Re: [Killietalk] re: food for daphnia (was: spinach in ablender for daphnia food?`)

["Scott Davis" <unclescott at prodigy_net>]

> My sporadic efforts at mass-production of green water have never worked
> consistently. This is definitely a problem with the cook, not the
> recipe, but the bottom-line is still it hasn't work well for me. Or more
> importantly, for my daphnia.

I think that a lot of times we think too small both in terms of the size of
the greenwater culture and the daphnia cultures - oh yes and sometimes with
our killifish tanks - we also think too small. But we need to be realistic
in terms of our space, time and spare change - your more sophisticated
time/cost/benefit matrix - and that is a constant source of "creative
tension" for many hobbyists.

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big
plans; aim high in hope and work." - Daniel Burnham

Doug, you are being realistic in terms of your resources and time. If it is
affordable in quantity, the APR is a brilliant idea.

I'm frankly a tad envious of fish heads who have Florida to collect from and
long outdoors seasons for raising live food and maybe fish on the back 40.
Of course there are palmetto bugs too. ;) Now, in addition to the other
things, I can envy the short drive over to the Florida Tropical Fish Farms
Association store (Gibsonton FL).

(Of course there is the on-line catelogue and the telly...)

I shudder to think of what I paid for a little vial of APR. Of course
purchase of that vial was also associated with estimates of how much would
be needed to feed a few lampeye and rainbow fry. If one were to also feed
daphnia, then a large can makes sense.

Should one keep most of the APR in the freezer, much as one can do with
large flake food containers?

> I tend to use old "mosquito water" (water in an outdoor bucket that's
> been primed with a few pieces of dry dog food to feed bacteria) as the
> starter water for the daphnia cultures, so the initial water has a
> pre-load of small living stuff before I start adding in the daphnia and
> APR. When I had an outdoor daphnia pond, it stayed remarkably
> mosquito-free (until it crashed), so I believe that daphnia will happily
> consume newly hatched mosquito larva, which are vanishingly small, that
> might inadvertently be in the mosquito water. Don't know if that
> bacteria pre-load of my water is really a necessary or useful supplement
> to the main APR foodstuff, guess someday I could experiment some on
> that. And top-off water for the daphnia cultures comes from
> water-changes of the fish tanks.

I agree that daphnia will consume mossie larvae up to a certain size. I'd
hoped to experiment with that last summer and ran out of time.

Heck, the daphnia left to "polish water" in a fry container will also turn
orange with bbs. "If it can fit in a mouth it will..."

Starting a culture with biologically active water, here also jump starts the
daphnia and varies their diet. I am guessing that, with water changes, it is
also more stable in a biological and chemical sense.

You got me thinking about what else could get fed to daphnia, other
Cladocerans, brine shrimp and the like. Recently, while excavating an off
corner of the fishroom,  found a container of anemonie food. That worked one
time before. Too expensive to purchase for the cause, but if it is taking up
space... I suppose the container of liquifry won in a raffle or found in a
goodie bag would work too.

Brine Shrimp Direct and FFTFA also carries spirulina powder.   BSD also
carries various algae pastes, Naturose Astaxanthan Powder.

I'm also curious if anyone adds a vitamin suppliment to their live food
cultures. Does it "seem" to make a difference?

Somewhere there must be studies on these things. Anyone have any URLs?

Thanks and all the best!
Scott




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