Growing/Maintaining live daphnia

[AlexT]

Hi,

I have found an article written by @AbbeysDad https://mjvaquatics.com/blog-live-cultures/ and I'm going to read his content. There is more than one article about daphnia. I thought I'd ask the forum if anyone has any experience cultivating daphnia in the kind of conditions I am likely to face in London, UK over the next few months.

The average temperatures over the next 6 weeks or so will be 15C / 59F (over 24hrs) with a likely low of about 8C / 46F and about 4hrs of sun per day

Then for November and December we are looking at average temps of around 10C / 50F and we can go to a little below freezing, but the average lows are about 2 or 3C / 37F and about 2hrs of sun per day.

Or does all this temperature and sun hours not matter?

Thanks.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

following....although what's to stop you keeping them indoors?

 

[Colin_T]

Daphnia are fine outdoors in cold weather as long as the water doesn't freeze. In fact they die when the weather gets too warm. Temperatures around 10-20C are ideal for them.

You can feed them on green water or infusoria.

Start new cultures regularly and have at least 2 going at any time just in case one crashes.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

Live food for dummies

I am ready for my next phase of fishkeeping. Cultivating live foods. I think I'm going to start with vinegar eels and mosquito larvae. I have micro fish so small foods are better. When it gets a little warmer, I'm going to put a 5 gallon bucket out to get mosquito larvae. I've been...

www.fishforums.net

 

[AlexT]

following....although what's to stop you keeping them indoors?

One of the main points of this thread was to ask if it's possible to do all this indoors, but i forgot!!! I must be too smitten with Bobbi the cat, and I am not thinking straight Barnicles

 

[GaryE]

I brought a Daphnia culture indoors yesterday, since Hurricane Lee has arrived, and I wasn't sure how the predicted torrential rains would treat the outdoor tubs.

I've done this before, and always failed at it. The room they are in sits around 20, and I have lot of green water in jars, which I hope I can keep going over the winter using windows in the garage. There's no reason why it shouldn't work indoors, but for me, it never does.

If the indoor room is too warm, it's an issue. Consistent food is another. And just keeping the culture alive, but not having enough Daphnia to feed the fish is another.

I keep talking about diversity, but it affects Daphnia too. I use Daphnia pulex. For a decade, I had locally caught beasties from a vernal pond. I caught them regularly, but my cultures were from one visit to the forest. They died off every October and came back strong in April for years. Indoors, they never made it. I decided this year not to find my own daphnia, but to order from a supply company. I'm hoping I got a more southern form that's more warmth tolerant. Time will tell.

The site with the articles you linked to had a wide variety of Daphnia species or varieties. Russian red. Sounds interesting.

Photo period is important, as if I collect local plants after August, they seem to have already started started shutting down for winter. Plants from July thrive indoors year round, and for years, but August and later die in November no matter what. I suspect Daphnia could have that adaptation. So your Daphnia and my Daphnia may not be the same, and our advice for each other may not work. I'll go out on a limb and suggest Australian daphnia may be different from British or Canadian types.

Bobbi the cat? According to Mabel the dog, it will succeed, but she's an optimistic 6 month old.

 

[Colin_T]

Photo period is important, as if I collect local plants after August, they seem to have already started started shutting down for winter. Plants from July thrive indoors year round, and for years, but August and later die in November no matter what. I suspect Daphnia could have that adaptation. So your Daphnia and my Daphnia may not be the same, and our advice for each other may not work. I'll go out on a limb and suggest Australian daphnia may be different from British or Canadian types.

Of course Australian Daphnia are different. They have an accent and if you go in the water, they will kill you like everything else here does.

If you lose a Daphnia culture and the adult females had black egg sacks in them, you can dry the culture out for a few months and then refill it with dechlorinated water. The egg sacks should open and start a new cycle of life. If you do that over enough years, you will get a strain that is suited to your location.