Help Will My Daphnia Culture Survive!

[shahrezsyed]

hello!
i give my daphnia 1/8 teaspoon yeast and 1/8 teaspoon powdered fish food dissolved i water. all the yeast dissolved but the fish food settled on the bottom . i have the bucket in the sunshine so that it turns green as the fish food will rot if the daphnia do,nt eat it and will feed the algea . am i doing all right or is something wrong!!! i have just started this culture and its not exactly a proper culture. its only about 15-20 adult daphnia . will they breed and form a large culture.
if i am doing anything wrong just reply

 

[Colin_T]

Unfortunately the fish food will rot and produce ammonia. If the water is green (from algae) then the algae will consume the ammonia. However, if there is no algae in the container, the ammonia will build up and kill the Daphnia.
Normally you try to get the water green and then add the Daphnia. If you leave the culture for a while, the Daphnia should be fine and when the water starts to go green, they will start producing young.

It's a good idea to have several cultures going. Have a new culture and an older one. That way if one crashes you can fall back onto the other. I would start growing green water in another container. When it is ready you can transfer some Daphnia into it and have your second culture

 

[shahrezsyed]

Unfortunately the fish food will rot and produce ammonia. If the water is green (from algae) then the algae will consume the ammonia. However, if there is no algae in the container, the ammonia will build up and kill the Daphnia.
Normally you try to get the water green and then add the Daphnia. If you leave the culture for a while, the Daphnia should be fine and when the water starts to go green, they will start producing young.

It's a good idea to have several cultures going. Have a new culture and an older one. That way if one crashes you can fall back onto the other. I would start growing green water in another container. When it is ready you can transfer some Daphnia into it and have your second culture

thanks colin

 

[OldMan47]

That is very sound advice Colin. I managed to lose my colony and didn't have a backup. I think I know what happened but with no backup it doesn't help when it is too late.

 

[Colin_T]

actually if you do lose a Daphnia culture, particularly one that has been going for a while, you can dry it out and scoop up the sediment on the bottom. Add that sediment to a new container of green water, and you might get a new culture going. Daphnia produce live young under good conditions. However, when things get tough the females produce dormant eggs that sit in the mud when the water dries up. When the eggs are soaked, they hatch out and a new colony starts.

 

[OldMan47]

Thanks for that Colin. It is worth a try. There is nobody near me that carries live daphnia for sale so I was facing a mail order or just give up keeping them. Here it is too late and I realize I should have kept multiple containers with them in case I lost one.