Re: [Killietalk] Complaint Now daphnia raising

["Ken" <ken_combs at sbcglobal.net>]

Mike, some of the homemade media don't contain mold inhibitors...perhaps try
bumping up the vinegar on them...heck if anything, some of the "DIY" mixes
make the cultures go ballistic, esp. the ones with molasses and fruit
juices...problem is they seem to burn out faster than with that blue stuff
Carolina sells...

My thing is feeding them in tanks with water sprite and anacharis...I get
too many escapees...seems mostly Epi's, FP's and my uroflammeus have any
"expertise" at picking the flies off above the water line, the rest just
watch the flies scurry around the glass...but I just now see my Carolina
flies are allegedly labeled "wingless", and the others are labeled
"flightless"...I do see a slight difference in mobility, could be just the
strain, I dunno....odd, never knew there was a difference, or is there?

I do put a box filter in with my daphnia, the trick is using a filter media
with a high surface area, but doesn't filter the daphnia or food out of the
water...I use the coarse ceramic media....I also make sure the bubbles are
large and the flow rate is "lower"
As far as crashes go, I only know a few ways to avoid them: change the water
VERY often (like every other day) or hardly ever change it...I avoid foods
like yeast because I'm not good at feeding those...and sweet potatoes over
time seems to "slime" every surface...indoors a fat goldfish under strong
light is a guaranteed source of greenwater...simply swap 20% of the water
along with any hapless daphnia every other day

I might try the "rotting leaf" method just for the heckuvit....


KC



-----Original Message-----
From: killietalk-bounces at aka_org [mailto:killietalk-bounces at aka_org] On
Behalf Of Mike McConville
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 4:49 PM
To: killietalk at aka_org
Subject: Re: [Killietalk] Complaint Now daphnia raising

Daphnia have always seemed like a pain to keep running unless you have a 
huge collection. I tried them briefly and killed them off because I 
tried to use a pump in a breeder box as aeration, and I don't think I'm 
trying again soon. The fruit flies don't "crash" per say, they just 
inevitably decline over time, which makes them more predictable. Fruit 
flies really seem like the perfect food though. By the way, one way for 
anybody to make fruit fly culturing 100x easier is to buy premix media. 
I was always a skeptic and tried to go the homemade route, but that just 
ended in a bunch of failed, nasty smelling cultures. Joshsfrogs.com has 
great, inexpensive media.

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