Producing young Daphnia

froggy

froggy

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Chris Michaels
Hi all

I have two Daphnia cultures running in about 18 litres of water at 17C with a 12:12 light cycle. Although the cultures are doing well, I am having trouble keeping a constant supply of young Daphnia going. I need the smallest ones to feed small larvae. The cultures tend to produce a huge crop of young, but then as these mature no more, or relatively few are produced.

Any ideas as to how to keep young Daphnia hatching?

C
 
Hi, that funny cause i read that daphnia have babies every 3 days? Could it be that the adults are over crowded and need to be harvested to make way for babies?
 
I think Bex has the right idea. To get plenty of young daphnia, it's important to harvest regularly and keep the population density in the culture at a moderate level. The surplus adult daphnia can be fed to some of your adult newts.
 
In my culture, I found that production went up since I put sponge filters in. It allows me to feed more and be less concerned about water quality. Yes, and regular harvests. I always harvest a bit more than I think I should, and whoops - the next day they seem to be right back to the previous level.

Also, if you have D. magna, they might (though I'm not sure) appreciate it slightly warmer, maybe more like 20 C. They'll grow faster for sure.
 
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