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Daphnia/Moina Culture

misslyss

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Posted this in the help section with no reply so I'm hoping someone will get back to me here...

Apon waiting for my Daphnia/Moina culture to come in the mail, I've been reading up on all the different ways of raising them. There are so many different techniques, I'm not sure which one to go with. Does anyone have a safe and proven method of keeping a culture around long enough to feed my larvae?

So far I have two 2 liter bottles set aside to put them in. I live in FL so I'll keep them outside in the heat (around 80 degrees), switching them from direct sunlight to the back porch to ensure breeding.

I have some yeast I was planning on using to make pizza with, could I use some of that to feed them, or will the direct sunlight grow algae quick enough to feed them?

Also, regarding the debate on the type of water to use for these animals, would pond water be my safest bet or should I fill jugs up of drinking water at the local grocery store? I read distilled water isn't good to use because it lacks the things needed for them to grow.

Any help or tips are appreciated, this will be my first culture :happy:
 

Azhael

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Have you seen John´s brilliant article on raising Daphnia?
If not, here you go:
Daphnia

I followed John´s instructions and it´s worked great! I´m a big Daphnia fan since a few months ago :p
 

Mark

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It's a wise move to culture them outdoors. I've never had great success with indoor daphnia cultures. If you can get hold of a source of green water to pre-seed your tub(s) then this should keep them going long enough for the tubs to start sustaining the culture. I put tubs out as winter ended, added green water, daphnia and left them to their own devices. All cultures are blooming despite a few newt larvae being in with them.

As water quality is important for daphnia I would personally go bigger than 2 litre water bottles. A cheap plastic storage tub with 15-20 litres of water will provide a more stable environment for them.

Another bonus of outdoor cultures is the various insect larvae which naturally arrive over time.
 

eyrops

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Another bonus of outdoor cultures is the various insect larvae which naturally arrive over time.[/QUOTE said:
Use a little caution here. Some of the aquatic insects and aquatic insect larvae are dangerous to your larvae. Until you know them well you should exclude them.

-Steve Morse
 

shredder83

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I culture mine indoors in a 15 gallon tub and a 30 gallon tub. The smaller has an air tube that has an extremely slow flow. The large tub has no air tube at all. doesn't seem to make a difference either way. I feed them yeast and occasionally spirulina powder. I have no source of direct light on either of them.
I prefer indoor cultures because you can control what goes in them.
My cultures are so full I've been trading off containers of them for various other supplies.
 

JM29

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Yes, various aquatic insects can thrive in an outdoors Daphnia culture.
Some are interesting (Ephemeras, Mosquitos), but others may be harmful (water bugs, Dytiscidae...).

Anyways, all these insects come to the tank by flying adult forms. So, why not put a lid (a fine net for example) ?
 

misslyss

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Thanks for all the help, but I guess I'm just not cut out for Daphnia/Moina. My culture crashed, even with the larger container! The only survivors are a few adult Daphnia living in the containers with my larvae, yet too large for the babies to eat. I made another order for a Daphnia culture online. Wish me luck. :rolleyes:

In the meantime, I've collected samples of water from a nearby pond. I only put the small "black dot" looking bugs in with my larvae, just to be safe and predator free. Just by observation many of the larger bugs seem to have these little black bugs in their stomaches so I think they're an O.K. food candidate. Any idea what they are? They're around the same size if not smaller than Moina.
 

Azhael

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Probably ostracods, although this things are always hard to guess by description.

Don´t dispair, you´ll get the hang of the culture sooner or later. I´ve had a couple of small crashes but they always come back.
 

Coastal Groovin

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I have raised Daphnia in plastic shoe boxes and 5 gallon buckets feeding them ground up fish flakes. I also feed them green water. Some liquid plant fertilizer in seperate buckets just for green water growith will be needed. Even if you do everything perfect you will still have cultures crash. So you will need to have a couple going if you have the space. I always have 2 or 3 going at the same time
 
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