ikarusdk Posted July 20, 2013 Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 I'm in Auckland (north shore), and I decided I wanted to start my own live fish food culture. I know I can get microworms and mealworms easy off trademe. I have a sachet full of brine shrimp eggs. The problem is, I don't really know where I can get Daphnia, and other types of worms. I've visited many places to get some but to no avail.. Could anyone help me with this? Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 20, 2013 Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 Daphnia do not travel well so it is quite likely any couriered would die in transit. See if you can find someone nearby wo has some to offer. Chances are better in summer when daphnia abounds. I have never bought any, I just fill a container with water and leave it outside. Daphnia magically appear in it, along with mozzie larvae and other critters :bggrn: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted July 20, 2013 Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 Cornwall Park sheep troughs are where I found the founding members of my daphnia tribe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted July 20, 2013 Report Share Posted July 20, 2013 i've had several bags couriered from Gisbourne before without a problem. main issue though in winter is providing enough food to keep them going until summer. easier to do other live foods atm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikarusdk Posted July 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Daphnia do not travel well so it is quite likely any couriered would die in transit. See if you can find someone nearby wo has some to offer. Chances are better in summer when daphnia abounds. I have never bought any, I just fill a container with water and leave it outside. Daphnia magically appear in it, along with mozzie larvae and other critters :bggrn: Cornwall Park sheep troughs are where I found the founding members of my daphnia tribe. I have a huge pot (lotus plant) outside that never seems to dry out. It's a home of many mozzie larvae, and other invertebrates (some oval greenish looking flagellates, tiny worms etc), but I was never able to spot any Daphnia. I am too afraid to feed my fish anything from that pot in case they are contaminated.... Is there anyone who might be able to give me a small population of Daphina? i've had several bags couriered from Gisbourne before without a problem. main issue though in winter is providing enough food to keep them going until summer. easier to do other live foods atm I thought I might use the green water I have as food source I also have plenty of yeast and spirulina flakes and stuff that I could make food with. My brine shrimps seem to love the mixture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 You'd get more daphnia if you went and fished the troughs at Cornwall Park. A couple of scoops and you'd have plenty to get started. Mine are only just coming back to life after a season of nothing so I won't break the group up yet. The grubs in your plant pot will likely be fine to feed to the fish. They'll be excited to eat them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikarusdk Posted July 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 You'd get more daphnia if you went and fished the troughs at Cornwall Park. A couple of scoops and you'd have plenty to get started. Mine are only just coming back to life after a season of nothing so I won't break the group up yet. The grubs in your plant pot will likely be fine to feed to the fish. They'll be excited to eat them. I went to the cornwall park tonight and fished for some Daphina...I scooped around to see if I got some. I thought I had some until I got home. Looking under a magnifying glass, they weren't Daphnia, but some other things. They look like mussels, waterfleas inside greenish (just tints of green) shells, with flagellates coming out. They swim around quite vigorously. Attached is my crudely drawn picture (forgive me!) I don't know what to search because I don't know what they are. They are relatively fat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikarusdk Posted July 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Actually, I found that they are seed shrimps.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 ostracods or copepods - can't remember which. They look like a swimming seed and come in various shapes and colours. Quite cool critters. The smaller fish won't fit them in their mouths but the big ones will have a chomp. Which part of the park did you go to? There is a good trough at the lower end of Campbell Rd, in one of the first fields on a hill. It's a rectangle concrete trough and the daphnia hang out by the inflow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 I go into the archery range paddock, turn left (away from the targets) and head down to a concrete rectangular tank. Usually heaps there. Have been to several other water troughs and found a couple of dead birds and lots of cow poo - so this is the only one I go to now. Might be the same trough Sophia is referring to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Where I went is in the fields between Grand Drive and Campbell Rd. The first trough is right at the top end of the paddock that is next to Tiwai Rd, near the tree line between there and the next paddock. Then there are some good troughs on the paddock that is on the right side of Bollard Ave, on the fence that seperates the Campbell Rd side paddock from the farm side. Basically I used to enter at Grand Drive/Tiwai end and stroll up the fields parallel to Campbell until I got to the one past Bollard. There are a couple further on too but if you would have found plenty of bugs by that time anyway. if you look on Google satellite map it will become clear like a murky pond... :smln: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellow Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 Ostracods (seed shrimp). Copepods are those 'cyclops'-type things and are eaten like hotcakes, while every fish I've kept has ignored ostracods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.