Daphnia, soy protein powder and temperature?

Molch

Molch

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My dear neighbors have brought me soy protein powder from the big city. I want to mix ir with spirulina powder and yeast for the Daphnia.

but how to feed it? Could you advise me on these points:

- what's a good mix of these ingredients? Equal parts of each?
- should I dissolve all in water and then put it in the tank with a dropper or such?
- how often and how much to feed? I have the Daphnia in 2 20 ga tubs. Should I just drip in a few drops out of a pipette? Should the water be visibly cloudy after feeding? Feed again when water is clear?

- also, is 60 F too cold for D. magna? Can they reproduce well at that temp, or should I put in a heater?

Cheers !
 
60 degrees isnt too cold mine sometimes get down to 55 for prolonged time periods

if your feeding the mix like straight yeast water ide do the barely able to see through it amount and refeed when its clear
 
I use a mixture of those 3 ingredients in roughly 4:2:1 ratio of soy:yeast:spirulina. The other questions you seem to have answered yourself - your hunches are correct.
 
thanks! But - but - but ....when I feed enough to make the water cloudy, won't it go bad? How long should it take them to eat enough to make the water clear again?

These Daphnia make me nervous....I can never figure out if they are well fed or hungry, happy or miserable. I can't tell what they need from looking at them. They always look the same to me. I don't see any ephippia, but then some die anyways, esp. the old fat ones. Maybe I've been underfeeding them so far. They haven't crashed though - not really, but I would like to increase production.

Maybe Daphnia are rather like the Irish - they are either dead or they are okay?
 
Don't hit me for asking this, but wouldn't it be better to have a higher spirulina ratio? I read before it was like the best food for daphnia nutritiously?
 
Molch said:
Maybe Daphnia are rather like the Irish - they are either dead or they are okay?
Click to expand...

LOL i resemble errr..... resent that remark!

Slowly work your comfort level up on the milkiness of the water.

They are surprisingly resilient little bugs that will amaze you and remember if you crash one you always have aback up!

I just sat up 3 more 5.5 gallon tanks on Sunday and they are slowly coming along.
 
RobM said:
Don't hit me for asking this, but wouldn't it be better to have a higher spirulina ratio? I read before it was like the best food for daphnia nutritiously?
Click to expand...
Even if I wanted to hit you, it's prohibitively difficult to do through cyberspace:p And you're one of the last people I'd hit if I could.

Yes, more spirulina might be better for them, although I've tried using a mostly-spirulina mix and didn't see any noticeable difference. I admit that my mixture is based mostly on cost, using more of the less-expensive ingredients.
 
okay...more questions:

- how dense should a Daphnia culture be, at most? When I look in my tubs, they are mostly empty, but the Daphnia swarm in the corners and where there is most light. When do I know they are "too dense"?

- how often should I change water or siphon off debris from the bottom? As long as water tests well (NH3, NO2, NO3), does that mean I'm fine and don't need water changes?

- The water is clear again from the feeding yesterday. Should I feed again immediately or wait a day or so before feeding again?


probably stupid questions, but as I said, I can't figure these things out too well. I can't even tell if hey are crashing or not - I do see dead ones, mostly the big ones, but they gotta die of old age sometime, eh? I find myself running over to the tubs every 20 minutes to make sure they haven't all died yet.

I did put a heater in as the temp dropped to 55. They are on the floor in my living room, and when we get a cold spell (currently 30 below outside), the floor gets cool.
 
Molch said:
okay...more questions:

- how dense should a Daphnia culture be, at most? When I look in my tubs, they are mostly empty, but the Daphnia swarm in the corners and where there is most light. When do I know they are "too dense"?

- how often should I change water or siphon off debris from the bottom? As long as water tests well (NH3, NO2, NO3), does that mean I'm fine and don't need water changes?

- The water is clear again from the feeding yesterday. Should I feed again immediately or wait a day or so before feeding again?


probably stupid questions, but as I said, I can't figure these things out too well. I can't even tell if hey are crashing or not - I do see dead ones, mostly the big ones, but they gotta die of old age sometime, eh? I find myself running over to the tubs every 20 minutes to make sure they haven't all died yet.

I did put a heater in as the temp dropped to 55. They are on the floor in my living room, and when we get a cold spell (currently 30 below outside), the floor gets cool.
Click to expand...

The density sounds perfect - plenty of empty space, but enough daphnia to make a swarm under the light. Unfortunately I don't know of any better way to quantitate it.

I remove debris off the bottom whenever there is a bunch of it. Again, hard to quantitate. I do a partial water change when it starts to look obviously yellow.

Yes, if the water is clear you should add more food.

I know that D. magna are more heat-sensitive than other kinds. And I can see that all the D. magna I had last summer are gone, only the smaller species are surviving, so I think D. magna must have a more narrow temperature range.
 
I read a little while back that the preferred temperature for D.magna is 18-22C (64-72). Now I assume that is the temperatures that they best breed at, so can go a bit lower.

My bulk order of daphnia is arriving today, so i will soon be joining you in your concerns Molch!
 
Jennewt said:
And I can see that all the D. magna I had last summer are gone, only the smaller species are surviving, so I think D. magna must have a more narrow temperature range.
Click to expand...

I had two outdoor cultures freeze almost completely solid this winter- the one started with large Daphnia from an aquarium shop (presumably D. magna) died off completely, but the one started with local wild Daphnia (no idea of the species, but much smaller) is already producing young (temperature is about 5-10C).
 
hmm..can one keep D. magna and D. pulex in the same tub then? Would one species outcompete the other?

I have a small separate colony of D. pulex. They were the few sad survivors of a fed-ex shipping fiasco, but are now increasing in number again....
 
Eventually magna will outcompete pulex.
 
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