My daphnia nursery

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My daphnia nursery

Postby dampflippers on Thu Jul 10, 2008 2:03 pm

My daphnia nursery is working well!
I'm still buying bags of daphnia fpr the newts and babies, and to try to clear my green water (which is now improving), but I have a daphnia nursery up and running.
It is a plastic storage box which I filled with seived green water from my stickleback pond (didn't want any fish in it).
I added some daphnia and an escape stick and left it for a few weeks.
Now when I need daphnia I get my tiny white aquarium net with small white mesh and swish it around a few times. I get a small amount of very energetic daphnia which I empty into the ponds.
My new pond is beginning to clear (I can see the plants at the bottom again), and I can see the daphnia, so lots od food for the newt efts I have transferred into it.
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Re: My daphnia nursery

Postby alison on Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:38 pm

That's such a brilliant idea. I must admit that when I have bought bags of daphnia I have also thought about letting some live in a bucket or container but I just never got round to doing it. Obviously it would be well worth trying it. I didn't realise that they help to clear the water. I could do with putting a bucket load in my pond right away.
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Re: My daphnia nursery

Postby dampflippers on Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:11 pm

I presume that it happens because they take up the nutrients that the algae would use to grow- or it may be that they actually "feed" on the algae.
Having said that, the nursery is still very green, but leaves and petals have been falling in it.
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