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Re: DP Daphnia Magna and Euglena (greenwater) help needed
Chuck,
I have recently cultured daphnia outdoors, some in a ten gallon
aquarium, some in a large plastic tub. I am feeding three types of
prepared food that I ordered from a Brine Shrimp Hatchery. One is pure
spirulina algae - dried and very finely ground to a dust-like
consistancy. The other two are algae-based powders with a pinkish
color. All of these are offered as nutirent enriching food for the
cuture of Artemia nauplli and rotifer.
Some fish breeders who enrich nauplli with these products observe
increased growth rate in fry. These foods are high in fat lipids which
are apparently needed by fry in the growing stage.
Since they are essentially algae, I thought I would give them a try with
daphnia - I have not had much success with dry yeast, though others
have. I had obtained a culture of Daphnia and tried the yeast - the
population slowly dwindled to a few individuals. I put these in the two
outdoor containers. About a week later I got the algae stuff. The idea
is to mix about .5 teaspoon with a little water and shake to hydrate the
algae. Then pour into culture. The populations in both containers are
now growing at a fairly good rate.
Earlier, I had collected the pepper-like resting eggs from a pond, these
were stored in a jar of pond water in a refigerator for about one year.
I put them in an outdoor tub with leaf litter and algae in the autumn,
the eggs overwintered there and Daphnia hatched out next Spring. I was
amazed they remained viable for so long. They lived for a few weeks in
early spring and eventually subsided with the arrival of warm weather -
I think low oxygen levels may have been one factor.
I am going to bring some of current Daphnia indoors and try to
continuing culturing them with the algae feeds. I will also leave some
in oudoor tubs to see if the resting eggs are produced and if Daphnia
will emerge next Spring.
The algae feeds can be ordered from the Sanders Brine Shrimp Company.
They sent a catalog and generous portions of free samples (50 grams of
each). They also offer decapsulated and dried artemia embryos, they
call it "Instant Brine Shrimp". It can be crumbled to a very fine
consistancy and fed to fry and small fish, which my fish seem to like.
It is a nice alternative to live artemia nauplli if you haven't got some
bubbling. They have a web site with descriptions of their products:
www.sandersbshrimp.com.
Good luck with your cultures and please report back with what you find
from your own efforts.
Dave