I found this USA supply source for resting Daphnia Magna.
http://www.aquaculturestore.com/fwinverts.html#dm
Any one has any experience with this supplier?
Just call me "Ted". I am rather new to tetras though I have kept simple fish like goldfish, angels, and a 'bumpless' loahan which didn't grow to a ripe old age. It's a pity cos I treasure that last one most, as their full splendour can only be obvious in old age. Now, being busy, I go for a minimalist approach, like keeping a few nice little tetra fellas just to keep in touch with water. Seeing my little tetra friends excitingly gobbling up every tiny daphnia in their small tank is an extremely satisying experience.
I found this USA supply source for resting Daphnia Magna.
http://www.aquaculturestore.com/fwinverts.html#dm
Any one has any experience with this supplier?
Thanks to Uncle Ron for the guidance. I have revisited the earlier posts by Uncle Ron and other daphnia seniors and now understand why daphnia is so hard to get them here, main reason being that it is so easy to crash a culture, hence very cumbersome to keep it going.
Maybe one day I will try my hand at it too. Hope my little Tetra friends can wait.
They are beyond cumbersome for us at home, especially in this climate. The way I see it, the Moina we get locally are cultured in mud ponds or duck ponds full of bacteria from poop and other stuff, ditto for green water. To culture them at home aside from using green water, you have to bear with the massive stink if you use manure or those chicken poop pellets like Ronnie did. I remember his setup with a 2ft tank and all. Even with that much space and pond-style rearing, they did not do very well when heat comes into play.
You will have more luck rearing seed shrimp aka ostracods, which are very good as fish food. They're even pests in some tanks.
Fish.. Simply Irresistable
Back to Killies... slowly.
Which is why I want them, because ostracods form part of the diet of some killies.
Fish.. Simply Irresistable
Back to Killies... slowly.
Well you know who has some... xP Mine were thankfully eradicated by Indostomus. There is no way you can get rid of them without fish if you wish to overfeed a shrimp tank.
I don't quite understand the heat part though. Forgive my ignorance, but does Uncle Ron rear them indoors under shade, or outdoors without shade? I should think if in the shade, heat would not vary significantly much, as compared with the open outdoors when a few hours of the scorching heat of the sun can finish off even the best algae tank or pond.
@Draka, let me know when you're at GC or C328 next. I hope the GC uncle isolated some of these ostracods from their tanks, instead of killing them with the Gush pen.
@Ted, he kept them in a 2ft tank placed along his corridor with only partial morning sunlight I believe. Tank was oriented N-S so it was fairly shaded in that section of the corridor. There was a period of time when the temperature in Singapore rose to around 36 deg C. I think that was when he lost his D. magna cultures. These Daphnia are fairly fragile creatures, and they really dislike heat. In fact, very often when I get live Moina, when I reach home some would have already died.
You'd be surprised how tough algae are. I had a green water container that was turning clear after the snails dropped dead for some reason. Now it's back with a vengeance and baby snails are running all over the place. I thought it was already time to throw the container. At Teo's plant farm, they have a huge fiberglass pond thing at the back of the building near the shed where they house their Java ferns on driftwood. That pond is full of green water with a lot of guppies, even though it is exposed to direct sunlight for most of the day.
Fish.. Simply Irresistable
Back to Killies... slowly.
Haha no problem stormhawk, although I would definitely not want ostracods in my tank again! Copepods I don't mind though ^^
@stormhawk,
Well, I kinda of agree, since when water is concerned, continuous evaporation causes cooling at the same time, hence the water may not be as hot as I imagined.
But I should think that those who are serious about culturing daphnia for a regular supply to feed their fish is better to do it indoors with articificial lighting, and avoiding the sun's heat. But of course the algae culture itself can remain in sunlight to save power, though it may be a bit inconvenient. But ultimately I suppose it's all a matter of space availability.
I have a bunch of Cyclops living in my green water soup. Very cool critters.. except they are predatory on smaller animals.
You can do an indoor Daphnia or Moina culture if you have multiple green water cultures available to feed these voracious filter feeders. They multiply to the point that very small container cultures will crash eventually. Other problems that may surface would be mosquito breeding.
Fish.. Simply Irresistable
Back to Killies... slowly.
EH! Stormhawk, what do cyclops prey on?! You got microscope is it haha...
They eat the other tiny animals that feed on the green water I think. You can see them with the naked eye, pretty easy to see. For some reason I have a colony of them in the green water tub along with some surviving baby red ramshorn snails. There were a lot of tiny critters in the tub at one point. When the adult snails died, these other critters died too.
Fish.. Simply Irresistable
Back to Killies... slowly.
Eh interesting, I never saw copepods eating other moving things but then again I never had greenwater. They always get eaten instead.
Some Cyclops are known to feed on fish fry. The ones I have probably came with the snails in their poop. I got a bunch of them zipping around. White in color so you can easily spot them in the soup.
Fish.. Simply Irresistable
Back to Killies... slowly.
Haha used to have them when my frogbits took over the tank. Now I hardly see them, but there must be some or else the Indostomus can't possibly be surviving.
Since I have been hunting up and down everywhere for daphnia magna, it would be nice if someone can confirm that it is not obtainable here so I can give up the hunt.
Since I have no cultivation experience, I prefer to get the live culture and start learning culture from there. I have tried moina which I managed to get, but it is too small for learning purposes and so I prefer big magnas. Furthermore, my little friends are no frys and would definitely prefer more meat of the magnas.
By the way I heard Red Russian Magnas are great Magnas.
I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
Ronnie Lee
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