size of daphnia eggs

[astroboy]

These past six months I've been growing daphnia for coral/fish food.

 

Question: does anyone know how big in diameter an egg is from the usual daphnia you get (Daphnia major, I assume). I do water changes by putting a 100 micron filter sock  into the water and siphon from within that, on the premise that daphnia, baby daphnia and eggs can't get through, but stuff like algae and the debris you get can. I'm not 100% sure it's working that way....

 

Also, I've had not much luck get large populations indoors: two toppers, about 22 x 16 inches, filled 2.5 inches deep. Low bubble air stone and plant light 10 hours a day.  However, I put about a thousand daphnia outdoors into a 4 foot diameter kiddie pool a month ago and the population exploded. Unfortunately not to the point where I could scoop a few ml out every day for food. 

 

Does anyone know, is there some population density beyond which it's hard to grow daphnia?

 

Bonus note: I normally put spirula from Whole Foods into yeast mixture I feed the daphnia. By accident a few days ago I poured too much into the kiddie pool and the water developed a remarkably bad smell. Never again: I'll stick to yeast which after all are alive and won't decay if you overfeed......

 

Miss the meetings and the WAMAS folks.

 

Thanks,

 

 

Mark