rice)
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>>
>>Very interested ....I dont know why you couldnt ship it with a bit of
>ice
>>via priority mail >?
>>
>>
>>
>>On Fri, 21 Aug 1998 08:05:03 -0400 mbinkley at earthling_net (Mark
>Binkley)
>>writes:
>>>Well,
>>>
>>>I collected about three pounds of daphnia yesterday (for those who may
>>>not
>>>know, daphnia is a tiny freshwater crustacean that is often cultured
>>>as a
>>>live fish food).  I went for a hike along the Olentangy River
>>>yesterday and
>>>noticed brownish clouds of something suspended in the water along the
>>>bank.
>>>This area is just upstream of a low dam.  Right now the flow is very
>>>low
>>>and there was practically no current along this section of the river
>>>bank.
>>>Another interesting feature of this area is that the bank here is
>>>composed
>>>of shale and gravel that are washed down by a small tributary stream.
>>>The
>>>tributary has some flow, but the water dissappears into the "delta"
>>>(is
>>>that an appropriate term?)  of shale and gravel and apparently seeps
>>>through into the river.  I could not ascertain whether there was
>>>actually
>>>any outflow from the delta where the daphnia were observed.  Judging
>>>from
>>>the extent of the delta bank and the slight flow of the tributary, I
>>>would
>>>have to say that any outflow would be minimal.  Anyway, there were
>>>thick
>>>clouds of daphnia all along the edge of the delta.  I could have
>>>easily
>>>collected 20 lb of daphnia if I wanted to.  I just used a fine mesh
>>>aquarium net to dip out the bugs, let them drain, and then dumped them
>>>into
>>>a bucket of river water.  I collected about three pounds in about 10
>>>minutes.  I took them home, dipped them out again, and put them in the
>>>freezer in ziplok bags.  Free fish food!
>>>
>>>So does anyone know of any diseases that might be transmitted by wild
>>>collected daphnia?  If not, this seems like an excellent way to
>>>collect
>>>live food for natives.  I have also observed thick congregations of
>>>daphnia
>>>in a reservoir in a State Park west of here.
>>>
>>>Wonder if this stuff can be shipped frozen or live.  Anyone
>>>interested?
>>>
>>>
>>>Mark Binkley
>>>Columbus Ohio USA          <))><
>>>mbinkley at earthling_net
>>>
>>>Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him
>>>to use "the Net" and he won't bother you for weeks.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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