Why don't you have special jars for them? Just get a big jar, add pond water and vegetation around the pond, maybe some mud, put some fertilizer in it, leave it in a well lit spot for a couple of weeks, and you'll have ostracods, maybe daphnia, copepods, etc.[b said:Quote[/b] ]I live in an urban area and local ponds are likely filled with runoff and other pollutants toxic to CPs. My local petstores don't sell daphnia or other tiny aquatic creatures. As stated, I can't fertilize due to algae problems.
I haven't[b said:Quote[/b] ]What are the odds of cultivating organisms that EAT or are harmful to the aquatics if the water is from a pond that doesn't have aquatics growing in it? Have you run into this problem before?
There are a bunch of species, but most are, at least if you have good vision. the biggest ones I've seen are about the size of the O. the smallest are smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.[b said:Quote[/b] ]2. Are daphnia visible to the naked eye?
mold problem eh? did they actually SWIM? or could they just move? were they roundish little specks that glided aong the water or were they longer-looking? Daphnia many times swim with a jerky motion (many times, not all the time though). Ostracods swim very smoothly and most are seed shaped (rounded), and paramecium are longer-looking and also swim very smoothly. I was actually quite shocked they're visible to the naked eye since they're single cells.... or they could have also been copepods, which are torpeedo shaped and swim in a more jerky motion than daphnia.[b said:Quote[/b] ]In any case, within a week of setup, there were large colonies growing 1-2" below the water surface consisting of very small, barely visible whitish organisms that were self-motile
You can also add tadpoles! lol. I found a bunch of eggs, I put three in my utric container (the rest died[b said:Quote[/b] ]ok heres a list of neat animals you can introduce to your aquatic utrics
I really doubt that's a good idea. They like running water, and they need a lot of food. You'd have to be FEEDING the clams/mussels because unless you have a huge container (in relation to it's body size) it would filter out the water in no time.[b said:Quote[/b] ]and if you can find fresh water mullosks( clams mussles ect.)
they eat free floating algea and filter water.
I have boring old pond snails (the little ones) and they eat dead fish, fish food, and other stuff. I also had an aquarium snail back when I was a kid, and it ate a fish that died.[b said:Quote[/b] ]2. Can they survive on anything other than algae (dead matter such as sphagnum moss and the like)?