Daphnia Crazy

[jeff]

I can't take this anymore!!! I can't find a site that sells cultures and I need some!!

I have tried these guys, http://www.livefoodcultures.com/Daphnia.html
but the link is broken

I have been collecting them but I can get a stabel culture to work out. I know if i can get some into a tank with some yeast I may have a shot but there must be a faster way as I need some kind of source by next weekend.

any ideas?

 

[john]

The link works fine for me. Perhaps try again and see if it was just a connectivity issue or maybe the site was experiencing temporary problems.

 

[jameswei]

How bout carolina biological? or sachs aquaculture?

 

[jeff]

Well I got about 150 large ones and who knows how many tiny ones into a 10 gallon with a fair about of yeast, so off I go for the work week.

James, I will check out those links and see what I can come up with.

I put the hatched larvae into one tank and the culture into another, both are right next to each other in the garage and I guess its up to luck how everything does. I'll be back friday to see what happens.

 

[kyle]

For daphnia to culture, I believe they require a substantial amount of life to develop the food chain needed for them to eat and live. Maybe your issue of not keeping them alive lies in where you are keeping them?

Put them next to a window, but not in direct sunlight as you will have a good chance of cooking them. If you have enough of a decent light source over them in the garage, that will be ok as well.

 

[jeff]

The light is good, I put yeast in there for food, which has worked in the past, I think the real problem lies in the number that I am starting it out with. But in thoery, even 5 will start some kind of culture under the right conditions so I guess I have a chance.

 

[jennifer]

Culturing daphnia is like walking a tightrope: if you overharvest, overfeed, underharvest, or underfeed, you fall off the rope and have to start over. But once you get the balance right, you can walk all day. For me, light doesn't seem to matter much - my cultures have been continuously alive for 3+ years with no lamp and on the far side of the room from any window. But maybe I'm doing it the hard way.

Starting with 150, it's unlikely you'll have enough to harvest in a week. It takes some time to get them ramped up to a good population. Also, it works well to feed the daphnia a tiny bit every day; if you put in enough food to last them a week, it may poison them. My rule of thumb is to never add more yeast until the water is crystal clear.

Another place that sells daphnia is
dallasdiscus.com

 

[roy]

The size of the container is very important. I't won't work in a pot, You'll need at least a bucket or better a descent size aquarium. But then it is not such a problem. Keep the numbers quite low and don't feed to much.