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Re: Regeneration of Daphnia after Freezing
> Some time ago, someone wrote in asking if daphnia
> could be spontaeoneously reproduced after freezing
> some of the the bottom barrel contents in a freezer.
> So, last Fall, from my inside culture of Daphnia
Certainly a good and wise idea Joe. It is reminiscent of Tony T's story of
his block of Cynolebias (Austrolebias) soil sent to him from Argentina.
I keep several cultures out side and on the average 5 of 6 start up
regularly every spring. One year I dropped the water on two of the 32 gallon
trash barrels and dragged them inside. They continued to produce daphnia and
even a few blood worms from the leaf litter on the bottom. (Not with the
same efficiency as outside however.)
During one of those winter warm spells the house temperature bounced up a
couple of degrees. It was enough to trigger the metamorphosis of several
blood worms into gnats and we even had a damselfly cruising the house -
something that just delighted my bride.
Craig Foldenaur (sp) from Indiana used to collect and freeze a lot of
daphnia. Not every time, but often enough to make it worth while, we could
put a small dollop of his frozen daphnia in a gallon jar of greenwater and
some daphnia would hatch out.
Last summer I also drew a few females, carrying those resting eggs, from the
rest of the day's catch. They were placed in a small jar with greenwater.
After they had consumed most of the greenwater, they would go through an
instar - or molt - and each would drop that resting egg with their old outer
shell. Stuffed with the greenwater they were then fed to the killies. The
eggs on the bottom of the jar were drained through a fine meshed sieve,
dried and plunked into an envelop.
I haven't tried to hatch them, but will try one soon. It may be - judging
from some of the posts in this thread - that they (like perrenial bulbs
native to this temperature zone) will have to be tossed into the freezer for
a bit.
All the best,
Scott
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