Which LFS still selling live daphnia aka boon??

[Bern C]

Heya boonfeng~

Initially I tried culturing from the frozen Daphnia but it doesn't seem to work. XD Come to think of it, I was kinda naive. After learning more about Daphnia, I finally understand why I failed. Those frozen Daphnia cubes rarely contain Ephippia so the chances of success depends if there's Ephippia in the frozen cube or not.

I actually got them from Aquabid(US) in the form of Ephippia. At first I was worried that I might fail in hatching the Ephippia, but it did works. Although only 30% of the Ephippia hatched. I still find many unhatched Ephippia floating after few weeks. Probably those are damaged or the condition don't favour them?

Currently, I haven't culturing them for sales and it's hard for me to mass culturing. Sad the say I don't have excess stock now as few weeks ago I have decomm a few culture due to space constrain. The current culture got contaminated by Ostracod(seed shrimp). I am planning to reset them. If you don't mind the risk of Ostracod, I can sell you a cup of 50-100 Daphnia. I will help to sieve out the Ostracod but you have to quarantine the culture for a while to see if it still got invaded by Ostracod.
Else you give me 3 weeks or less. I will reset my culture and start a small culture for you.

[boofeng]

Hey!

Thanks for sharing about how you got the pulex! You're hardcore man!

I don't mind starting with smaller cultures, even 5-10 individuals will do - but I think I'll need to get some basic know-how from you about caring for these. I'm having trouble feeding my moina and they crash really fast (I feed veggie scrap, hay, filter dirt - water is cloudy, smells of decay, doesn't really clear up, and moina don't multiply after initial boom of 1-3 days - the "stable" density is really low). I'm looking into aerating my culture bins and seeing how that goes.

About seed-shrimp - I can separate them on my own. I bet it's a lot of work! I would be happy to take the easy way out and wait and pay but I feel I should do the work myself! Maybe we can arrange something by PM? I can pick up from your place weekday nights or weekends. If you have any advice at all please share! I am all ears.

Agree with you about mass-culture being unfeasible - it's not worth the time without lots of land to set up big systems. I think we're just enjoying dabbling - it's been messy but fun so far!

PS - A bit busy with work nowadays so won't be checking forum often - hobby must take a backseat for now!

PPS - Do you want earthworms? I culture two species (I think), Eisenia fetida (red wigglers) and Perionyx excavatus (blue worms). I'll provide starter cultures for free to anyone who's into culturing them. They're easy to keep propagate, but fruitflies are a major problem with my current method. If I had time I would design an enclosure that allows air to flowthru but keeps flies out (and in). There's a product idea waiting to be developed right there.

Cheers
Bufeng (this is my real name - boofeng is just an internet handle )

Heya boonfeng~

Initially I tried culturing from the frozen Daphnia but it doesn't seem to work. XD Come to think of it, I was kinda naive. After learning more about Daphnia, I finally understand why I failed. Those frozen Daphnia cubes rarely contain Ephippia so the chances of success depends if there's Ephippia in the frozen cube or not.

I actually got them from Aquabid(US) in the form of Ephippia. At first I was worried that I might fail in hatching the Ephippia, but it did works. Although only 30% of the Ephippia hatched. I still find many unhatched Ephippia floating after few weeks. Probably those are damaged or the condition don't favour them?

Currently, I haven't culturing them for sales and it's hard for me to mass culturing. Sad the say I don't have excess stock now as few weeks ago I have decomm a few culture due to space constrain. The current culture got contaminated by Ostracod(seed shrimp). I am planning to reset them. If you don't mind the risk of Ostracod, I can sell you a cup of 50-100 Daphnia. I will help to sieve out the Ostracod but you have to quarantine the culture for a while to see if it still got invaded by Ostracod.
Else you give me 3 weeks or less. I will reset my culture and start a small culture for you.

[Bern C]

Hey!

