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| SCUD & RR DAPHIA & RICCIA & FROGBIT - Indoor tank |
| Item #1582870802 |
Current Auction Time: Sat May 18 03:29:19 2024
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Final: | $22.00 | First Bid | $22.00 | ||
| Time left | 00:00 | # of Bids | 1 (bid history) | |||
| Started | Feb 14 2020 - 12:20:02 AM | Location | Veneta OR 87982 United States | |||
| Ended | Feb 28 2020 - 12:20:02 AM Auction Closed |
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| Seller | Food (356/360)  |
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| (View seller's feedback) (view seller's current auctions) (ask seller a question) | ||||||
| High Bidder | Bettasol (1951/1951)  |
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| Payment | PayPal | |||||
| Shipping | Will Ship to United States Only Buyer Pays Fixed Amount, | |||||
Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this item. You should contact the seller to resolve any questions before bidding. Currency is U.S. dollars (US$) unless otherwise noted. |
Cost: $22(culture) + $8(shipping/USPS priority)= $30 total.
Make payment with Paypal using: ryanthehut@gmail.com
My Paypal account accepts debit & credit.
If you are also interested in my white or grindal worms, if you order them at the time you order this auction, I will ship them together. This package has an empty space which allows me to send a lot more culture. There is no shipping savings but you will receive a much larger worm culture.
AUCTION:
This is a 2-liter bottle that contains: Russian red daphnia, scuds, a 1� portion of riccia(floating plant), and two frogbit(floating plant). They are kept cocultured in my garage under fluorescent light. These are temperate strains I culture both in my garage and outdoors in buckets. Shipped USPS priority with tracking.
Important culture details: My pH and hardness are middle of the road. Heaters are added during winter and set to 65 degrees to prevent the temperature dropping below that. Lit by a single fluorescent daylight spectrum(6,500 kelvin) bulb.
What is a co-culture:
Most daphnia cultures are co-cultured with snails. That is because of their availability but other things are just as effective. A culture partner aids the daphnia by consuming solid organic matter unavailable to them. That organic matter is then excreted as bacteria rich waste which is an excellent food for daphnia. If that organic matter, such as algae, isn�t consumed it builds up and can pervert the biome. I prefer scuds over snails because I don�t use them as fish food or want to introduce them into my fish tanks. Scuds do an equally great job.
FYI: Indoors, scud cultures are more productive than daphnia. Why? Though daphnia are reproductively productive, they require a great deal of space per individual, and are prone to natural up & down periods. If you looked into each of my cultures you will see a variety of daphnia populations but every one will be loaded with scuds.
Are these easy to culture indoors under fluorescent lighting? Scuds are super duper easy. Let them loose in an overgrown planted tank and you will be well rewarded. Daphnia get all the attention because they are interesting & fun, but scuds are easier, more reliable, and produce larger harvests. For an indoor culture scuds are an ideal organism. Daphnia are easy once you get a population established in your water as future generations become more robust to your water. Once you get a feel for daphnia culturing you will very rarely crash a culture and regularly pull a respectable amount of daphnia from it.
BACKUP & PRIMARY CULTURES
You will be doing two things: 1) save most of the water I send to be used as a backup, 2) set up your primary system. Scuds are very straightforward and little needs to be explained about them, but daphnia are well known for being fragile when transitioning to foreign water, so let�s focus on daphnia. This is the most full-proof way I have devised for giving yourself the highest chance for success. I can�t guarantee your daphnia past delivery, but if you follow these instructions, I can�t see anybody failing.
Backup:
You can culture daphnia in as little as a liter of water, so if you conserve most of the water I send, you can keep that as a small culture for a few weeks. Then, if your new cultures fail to take, you can take daphnia starts from it. I feed it prior to shipping so all you need to do is put the conserved water, which contains a dozen young daphnia, under a light.
Even though this culture is going to be about 1.75 liters it�s as no different than a large culture...just on a smaller scale. For example, if I were to feed it, I would add a piece of cucumber the size of a grain of rice. I send you a 2-liter bottle of culture water for a reason, to use the water as a backup...so use it to your advantage.
Steps / Backup:
Place the new culture where its temperature sits between 60 to 75 degrees(during winter) so you don�t shock the daphnia during transitioning.
Gently pour the culture into a more usable container such as a 1-gallon milk jug with the top cut off.
Add an airstone with a faint trickle of air that sits just at the surface so you don�t blast this little culture.
Fill a couple tiny cups with small amounts of culture water. Net-out the scuds, most the daphnia, and divide into the cups. Then patiently transition to their awaiting tanks.
The culture water that is left over, about 1.75-liters, along with a dozen young daphnia, is then placed under fluorescent light at 6,500 Kelvin(daylight spectrum).
I add food before shipping so it doesn�t need to be fed for a week or two. To feed add a piece of cucumber the size of a grain of rice, or a couple drops of fish tank mulm.
If your main culture fails take starts from this backup to keep yourself going. Every few days you will be able to pick a few daphnia from it.
Primary:
These daphnia & scuds came from the same tank but you can keep them individually. It only takes a couple daphnia or half a dozen scuds to start any size culture so you have enough to make many versions...so have some fun. They can also be separated at a later date without too much effort.
