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furry daphnia




When Adrian titled this furry daphnia, my first thought was does he feed yeast? Live yeast can colonize the shells of daphnia and slow them down, even suffocate them by growing all over their breathing "oars". I try to avoid getting live yeast into my daphnia cultures. When I use it in a food, or use a veggie which might have wild yeast on it, I blend them with water in a 2 HP blender until the mixture is warm enough to kill or inactivate the yeast, thinking it only takes about 110-120 degrees F for a few seconds, after which I cool the mix by adding cold water. Is that about 45 to 50 in your degrees? Aerating the culture should knock some of the yeast off if that's what it is, and avoiding food with any juices high in sugars, should help reduce the problem in the culture.

There is also a virus which builds up inside a daphnia making it an opaque white. It is slow acting, no fur on the outside, and only affects a few older individuals, not the whole group. It doesn't fit your case very well. I suppose fungus could attack a daphnia, but I would not expect it to attack until after the daphnia is dead, but an aggressive fungus perhaps could.
  
  
My daphnia seems to be having a problem.
They seem 'furry', like having a white fur around them.
And they are swimming slower. Many are dying also.
I changed  water and they seem better but I'm afraid they're
lack of food since now the water is so clear.
Also before they develop their fur coat, there also seem to be
some white patches under their carapace.
I feed them Gram flour and yeast which i try not to over feed.
I rear them in a square plastic container (28 cm x 34 cm x 12 cm)
with about 3.5 litres of water. I put some calcium carbonate tablets
in the water (from health food store).
I estimate that there are about 200-300 individuals there..there are many
tiny ones too but they are also coated with 'hair'.
I've been keeping the culture for 3 weeks now beside the window and with a
small fan blowing over the surface to stir the surface. No aeration. They
started dying when i first start the culture, then increased in numbers but
now they are starting to die...slowly.
I'm in Glasgow, UK and temperature here is probably around 21-24 celcius
now.

Can anybody advice me?
Thanks
Adrian



  


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