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Re: Daphnia rearing
Take a 2 liter pop bottle. Put in a pinch of aquarium salt, a tablespoon of peat, and a pinch of fertilizer (like Miracle Grow). Fill the bottle with water from an established aquarium. Add a bunch of snails. Put the bottle in a sunny window. This will be a green water culture.
separate out the daphnia from their current container. Use a turkey baster, not a net. Put this starter in a second bottle in a sunny window. Add some snails. Each day, or at least once a week, pour some water from the greenwater container into the daphnia container. Replace the water in the greenwater container as needed. Once this daphnia bottle is full, divide it into two cultures. Once both bottles are full harvest one bottle by pouring ½ of the bottle through a brine shrimp net. Take these daphnia and freeze them. These will be your backup in case your culture crashes. I have never had a culture crash using this method, and a neglected culture can go for over a year! If you want to get bigger yields, you can feed the cultures. I try to feed just enough to feed the snails...i.e. a pinch of flake food or lettuce. I have had real good luck feeding marine invertebrate food, blended spinach, or APR, but occasionally I overfeed and the culture crashes. Good luck..bob
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