I think I have found a supply of daphnia in a sheep trough near where I live - is it safe to net some and take home to feed the killies? I know someone was talking about it somewhere but I can't find the thread on Search.

Or if that isn't Ok, could I net some and bring them home to use as a starter for growing my own?

I think they are daphnia - about 2 or 3mm across, brownish and moving like fleas against the sides of the trough. The water is brown rather than green.

There are other bugs in there too, I might have to take a jar and see what I can catch.

You need to watch for algae being transferred along with the critters, especially blanketweed which is common in many troughs.

This is daphnia

I would use the to seed a large bucket of container of your own, then you can wait and see what greblies that Caryl is referring to grow.

I have a 50 l bucket that has leaves in the bottom and algae growing on the side, it is on the shady side of the house so that it does not get too hot. I know the trough is in the direct sunlight, but probably has an auto top up ball cock thingy on it and holds quite a bit of water.

I will have to inspect further and see what they actually are. I will feel like a kid again taking my fish net and bucket to the park to catch bugs

I will have to inspect further and see what they actually are. I will feel like a kid again taking my fish net and bucket to the park to catch bugs

Image how I feel in Gumboots, with buckets nets and camera. I frequent roadside streams and ditches around Wanganui. I'm sure some people must see me and think "there goes that crazy guy again" lol

I agree with above. Seed a bucket and feed from that.

I personally do feed daphnia straight from source but that is entirely up to you.

Just trying to think what the best thing would be to get something growing in the bucket for the daphnia to feed off. One of our club members feeds hers dried blood from the garden centre to gut load them.

Perhaps just use water from one of your tanks to start the bucket off when you do your water changes and a little bit of crushed flake?

Crushed flake, yeast, lettuce leaves or banana skins work.

Green water.

Dried animal poo.

Dried blood.

Yeast

Probably I'd use fish flakes to start them off. The trough is in direct sunlight but it's raised out of the grass, I can't imagine animal manure falling in there to feed them or much if any vegetation, but there are millions of them milling about.

I will report back when I have been fishing!

On investigation with my bare eyes, there appears to be 3 different kinds of bugs.

There is the daphnia flea thingy.

There is a bug that looks like a green grass seed pod with a bug inside weaving around like a dodgem car.

There are tiny pin prick sized orange/brown round bugs swimming about.

The neighbour's cat says that the water I brought back from the trough is quite tasty.

The trough did have some green water and some green slime algae that had gathered about some bits of grass and floating twig so I guess they are eating off this a bit.

hopefully this works - I think I have made a link to the 2 videos and photo in the album

http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m130 ... e%20attic/

if not try this

Yeah, cats are quite partial to manky water, especially from fish tanks... :roll:

Yeah, cats are quite partial to manky water, especially from fish tanks... :roll:

Really? :lol:

Sounds like you have Daphnia, Copepods and Rotifers.

All good fish food.

The critters in the water will be dining on algae and bacterial growth. If they are surviving then the water is reasonably clean. The only thing that could make them bad is if there is some parasite or disease present in the water they come from.

The adding of manure to water will seed the water of bacteria and algal blooms.

Where is this trough? on a farm or is it somewhere populated?

I think we need a thread just for Sam's cat photos :lol:

Simon, the trough is in a field in Cornwall Park which they class as a working farm but there are people wandering through. There are usually sheep or cows in this field. There are various troughs all over the place, another one I looked in didn't have of these bugs crawling about, but that field had been limed or fertilised recently and the grass had died, I thought maybe it had polluted the water too. There were no livestock in that particular field.

I was thinking I'd start my own bucket of fresh water with some fish flakes and then net these guys out and into there??

This is daphnia

I would use the to seed a large bucket of container of your own, then you can wait and see what greblies that Caryl is referring to grow.

I have a 50 l bucket that has leaves in the bottom and algae growing on the side, it is on the shady side of the house so that it does not get too hot. I know the trough is in the direct sunlight, but probably has an auto top up ball cock thingy on it and holds quite a bit of water.

Can the daphnia be killed by temeperatures that are too high? I always thought that the more sun = more algae = better? But, I recently had a nice algae filled bucket of daphnia die, and this bucket had quite a lot of sun during the middle of the day now that I think about it. I didn't know what killed them.

Is it best to have the bucket on the shady side of the house, as Zev does? Some sun or no sun, during summer?

Thanks

Mine was always in full sun with no problems.

uh-oh... I'm starting to get ideas about having a bugs tank in the garage with an oxygen stone or something...

fishplants the trough I found my bugs are in full sun too

Daphnia do not need an airstone, just remember to top the water up every now and then - mine needs this done but I keep forgetting :-?

After seeing this thread I went out to my parents to have a look in their troughs/pond.

The troughs had mosquitoes, stonefly and little beetles in them, the pond had lots more:

female copepod

female copepod & female daphnia

female daphnia

female copepod, male copepod & female daphnia

Now have a good collection living in a few buckets on the back veranda and in a little 10l tank on the desk beside the monitor.

Cant wait for them to multiply :bounce:

ps the bullies went mad for the mosquitoes and a few of the above that went in last night

[edit]

pond critters are awesome!

In your bottom photo (just easiest to describe):

Left = female copepod (the ovals are ovaries)

Top = male copepod

Bottom = daphnia

I have a 3ft tank for critters. It has peat and leaf litter in the bottom, nitella (native plant) growing rampant and all sorts of other critters (copepods, ostracods, snails, diving beetles, tubifex etc). It does seem to have got rather low on critters since I added in a whole lot of damselfly larvae though. Backswimmers and boatmen rock too - did you know they chirp??

Fascinating watching what 'food' gets up to when it isn't being eaten by fish

ive had copepod's in various tanks in the past and never knew what they were

Does anyone have any decent photos of them for those of us without a microscope, or can you identify from my videos at all?

I'd really like to know what mine are for certain before I go throwing them in the tank.

Do any of you have any decent photos of them for those of us without a microscope, or can you identify from my videos at all?

I'd really like to know what mine are for certain before I go throwing them in the tank

I'm not sure what you mean... Do you want the photos at 1:1 to ID them?

The above pics were taken with my DSLR with the (cheep kit) lens mounted in reverse and held on with rubber bands, no microscope in sight.

yes I'd like something that is closer to a standard photo if possible, what you'd seen with the eye if you didn't have a bionic eye

If it's possible that is... these bugs are very small

any of them work for you?