[GSAS-Member] daphnia through winter

[haika@drizzle.com]

I kept a 5 gallon bucket in my utility room over the winter that gave me
enough Daphnia to feed my Darios and licorice gouramis who aren't very
interested in anything other than live food. I've got a 33g rubbermaid
container with lots of plant trimmings and white clouds right next to it
so the strip light over the white clouds overhangs enough to help out the
Daphnia. I grind up Spirulina pellets in a coffee grinder and that makes
bright red Daphnia. Occasionally I feed with sweet potato babyfood but
it's easy to overfeed, so I've backed off that stuff. I don't have any
airstones or filtration on that 5 gallon bucket and it doesn't seem to
need it. Periodically, I siphon the debris from the bottom and dump it
(along with any errant Daphnia) into one of my outside tubs. We kept 6-7
Daphnia cultures in 5 gallon buckets alive over the winter at work as
well, so I have plenty of seed critters. We have this lovely hallway with
huge south-facing windows where plants/Daphnia cultures can get plenty of
light.

I also have several outside culture containers at home, but the real
producer is a small wading pool. I could see jumping Daphnia under the ice
even when things were really cold. The pool is deep enough and never froze
solid. Some of my outside containers seem pretty devoid of Daphnia right
now but the wading pool has really bloomed in the past week or so. All my
tanks can now get daily Daphnia....plus the first mosquito larvae. I've
been harvesting egg rafts for about a week and a half.

Betty Goetz

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