Re: [Killietalk] Dissing Daphnia ?

["Robert Goldstein" <rgoldstein at rjgaCarolina_com>]

I would surmise that daphniae and other crustaceans (limiting the discussion 
to crustaceans) would be pretty consistent in percent protein but vary a lot 
in fat content depending on the oils in their diet. Crustaceans use protein 
and other substances structurally but are able to store huge amounts of 
oils. The types of oils especially HUFAs from certain algae (mostly 
dinoflagellates) influence the nutritive value of them as live food for 
fishes. In general, however, I think an especially valuable function of 
live daphniae is their removal from the water of bacteria and other single 
celled critters that use up oxygen, release waste products, and perhaps 
compete for other small foods. Daphniae beat the heck out of any filter I 
know, and trays, jars, and other containers of fry seem to do much better 
when live daphniae are added. BTW, I keep my daphniae going (indoors) in 30 
gal plastic barrels and the only food they get consists of the protzoa and 
other stuff that lives off the dead hardwood leaves on the bottom. They are 
also nice and red, which I assume is from carotenoid oils.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ROBERT ELLERMANN" <ruevenm at sbcglobal_net>
To: "killifish discussion list" <killietalk at aka_org>
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Killietalk] Dissing Daphnia ?


> could it have been vitamins in the daphnia or other necessary "food 
> stuffs'  besides protein and fat?
>
>  Bobby
>
> "Bruce J. Turner, Dept. Biol. Sci., VPISU, Blacksburg, VA 240" 
> <fishgen at vt_edu> wrote:
>  I believe that a retailer named Earl Schneider in New York wrote a couple 
> of
> books on fish care in which he did have some analyses of Daphnia made.
> (Schneider was the original publisher of the Pet Library series, before 
> TFH
> bought it.) I think it was from one of those books that I got the idea 
> that
> Daphnia were mostly shell and water. If I recall correctly, Schneider was
> prompted to do these analyses because virtually everyone in the NY/NJ area 
> at
> the time swore by the critter. "Portions" of live Daphnia were sold in 
> most
> pet shops, and several people made something of a living collecting and
> distributing it to these shops. Their collecting localities were deep, 
> dark
> secrets, but everyone knew they were getting the stuff from ponds in 
> Canarsie
> and Pelham. Many of us went on Daphnia hunts on early weekend mornings,
> long-handled nets and all...
>
> Some years ago, Daphnia and some related creatures enjoyed serious 
> popularity as
> test organisms in aquatic toxicology. There were several labs here that 
> were
> breeding Daphnia by the bucketful to serve their needs, and I was able to
> harvest their surplus. Some days, buckets and buckets of Daphnia---more 
> than I
> could use. I was breeding large numbers of blue gularis, gold lyretails 
> and
> gardneri Akure then, selling them locally to help finance my research, and 
> I
> was very impressed with the yields of eggs that I got when feeding 
> Daphnia. I
> have never been able to explain this, and I would agree that it needs some
> looking into.
>
> Bruce J. Turner
> Dept. Biol. Sci.
> VIRGINIA TECH
> Blacksburg, VA 24061
> (540)-231-7444 (V)
> "...We are Hokies. We will prevail..."
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