I highly encourage you to start 'several' daphnia cultures. The size of the container doesn't matter so you can easily & conveniently culture in things as small as soda bottles. Instead of one large culture consider several 1-gallon cultures. This allows you to set up each a little different, and it�s likely your new daphnia will take to at least one. Use water from different sources, water from different aquariums, start with different types of organic matter, etc, and one of them will take. Once you have a population established in your water, future generations will be much more robust, and you will find daphnia aren�t all that difficult.
Here is how I would start a new strain: Place ten 1-gallon milk jugs with the tops cut off under a 4ft fluorescent light. Set them up all differently and a couple will take. You then have a better understanding of the things the daphnia respond positively to. This is also a fun way to culture; when one has a bunch of adult daphnia empty most of it into a fish tank, replace that with water from the fish tank, place back under the light, and in two to four weeks it will again be ready. This is one of my favorite ways to keep daphnia - though I culture them in aquariums presently.
The key to a successful startup is raising the level of organic matter and letting it fully cycle. This establishes a robust biome. What is a �biome�? It�s all the living organisms, including micro, in your culture. The biome naturally produces food for the daphnia, helps reduce nitrates, etc. A robust & cycled biome will best respond to a growing daphnia population.
To build up organics add fish tank mulm and cucumber. What is mulm? It's the stuff you vacuum off the bottom of a fish tank. An aquarium with fish, snails, plants, etc, will provide a well rounded mulm, but any healthy aquarium mulm works. In place of cucumber you can use most fruits & vegetables, such as grape, melon, broccoli, tomato, banana, or any other that is soft/softened...but you can never go wrong with cucumber. The mulm is a good general organic base, and the cucumber both aids in feeding your daphnia, and equally important creates a stabilizing factor in the biome.
Steps / Primary:
For the vessel use fish tanks, plastic milk jugs, buckets, large jars, etc. Anything over a couple liters is good for daphnia and 1-gallon for scuds..
Fill with water from a healthy aquarium that is hydra free. If using aquarium water cycling time is greatly reduced. Tap water can also be used but you will want to age it for several weeks.
Coat the bottom with aquarium mulm to boost the organic level. Try to use mulm from an aquarium that has fish, plants, and snails, but any healthy fish tank mulm works. Add enough to just hide the bottom. Add a second lighter dose a week or two later. It�s hard to add too much as it is taken up within the biome.
Add a light layer of natural gravel a couple stones deep.
Add surfaces for the scuds to cling to. Plants and driftwood work great.
For every 10-gallons add a piece of cucumber the size of a nickel every week. This will aid in feeding your daphnia and create a stabilizing effect in the biome.
Aeration isn�t needed but helpful. The ideal filtration is a sponge filter with a light stream of bubbles coming from it. If your culture is small place an airstone sitting at the surface.
Place under a single fluorescent tube that is 6,500 Kelvin(daylight spectrum). Place on a timer set for 8 to 14 hours.
During winter add a heater set to 65 degrees to prevent the temperature from dropping below that. Other than winter I don't heat my cultures as this is a temperate strain and is most efficient within my normal garage temperatures.
Allow time to cycle. Not allowing enough cycling time is a factor that causes a lot of failures. Unless you have organic matter in various stages of decay, from fresh to completely decomposed, it isn�t fully cycled and your biome isn�t stable.
After your tank is cycled introduce the daphnia. Only add a couple daphnia per gallon. Why? Even though your vessel has cycled, it has done so without the daphnia, which will start to consume and impact elements of the biome. Don't be tempted to start with an insane number of daphnia thinking the few strong ones will bring you victory...daphnia don't work that way. The fewer daphnia you start with increases your chances for success. For a 1-gallon milk jug I�d start with 10 daphnia to be safe, but a 10 gallon aquarium add two or three dozen, and anything larger several dozen.
After you start a culture there is little need to feed it...as you are already adding a regular piece of cucumber. If you do nothing but add a piece of cucumber every week you will receive a decent harvest. There are many techniques, foods, tricks, etc, to help boost production, but we are focusing on getting started safely here.
To summarize this: start your culture(s) as described, such us adding a sponge filter, gravel, etc. Add a healthy dose of fish tank mulm. Every week, add a piece of cucumber the size of a nickel, for every 10 gallons.
GUARANTEE:
If DOA I will replace it at no cost. Please don't file a claim as that adds additional steps for us both - just let me know and I will send another without a guilt trip.
FYI: Your distance from me isn't an issue. What will risk your culture is if it's left in the elements. The time a box is vulnerable is after being delivered. If the package is left in the elements the odds of it dying are significantly increased. Please greet your mail carrier and take the package from them directly.
I don't add heat packs. These are a temperate strain so shipping temperatures are usually what I culture them at.
WHITE WORM MAN:
Visit both my Facebook page and YouTube channel for a variety of culturing information. No culturing information comes with the package.
Facebook page and YouTube channel links, or search White Worm Man:
YouTube Channel: White Worm Man
Facebook Page: White Worm Man
Bid History:
Bidders Bid Time Bid Comments Bettasol (1951/1951) Feb 17 2020 - 11:38:15 AM $22.00 BUY IT NOW
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