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| Working daphnia & dero-worm culture. FS |
| Item #1360361403 |
Current Auction Time: Thu May 16 23:42:05 2024
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Final: | $28.00 | First Bid | $27.00 | ||
| Time left | 00:00 | # of Bids | 1 (bid history) | |||
| Started | Feb 1 2013 - 04:10:05 PM | Location | Veneta OR 97487 United States | |||
| Ended | Feb 8 2013 - 04:10:03 PM Auction Closed |
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| Seller | Fishyy (199/203)  |
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| (View seller's feedback) (view seller's current auctions) (ask seller a question) | ||||||
| High Bidder | 1ravenwinds13 (344/344) |
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| Payment | Money Orders/Cashiers Check, See Item Description, PayPal | |||||
| Shipping | Will Ship to United States Only Seller Pays Shipping, See Item Description | |||||
Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this item. You should contact the seller to resolve any questions before bidding. Currency is U.S. dollars (US$) unless otherwise noted. |
Facebook group �Fishroom�: Advanced dialogue from advanced aquarists: Fishroom
Auction
If you haven�t previously cultured daphnia or had prior problems try this two liter culture. Put it under a light it�ll thrive for a year or more. This small culture will continually produce daphnia and dero so you many opportunities to start a larger culture.
One mistake people make is getting too many daphnia. Adding hundreds to thousands of daphnia into a culture isn�t good because the culture isn�t prepared to sustain that many and remain stable. This water bottle eliminates most risk as you can continually take daphnia from it over a year or more. I add additional daphnia to it before mailing, and when you get it take most of the adults out, and then follow the directions I�m providing.
The daphnia are Russian Reds. If you aren't familiar with dero worms they are a relative of tubifex worms and about 1/2" long. These two critters are beneficial to each other as the dero worms eat decaying matter such as dead daphnia. Culturing these two together is a common practice. The culture you receive is mostly daphnia with a dero starter�you may not even see any dero but they�ll get themselves established with a little time.
Culturing daphnia & dero is easy though getting a culture started gives some people trouble because if your water isn't right you'll kill every daphnia. If they die you still have this 2 liter to continue trying until you get the hang of it.
Guarantee
-Live delivery is guaranteed. For a DOA box I will reship at 'no cost' to you once.
Shipping
-72 hour heat packs are available. I check your weather prior to shipping and decide if a heat pack is needed.
-Mailed USPS in a medium sized priority box.
-Shipped when weather permits at my discretion. They ship fine in colder weather so unless it�s very cold expect shipment.
TWO LITER CULTURING
The purpose of this two liter culture it is to give you 'many' opportunities to get a larger culture started. With this mini-culture simply suck out most of the adult daphnia and add to your larger culture. You can introduce the dero worms by adding pieces of plant from the two liter.
Daphnia & dero are easy to culture. Whatever you read on the internet about daphnia being difficult is silly. I�ve had several cultures going for over a year without one crash. My large indoor cultures are only 20 gallon laundry tubs, gravel, and snails. I feed them baby food. People that think they are difficult likely didn�t follow one of the below rules.
Tap Water:
Use only water from an existing healthy fish tank that hasn�t had a recent water change, and water coming from a planted tank is even better. If you don't follow this rule you will kill your culture. Daphnia are very sensitive to additives in our water. Don�t use nasty aquarium water or water that has been treated with any chemical�good aged water from a healthy aquarium only. If using tap water let it age for at least a month.
Air:
Heavy bubbles and current will kill daphnia. Use an airstone or sponge filter placed near the waters surface with only a faint trickle of bubbles coming out.
Feeding:
Be careful not to overfeed your culture as this fouls the water. This isn�t as important for a large culture because they can recover quicker, but for this two liter culture only a drop or two every week of baby food is plenty. A drop is a water sized droplet and not a glob-drop. As long as you have a light on this two liter culture there is little need to add much food.
