Daphnia Culture In Winter????

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Lee31

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I have been keeping a good supply of daphnia breeding and thriving for the last 4months in my shed in a 10 gallon tub, air stone and spirulina powder, occasionally topping up the group with a couple of bags og new daphnia from the aquatic store... what do i do for the winter? Will the daphnia die below a certain temperature??? and i will have to start a new culture in early spring? or could this culture go right through with spirulina feeding reduced??

Lee
 
The cold weather will slow down production but should not kill them. I had to break throw ice this year to get to mine.
 
Hello.

I culture Daphnia in winter:happy:. In mountains the last winter i see in a cold water, down ice (10cms).

Good bye !
 
If you leave the airstone in the tub, the water won't freeze over soon.
Last winter my tub was frozen to the ground but when the ice melted, the culture started to flourish again.
In summertime, Daphnia reproduce via parthenogenesis (a kind of cloning) - you will almost only find females in the tub. When it gets colder, also males "appear" and the females produce eggs that can last through winter and ice, similar to Artemia salina.

So if you need a supply over wintertime, you should keep the airstone running or even get the culture indoors. If it is enough for you to harvest new daphnia next year, you can keep them where they are.
 
We have cultures that have been outside for years, but we use much larger tubs and we don't usually harvest them during the winter. We keep smaller cultures inside and harvest them once a week during the winter.
 
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