I found fairy shrimp

My parents moved this winter to a house that has seven acres of woods. Their are two vernal pools located here. Today I was checking them out for fish food when I noticed something I have never seen in person.Among the millions of mosquito larva I found fairy shrimp.This was very exciting for me as my children,nieces,and my nephews were all their watching as I was collecting mosquito's and a few fairy shrimp.Now I don't know if I want to try to keep them or feed them to my fish. Well,that's all I had to share.

They are really neat to keep. You have to feed them suspended particulates though (or green water). I had luck with yeast and ground up fish food, but it fouls the water pretty quickly.

I've heard that if you put lettuce in the blender and let the result sit in water in the sun for a few days, the resulting microfauna can be used as suspension particulate food for creatures like fairy shrimp. I've also heard that a hardboiled egg yolk, if left in a 200 degree oven for a couple hours, becomes dry enough to sprinkle in as a protein supplement for filter feeders. Feed sparingly. If the water gets cloudy, you're feeding too much.

Thanks for the info.I have put them in my 75 with the grass pick fry. So they aren't gonna live that long anyways. I also found alot of daphnia when I got back home and was looking in the bucket better. So as long as the pool has water and the salamander and frogs don't eat everything I will have live food. My daughter and I also found two Redback Salamanders yesterday.

Very cool, you should watch that through time. You may have some clam shrimp pop up now that that it started raining again. Those'll really blow your mind

Did you find any caddisflies? Here is a picture of some that I found in a vernal area (buttonbush swamp probably similar to what you're looking at) yesterday in Lucas County, so they're starting to become noticeable.

 Caddisfly_Buttonbush_Swamp.jpg   143.23KB   1 downloads

They're tough to notice at first, but then you see them everywhere. Not sure how extensive your parents vernal area is. Another crowd pleaser are the red mites that you'll see scurrying around. Then, of course, there's all the frogs and stuff screaming their heads off.

Great areas to be at for the next couple weeks, anyway. Once those skeets go tho, I'm more apprehensive about dragging all but the most hardened naturalist types there

Todd

I didn't find any caddisflies,but did find a Fowler's toad about thirty feet from one pool. Also found a Spring Peeper. Their are two pools about fifty feet from one another. The one is approximately 15 to 18 feet in diameter and 12 to 18 inches deep. The other is about the same diameter but is 6 to 30 inches deep. The deep area was formed when a large tree uprooted.
I will be keeping an eye on these pools for other interesting things. Next time I will take pictures(forgot it at home).Their also were a lot of wildflowers coming up.Can't wait to get back out in the woods.I love this time of year!

Edited by MrCatfish, 11 April 2011 - 08:54 PM.

Yeah that should be loaded with spring ephemeral flowers. Can't wait to see some pictures!

Todd