A fishkeeping friend (!!!!) and I are going to go to a local vernal lake in two days to try our hands at collecting daphnia!!!! I'm wondering if y'all have any tips for collecting them (i.e. good spots to look for, strategies, etc), as well as what to be prepared for condition wise( I'm assuming I should wear shorts and not pants?). The weather's just gotten to 68 today, and hopefully will be good throughout the weekend. Hopefully we'll collect daphnia, but if not those, are there any recommendations for other foods we should be on the lookout for? We both keep micropredators (she has boraras, I have CPD's), so daphnia and mosquito larvae would be excellent to collect.
ichthyogeek
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1,570 Posts
If you want to get scientific about it check the lakes carbonate hardness and dissolved nutrients with a test kit. Most time the best Daphnia comes from little ponds that drain from farms with moderate carbonate hardness and nutrient rich water.
Daphnia feed on suspended and free swimming micro algae. The big problem with wild caught is there are often as not, bad actors swimming among the Daphnia. Like Predaceous Water Beetle larvae, Water Boatman, Damsel and Dragonfly nymphs, various planarians, and disease organisms. The best strategy is to get a Plastic stock tank 'water butt' outdoor pond, which you can inoculate with your own Daphnia, that you know are free of bugs and bad actors. A transparent cover or Visqueen over the top will keep out the transient insects. Fertilize the stock pond with a cup or so of rotted manure and some oyster shell a few weeks before adding the Daphnia. It should develop a nice soup of algae for them to feed on.
Daphnia feed on suspended and free swimming micro algae. The big problem with wild caught is there are often as not, bad actors swimming among the Daphnia. Like Predaceous Water Beetle larvae, Water Boatman, Damsel and Dragonfly nymphs, various planarians, and disease organisms. The best strategy is to get a Plastic stock tank 'water butt' outdoor pond, which you can inoculate with your own Daphnia, that you know are free of bugs and bad actors. A transparent cover or Visqueen over the top will keep out the transient insects. Fertilize the stock pond with a cup or so of rotted manure and some oyster shell a few weeks before adding the Daphnia. It should develop a nice soup of algae for them to feed on.
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