Edited by LexAgate, 19 August 2015 - 11:16 PM.
Daphnia Question!
#1
Posted 19 August 2015 - 09:39 PM
#3
Posted 20 August 2015 - 07:09 AM
#4
Posted 20 August 2015 - 10:36 AM
In my experience very few shops ever sell daphnia. Why not just catch your own? Most fresh water bodies have regular blooms of daphnia, particularly during winter months when lower water temperatures mean that the oxygen levels are higher. Rain also washes nutrients, such as waterbird droppings, into lakes and ponds, and this results in bacterial blooms. The preferred food for most cladocerans is bacteria, and when bacteria (usually coliforms) bloom, so do the daphnia, which will also consume single-celled alga, if bacteria are in low numbers.
At the moment daphnia are blooming in Lake Monger, and all it takes to catch them is a long-handled, reasonably fine net. Catches will yield a plethora of different sized organisms, which can be easily screened in order to feed appropriate sizes according to needs.
Just bear in mind that if feeding wild-caught daphnia and other such live foods to very small fishes, that there are organisms that feed on daphnia which will also attack fish fry, and these need to be carefully excluded; a simple procedure if the catch is placed into a white bowl or such, and potential pests removed with a pipette, baster or such.
One thing to bear in mind is that if there are very large numbers of daphnia present in lakes, it is wise to not be greedy and attempt to overcrowd your catch in buckets. They have high oxygen requirements, and overcrowding will result in most or all of the organisms dying before you get to feed them to your fishes.
Syd.
By the way, forget the harbingers of doom who claim that live foods carry diseases. Every aquarium has microbes that potentially cause disease, and live foods seldom, if ever, introduce anything nastier than already in the aquarium.
In 63 years of feeding wild-caught live food, I have never had any problem with introducing disease into my aquaria.
Edited by sydad, 20 August 2015 - 10:41 AM.
- werdna, Westie and Michael the fish fanatic like this
#5
Posted 20 August 2015 - 12:35 PM
#6
Posted 20 August 2015 - 03:15 PM
how many do u have?i have some if you want?
http://www.perthcich...showtopic=61481
LOL
#7
Posted 20 August 2015 - 03:57 PM
how many do u have?
erm i dont know mate - i don't count them ...
they still small though.. maybe 1mm in length? but definitely breeding like crazy
i can let you know when they get to decent size?
#8
Posted 20 August 2015 - 04:08 PM
#9
Posted 21 August 2015 - 12:21 AM
Nah you can just have them! They just appeared one day lolCan I just have them or are u selling cuz I don't want to pay anything!
#10
Posted 21 August 2015 - 04:15 PM
phew I was going you say!Nah you can just have them! They just appeared one day lol
1 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users