4 replies to this topic

[Manitobant]

So I see daphnia being used to feed fish by aquarists and the seem pretty easy to culture. Would it be possible to culture them for use as ant food? They are quite small and seem perfect for founding colonies, although you would have to dry them or at least use a syringe to get rid of the water when scooping some out.

[UtahAnts]

I know some aquatic insects feed on daphnia, so perhaps some species who eat anything would take them? They usually range in size from less than a mm to a full centimeter, so you could find a suitable size for the workers. Maybe feeding them live like fruit flies would work, I'm interested to see how this turns out.

Edited by AntsUtah, February 4 2021 - 3:38 PM.

[MysticNanitic]

You certainly could, I expect less than picky colonies would take them. No need to dry them or anything fancy, just harvest with a fine mesh and offer em up.

I’ve cultured daphnia before, I work as a limnologist. We had a “daphnia toximeter” some years ago... daphnia are sensitive to chemicals and the idea is you can continuously expose them to your source water and if there are toxins in the water they die off. Think canary in the coal mine. Intentional introduction of contaminants to drinking water sources was a big worry in the immediate post 9/11 era.
We abandoned the project before long, daphnia are extremely sensitive and ferreting out why they declined or all died was fun and frequent (it was never due to terrorists). Chemists to a great job testing for dangerous chemicals, while daphnia die when the lab floor is mopped.
Anyhow, not to make it sound extremely difficult, it isn’t. You’ll need to control temp, ph, food. One-off batch cultures should be straightforward.

Much easier: If you have any lakes nearby, use a fine mesh scoop or net in the surface water, you’re bound to find daphnia at various points in the year. Daphnia and other zooplankton will usually be the biggest thing on your net. Pluck the little plumpers off with your ant forceps. You’ll need a mesh size <0.5mm. Preferably 0.1mm. Let us know how it goes!

[jabbado]

I’ve cultured daphnia before, I work as a limnologist.

What an awesome much important job.
I've cultured daphnia for fish food as well. And as you say they are sensitive. They'd sometimes go from thousands to only hundreds in a blink of an eye. I would gutload them with spirulina powder. And add a couple of pelletised organic fertiliser pellets a week for all that microscopic goodness for them to eat. Had them getting pretty big in the end.

But as ant food I'm not sure if it's worth it. Unless you're interested in water fleas too. They're awesome to watch in a little fish tank!

[MysticNanitic]

 

I’ve cultured daphnia before, I work as a limnologist.

What an awesome much important job.
I've cultured daphnia for fish food as well. And as you say they are sensitive. They'd sometimes go from thousands to only hundreds in a blink of an eye. I would gutload them with spirulina powder. And add a couple of pelletised organic fertiliser pellets a week for all that microscopic goodness for them to eat. Had them getting pretty big in the end.

But as ant food I'm not sure if it's worth it. Unless you're interested in water fleas too. They're awesome to watch in a little fish tank!

 

 

They're so active, quite a bit of motion in there when their density is high - much like an ant colony! 

I'd agree that the effort to reward for culturing them is probably not in your favor.  Then again maybe all the water they hold with quench thirsty ants, I'd love to see photos of ants carrying little fat Daphnia around.