Frozen Daphnia

[heather]

Hello all, I have a question regarding a new food item for my JFB newt. I found some frozen daphnia online and was wondering if any one had ever used frozen daphnia before. I know that live daphnia are supposed to be an excellent food source, but I dont have the room in my dorm for another tank to culture them. If any one has any info on this food item, I would love to hear about it. Thanks,
Heather

 

[benjamin]

Frozen daphnia is pretty bad, lots of people have used it with no or barely any success.

 

[heather]

Thanks for responding. Thats rather disappointing, but I'm glad I know before I bought any.
Heather

 

[john]

It's mainly due to the fact that the fluid vessel (hemocele) of very small crustaceans like these (and frozen brineshrimp to a lesser extent) are ruptured during the freezing process so as soon as they're thawed out all of the goodness just floats away in the water, leaving what amounts to little more than skeletons for the newts to eat.

 

[alan]

Frozen bloodworm is rather good though, and quite nutritious.

 

[john]

Yes, but it does go off quickly once it has been in the water for an hour or two. I rely on frozen bloodworm quite a lot. There are many species of bloodworm, some bigger than others. The bigger ones retain their bodily fluids longer after thawing than the smaller species. Of course, they all suffer from leaking bodily fluids like the Daphnia, as they're all arthropods (insects and crustaceans all have a hemocele).

 

[heather]

Thanks for the explanation on the daphnia. I too rely on frozen bloodworms, but mostly fresh earthworms.
Heather

 

[carl]

when i used to have a cfb newt i started feeding it frozen bloodworm but if it does'nt eat any you better get the stuff out because i found that if you leave a bit in after a while the water quality goes bad

 

[pdpdpdpdpd]

hey i bought frozen daphnia today and i also have frozen brine shrimp they dont seem to be eating any of it what should i do ??

 

[benjamin]

If you read the previous discussion you will have found out that newts don't really like frozen daphnia. Larvae are best fed live daphnia.