Daphnia questions

[Tephra]

I've posted this on the live food part of the forum, but activity seems to be better on here. So I thought I'd put a link to that post here. I hope it's not against the rules

post

 

[layna]

Hey, i tried replying on your other post but i dont know where it went so here goes,
If you look on ebay you can buy culture starter kits that have everything you need.
If you dont fancy that, then my personal method was as follows;

I got a 4 litre see through plastic tub, i added an air stone but put a clip on the tube so only 1 little bubble came out at a time.
I put in fresh dechlorinated water, but i also added some pond water and green stuff for them to eat ect, from my outdoor pond.
I did a weekly water change of about 10% as they are not very messy and occasionally threw in some more pond algae stuff and a tiny amount of yeast for them to eat
I would buy double the amount of daphnia you need when you first start though as by the time they start breeding you will have used a lot of them haha.


Hope this helps

 

[Tephra]

So basically, if you add the green pond stuff and some pond water in there, they'll have food right away and you don't need to wait for adding them in there? Neato

How about the temperature though? Coz my room is very hot, with the chiller producing so much heat from the back...

 

[layna]

on google i found this;

Daphnia

It says 18-20 is optimal for them.

Just dont leave the water too long before you get them as it might go stagnant, the day before will do.

Im no expert, thats just what i did for mine and i found it relatively problemless, the only worry you might have is that by winter daphnia tends to be harder to find but axies can go onto bloodworm if you chop it pretty small (maybe whent he lottles are around 2") so you can move onto that by then

 

[animal man]

would a 6 month old axolotl eat a fully grown daphnia

 

[Tephra]

As I understand it; age doesn't matter, size does. If it's smaller than them and it moves, it's food.

Seeing as newly hatched axies can eat newly born daphnia, I'd say six month old axies can eat adult daphnia. But personally I'd be feeding them earthworms by then.

 

[auntiejude]

My axies gave up on daphnia and brineshrimp at about 6"/ 8months - they are just not enough of a mouthful to be worth pursuing when axies get to that size!

 

[animal man]

where can I buy daphnia online

 

[Tephra]

I would only buy those daphnia starter kits online. Live daphnia, you could always ask around for someone living near you to give/sell you some. Or you simply buy them at an aquarium supply store. They really don't cost much
Regular pet stores won't have them though.

 

[layna]

I agree with above, if you axie is 6 months they should be on baby earthworms by now or at the very least bloodworms