Collecting Daphnia

[Ludwig Venter]

For a very long time, I've bin collecting my own Daphnia with a large net, courtesy of my wife's silk stockings, but as a rule did not really want to get me feet very wet......

Went out the other weekend (on a hot day) & decided to go waist deep...... What a revelation!!!!.... I did not have any boatman or dragonfly larvae in my collection & could freeze the excess "as it is".... with good quality, solid exclusive daphnia in the net that needed no sorting or sifting.

My conclussion is that daphnia also swims in the deeper waters and not exclusively around the edges where they are observed.

 

[shelaghfishface]

i was reading about daphnia today i didnt realise it was fleas <<eeewww>> wont it bite you ?? like cat/dog fleas do?

 

[Ludwig Venter]

i was reading about daphnia today i didnt realise it was fleas <<eeewww>> wont it bite you ?? like cat/dog fleas do?

No Sheilagh.... No, But often, you do find a number of leeches on your legs & waiste, but no problem.... they roam together.

 

[shelaghfishface]

oh my giddy on - your very brave Ludwig

 

[Colin_T]

i was reading about daphnia today I didn’t realise it was fleas <<eeewww>> wont it bite you ?? like cat/dog fleas do?

LOL that's funny
They are not actually fleas like the things that bite your cat or dog. They are called water fleas because their body shape resembles a flea and because they flick through the water supposedly resembling a flea trying to flick through water.

Daphnia do move up and down through the water column. In cold weather they will hang around the shallows but when it gets hot they go down to the deeper cooler water.

Try not to collect daphnia from ponds that have water birds swimming around on it. Daphnia collected from ponds like this are often infected with tapeworms and other pathogens.

You can culture daphnia quite easily in plastic tubs kept outside under a shady area. Fill a container with tapwater and add a handful of lawn or garden fertiliser. Wait until the water goes green and soapy and then add some daphnia. A few weeks later you can transfer some of them into a new container of green water. An airstone bubbling away in one corner can help imporve cultures and will make a difference to the health of the daphnia in warm weather.
If you have several cultures running you can end up with huge amounts of daphnia and feed them to the fish every day as part of a varied diet.

 

[Gill]

Yeah i buy a bag and then culture my own.
or scoop some out of the marginal plant tubs in the garden centre. they never charge you as they are wild and cannot be charged for at the counter.
I had loads of people stopping to ask what i was catching out of the tubs, and expalining to them waht they were and what you can do with them last weekend @ world of water.