Thanks for sharing about how you got the pulex! You're hardcore man!

I don't mind starting with smaller cultures, even 5-10 individuals will do - but I think I'll need to get some basic know-how from you about caring for these. I'm having trouble feeding my moina and they crash really fast (I feed veggie scrap, hay, filter dirt - water is cloudy, smells of decay, doesn't really clear up, and moina don't multiply after initial boom of 1-3 days - the "stable" density is really low). I'm looking into aerating my culture bins and seeing how that goes.

About seed-shrimp - I can separate them on my own. I bet it's a lot of work! I would be happy to take the easy way out and wait and pay but I feel I should do the work myself! Maybe we can arrange something by PM? I can pick up from your place weekday nights or weekends. If you have any advice at all please share! I am all ears.

Agree with you about mass-culture being unfeasible - it's not worth the time without lots of land to set up big systems. I think we're just enjoying dabbling - it's been messy but fun so far!

PS - A bit busy with work nowadays so won't be checking forum often - hobby must take a backseat for now!

PPS - Do you want earthworms? I culture two species (I think), Eisenia fetida (red wigglers) and Perionyx excavatus (blue worms). I'll provide starter cultures for free to anyone who's into culturing them. They're easy to keep propagate, but fruitflies are a major problem with my current method. If I had time I would design an enclosure that allows air to flowthru but keeps flies out (and in). There's a product idea waiting to be developed right there.

Cheers
Bufeng (this is my real name - boofeng is just an internet handle )

No problem~

Hmm... I think 1 possibility of the crash is due to water quality. Is your water too cloudy? Also it might due to overcrowding. I find that aeration is optional and I don't aerate my culture. But it's good to solve the overcrowding issue or using a tall tank or container.

No worry about the seed shrimps, I will sieve them out for you as I have the sieve to do it. XD If you wanna start a seed shrimp culture I can give you some seed shrimps but seed shrimps are more like a pest to me as my fish don't eat them.
You can collect from me this Friday evening or weekend. Or do you wanna wait 1 more week till you manage to maintain the Moina culture for a longer period?? Cos Daphnia is much of a challenge compare to Moina.

Many thanks for your offer. XD I got no space to for wormy culture and now my focus is on Daphnia.. ^_^ On the path to hardcore Daphnia culture.

I will PM you my number and you can whatapps me for arrangement. =D I can also do free delivery if you stay near Novena, TPY, Boon Keng, Farrer Park MRT area or anywhere near this area.

[Bern C]

Any idea if this might be Moina Macrocopa or normal Moina from our LFS(I believe is Moina Micrura)



I think my new Moina culture is different from the one from our LFS. I stopped culturing Moina from our LFS so don't have a sample to compare. Wanted to buy a pack from LFS but run out of stock. Anybody can help me to compare with your Moina that is from our LFS? I need to know if the size exceed 0.5mm. As online articles claims that Micrura(LFS Moina) is 0.5mm while Macrocopa is 1mm. I also have some flashback that my past LFS Moina is smaller, behave and looks differently from my current Moina culture. @_@

[Bern C]

Ok... I managed to get a pack of boon/moina from Y618. After comparison, I am right that my new Moina culture is different from the one I got from Y618. I still not sure what sp. it is, but I suspect it's Macrocopa. The boon from Y618 is slightly smaller than my Moina sp.

Here's the video comparison;

[tetrakid]

Well done, bro Bern. Nice video.

With your interest in boons, it is better to concentrate your study on the bigger boons, like the ones in your video.
In time to come, you may turn out to be a 'Boon King' with good knowledge on the local boon scene. Since boons are a product in great demand, you will be on the 'right track'.

[Bern C]

Well done, bro Bern. Nice video.

With your interest in boons, it is better to concentrate your study on the bigger boons, like the ones in your video.
In time to come, you may turn out to be a 'Boon King' with good knowledge on the local boon scene. Since boons are a product in great demand, you will be on the 'right track'.

