Where to get live food (Daphnia) in Canada?

[Beverly Erlebacher <bae at cs_toronto.edu>]

> Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 21:52:23 -0500
> From: David Webb <dwebb at dallas_net>
> 
> Non-member submission from ["Luke Piasecki" <lukep at sympatico_ca>]
> 
> From: "Luke Piasecki" <lukep at sympatico_ca>
> Subject: Where to get live food (Daphnia) in Canada?
> Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 15:25:33 -0400
> 
> My local stores don't carry live foods (except for frozen which is no
> fun) so I tried for my own culturing. Mosquito larvae will eventually
> find my bin with water (by the way when do mosquito larvae come out from
> their eggs? Night? Before or after the rain?). The brine shrimp I was
> told produces crappy yield so I have decided to go for Daphnia.

Dunno when the mosquito eggs hatch, but it's easy to get buckets full
this time of year in Toronto.  Just be sure to pour the whole bucket
through a net once a week to get all the larvae before they mature.
Btw, the mosquitos seem to prefer grungy water to lay their eggs, so
add a bit of soil or compost or grass clippings to your bin.

> I used tap water, waited a week and then added some dry grass, FE and
> some house plants fertilizer. The water turned green after a few days. I
> have also added a bit of peat. Then I have bought Daphnia eggs called
> 'ZooPlankton' : Daphnia/Moina produced by Triops Inc. I have added the
> eggs and it's been over 5 days and no Daphnias are visible... Any ideas?

There's no telling how long those eggs sat on a shelf under non-ideal
conditions. :-(  But if you leave your bucket out, you should see some
mosquito egg rafts soon.

> When could I get any aquarium live food (brine shrimp? Daphnias? ) in
> Canada or mail order?

There are some scientific supply places that sell daphnia, but it's very
expensive for a small order, shipping, etc.  

I've got white worms, vinegar eels and microworms that I'm willing to share 
with other Canadians for the cost of shipping, or in exchange for whatever.  
I will have two species of Drosophila soon, little ones (D.melanogaster) and 
big ones (D.hydei).  I've got agar, but haven't been able to get calcium 
propionate or other mold inhibitor yet.  It's cheap at the bakery suppliers, 
but the minimum quantity is 20kg ($44 Cdn), kind of an awkward thing to carry 
on the subway, not to mention enough for an army of fruit fly producers...

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