Population:
Don�t allow your daphnia population to explode. I always harvest heavily from the adults from both my large cultures and my two liter culture. I use a fish net with larger holes which catches the adults and allows the young to slip through the net. I remove 90% of the adults when harvesting, and then sit the culture a week or so while the daphnia babies grow. I have one two liter culture of my own and only keep a few adults in it�as long as there are young daphnia there is little need for most of the adults as daphnia start giving birth within days. A large swarm of daphnia looks cool, but it�s too much of a load on the water. Harvesting the adults lessons the load and allows more baby daphnia to grow which increased overall harvests.
Below I�ll explain how to start a larger culture, but for this two liter bottle culture you need to:
1)When you get the culture tip it to mix it, and then add the gravel. Once the gravel is in don�t tip it again as you want the dero to get established without the gravel being disturbed.
2)Place it somewhere that�s room temperature. A culture temperature in the sixties is good.
3)Place a screw in florescent light on it at least 10 to 12 hours each day. Natural light is great but not so bright it heats the culture.
4)Remove most of the adult daphnia when you receive your culture. Use the harvest to try and start another culture or backup. Since this is a soda bottle removing daphnia through the opening is a challenge but airline tubing works great. When dark put a light on the side and the daphnia will swarm in it making them easy to suck out. You can also cut the top off with a sharp pair of scissors to get a small net inside. Try to not use much water and you won�t need to replace it as quickly. To conserve the water only use a shot-glass of water and acclimate in the shot-glass.
5)Aeration isn�t needed but make sure surface scum doesn�t develop as it cuts of oxygen. If it does build up dip in some unbleached paper-towling to absorb the scum. If you choose to add an airstone place it right at the waters surface with only a trickle of air coming out.
6)Add a few drops of baby food. Every few days add another drop or two. If the culture starts to get funky cut back on feeding until cleared up.
Every week remove most of the adult daphnia to try and start a larger culture. Introduce the dero from plant clippings or mulm from the gravel.
STARTING A NEW LARGE CULTURE
Step 1) Start with a 10 to 20 gallon tank, but any larger sized container would work.
2) Add a �� of river gravel from a hardware store. Don�t use aquarium gravel.
3) Use water from your most healthy fish tank along with a tiny amount of muck from the gravel. Don�t use tank water from a tank that�s had a recent water change, is nasty dirty, or had chemicals added to it.
4) Add some snails and something for them to eat. They are very beneficial to culturing daphnia. Getting them started and laying eggs will allow them to grow with the daphnia culture.
5) Place a sponge-filter or airstone just near the surface. Turn the bubbles down to a trickle.
6) Maintain a temperature in the 60�s as daphnia aren�t a tropical creature. Higher temperatures substantially increase yields, but until you get the daphnia touch keep the temperature in the 60�s.
After introducing the daphnia add some food to the tank. Add a few drops of baby food. Don�t feed for a week after the first feeding to allow the population to expand before adding new food. Then, every few days add more drops and increasing the amount. In about three weeks your culture will start to grow fast and start eating more.
Once the culture is established and growing you�ll feed them enough to lightly tint the water green. When the green tint is gone in a week or two feed again. If the water looks like it�s getting �funky� cut back on feedings until water quality starts improving. A ten gallon tank will eat 1/8 of a jar of baby food each week.
Every three months do a very minor water change. Don't remove much bottom debris as we don�t want to throw off the water chemistry. Stable water is what�s important to a daphnia culture. Replace the water with water from a fish tank that hasn�t had a water change for a couple weeks. Don�t pour it all in at once�add it over a few days so you don�t throw off the water stability.
Once you have the �feel� of culturing daphnia this stuff is simple. If you are good with water stability culturing daphnia are very easy. I have cultures going for years that have never crashed. This is an easy culture, just pay attention to not make a sudden/drastic change that will crash your water. If you keep your culture water stable culturing daphnia is easy, simple, and very rewarding in harvests.
Bid History:
Bidders Bid Time Bid Comments 1ravenwinds13 (344/344) Feb 3 2013 - 04:45:48 AM $28.00
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