Thanks shifu Ted~

My pulex culture isn't doing well and I lost the whole colony. 1 month after they produced the ephippia, my main culture crashed and it crash at the wrong time, where I was trying to setup a spare culture. The sad thing is... I managed to hatch the resting eggs and start a new culture, after realizing the difficulty and low hatch rate of Pulex resting eggs, BUT when my culture just started to produce the 2nd generation, it crashed due to my family member spray insecticide in my room.

It's a good things that I have a big fall, as this helps me to realize that how lucky I was when I first hatched the Pulex resting eggs. Now I realize that by rehydrating and placing under the lights will not hatch the resting eggs. There are others stimuli to hatch specific types of resting eggs. I am still doing experiment on the Pulex resting eggs and it's a tedious work. @_@
XD If my experiment succeeded, I will be looking forward to source for Bigger boon like Magna or Russian Red resting eggs. XD Still got long way to go to become Boon King. Hehe.. I looking forward to become branchiopoda culturer.

[tetrakid]

@BernC

It is important to concentrate on whatever it is you are trying to culture. Which means no distractions of fishkeeping, plants aquascaping, shrimps, etc.

Perhaps it would be good to explore boon culture in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. I am sure there are many experienced people. Boons is a high demand item on the menu of the tropical fish scene.

[Bern C]

@BernC

It is important to concentrate on whatever it is you are trying to culture. Which means no distractions of fishkeeping, plants aquascaping, shrimps, etc.

Perhaps it would be good to explore boon culture in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. I am sure there are many experienced people. Boons is a high demand item on the menu of the tropical fish scene.

Yeah... I am trying to focus on just on Moina, Daphnia & Fairyshrimp. Now I only left with 2 tanks of easy to keep fishes, endlers, cories, otto.

I realize Malaysia and Thailand have the similar culturing method... culture buckets of green water then add the daphnia into it. XD But what interest me is the recipe for culturing super green water. They add lots of stuff to culture the green water. But this method isn't suitable for me and kinda troublesome.
Yeah.. it good idea to explore their method too. I trying to find more info about their method... XD Any idea where can I find boon culturer in Malaysia.. I think it's worth to visit. I wonder where our LFS get their Micrura culture from too. I think it might be Malaysia?? I realize the LFS near my house get their supplies(tubi, basic plants, fishes etc) from Malaysia.

[tetrakid]

...I realize Malaysia and Thailand have the similar culturing method... culture buckets of green water then add the daphnia into it. XD But what interest me is the recipe for culturing super green water. They add lots of stuff to culture the green water. But this method isn't suitable for me and kinda troublesome.
Yeah.. it good idea to explore their method too. I trying to find more info about their method... XD Any idea where can I find boon culturer in Malaysia.. I think it's worth to visit. I wonder where our LFS get their Micrura culture from too. I think it might be Malaysia?? I realize the LFS near my house get their supplies(tubi, basic plants, fishes etc) from Malaysia.

My view and comments are mainly academic, since I don't do much hands-on activity.

But you have actually mentioned one of the great secrets of boon culture, namely cultivating green water as feed for the booms. In fact I can't think of any better food than green water algae for the boons. Thus you should spend your efforts to become good at cultivating green water algae. It shouldn't be that difficult with the right knowledge.

[Bern C]

My view and comments are mainly academic, since I don't do much hands-on activity.

But you have actually mentioned one of the great secrets of boon culture, namely cultivating green water as feed for the booms. In fact I can't think of any better food than green water algae for the boons. Thus you should spend your efforts to become good at cultivating green water algae. It shouldn't be that difficult with the right knowledge.

Agree... Nothing can compare to their natural food source that won't foul the water. But I gotta drop this option as Singapore weather is kinda unpredictable and space constraint. XD Also it's kinda troublesome to setup a hi-end culture system. Probably will be looking at this in the future.


