Adding Herpetal/Nekton to a Daphnia culture

[Azhael]

I´ve recently started to culture daphnia, thanks to a good friend that sent me some (and some Asellus too ).
Sadly, most died during the travel, but just over a dozen survived, and now they are breeding well. I have many tiny Daphnia swimming around

I have a question for the Daphnia pros...is it ok to add vitamin/calcium suplements to the culture?? I read they are very sensitive to many elements, so i don´t want to try and loose them all.....
Have any of you used those products safely? I suspect using Nekton would be rather benefitial (provided that it doesn´t kill them) for the canthaxanthine and other carotenes, plus of course, the calcium.
I read that adding a small amount of egg shell is good (the reason is obvious), but i don´t know what effect a complex multivitaminic would have.

 

[Jennewt]

Some recipes for daphnia food include a human multi-vitamin/mineral tablet. I have added tiny amounts of Nekton-rep Color to some of my daphnia feed mixtures and it didn't kill them. So I think that as long as you add a really tiny amount it should be OK.

When starting daphnia from a small number, be very careful about how much you feed them. Overfeeding will kill them faster than anything else. But since you already have them reproducing, you are on the right track it seems. Good luck!

 

[Azhael]

Cheers Jen!
I added a tiny amount of it and it seems to have had some effect on their colour
I´m amazed with Daphnia....i can´t believe i waited so long to culture them, they are fantastic!!!!!!!!
I have LOADS of them already....the second generation is already berried. From 16 semi-adults to a cloud of hoppy things in such little time..it´s brilliant xD If i had to guess how many there are i´d say well over 200...it´s...so great.....
Oh and i saw one of the adults "give birth" today, i didn´t know how they did it, and it´s rather fascinating.