^_^ Some picture of the resting eggs to share. Here's my recent project... 'cracking the eggs' XD

20160509_125829.jpg20160509_131215.jpg20160509_131159_2.jpg

[Bern C]

^_^ Here's my new pet but he is the only one left. XD Last man standing.

[tetrakid]

Is that a sea monkey?
I don't fancy sea monkeys, but I adore the sea elephant which you showed before, one with the big elephant-like ears.

[Bern C]

Is that a sea monkey?
I don't fancy sea monkeys, but I adore the sea elephant which you showed before, one with the big elephant-like ears.

XD Yup... but it's freshwater monkeys not sea. This one looks cute too...

[tetrakid]

Coming back to boon cultivation, to be doable, one needs to have outdoor space such as a landed home. It's near impossible to do it effectively in an apartment dwelling.

[Bern C]

Coming back to boon cultivation, to be doable, one needs to have outdoor space such as a landed home. It's near impossible to do it effectively in an apartment dwelling.

Yup agree... If it is a big scale culturing, a lot of space needed. Culturing green water is out of the question unless building a indoor culturing system. Indoor culturing still able to reach a dense population that is enough to feed the fish. 5g tank can hold like thousands of Pulex.

[tetrakid]

You are right, bro Bern.

But to do it just to feed our fish is not worth all the trouble, since extraordinary care and effort is required. It would make sense only if one cultivated an ongoing dense culture for the purpose of regularly supplying to an outlet or two.

For feeding fish, cultivating dero/microfex worms is the way to go, but not boon.

[Bern C]

You are right, bro Bern.

But to do it just to feed our fish is not worth all the trouble, since extraordinary care and effort is required. It would make sense only if one cultivated an ongoing dense culture for the purpose of regularly supplying to an outlet or two.

For feeding fish, cultivating dero/microfex worms is the way to go, but not boon.

XD I not sure if they are worth or not as I have no luck with dero worms. I tried culture it for a while in a container but I can't multiply them much and had to keep doing WC daily or every other day. But the dero in my fish tank where there's substrate and lot of detritus multiplied quite fast.
As for Pulex, it can go without WC but only daily topup with food water. The problem with Pulex is less hardier than dero. It might crash if neglected for a while, unlike dero where it can survive with the leftover food/detritus. Once Pulex tank is stable and, food source is adequate and constant, eventually the population will stay healthy and dense unless overcrowded. XD I not sure which will multiply faster but I only know adult pulex produce a brood of at least 5 babies every 3 days. It will take 4-5 days for the baby to be sexual matured. For larger sp. of daphnia, it will take longer as it need time to grow and multiply and vise versa for smaller sp..
I am looking at culturing dero again.. XD need some pointers... I doing badly when it comes to worms.

[tetrakid]

@BernC

I should think that once you have the right setup, dero worms would not be any problem.

Maybe you can try constructing a horizontal netting partition to separate the upper part of a 2ft tank and keep a group of cheap fish there. All the fish poo will sink to the bottom through the netting to provide fresh food for the dero worms. Of course the usual filter is needed to keep the fish healthy. Worth a try if you are keen to keep a goodly sized culture of microfex going. But there will be no commercial value due to the ready availability of tubifex.

[Bern C]

@BernC

I should think that once you have the right setup, dero worms would not be any problem.

Maybe you can try constructing a horizontal netting partition to separate the upper part of a 2ft tank and keep a group of cheap fish there. All the fish poo will sink to the bottom through the netting to provide fresh food for the dero worms. Of course the usual filter is needed to keep the fish healthy. Worth a try if you are keen to keep a goodly sized culture of microfex going. But there will be no commercial value due to the ready availability of tubifex.

=D Thanks. I will look into it... I was thinking of using some kind of muddy substrate but too troublesome. What I hate is dero tend to swim around then disturbed.
Yeah.. I think deros is only good for feeding smaller fish else it isn't worth culturing.