Daphnia

Little creatures need microscopic food. 

The Newt larvae that are in a tank, for the time being, need to eat. I was laboriously collecting Daphnia from the garden pond but I know I'll be short of time so I went to get some at the aquatic centre.  

I'm in the wrong job!  If you took the water away there would be less than a teaspoon full for a £1.20!

Sometimes called Water fleas for their scatty swimming motion, they are really miniscule crustaceans and totally harmless. You can find them in almost any still water with a good supply of algae, which is the only thing they eat.  I've never quite worked out how they get there but with the right conditions they can multiply at an alarming rate,  Good news for fish, tadpoles, newts and virtually every other aquatic creature who depend on them for food. 

At this time of year they breed by parthenogenesis, which means they need no males. The easiest way to explain it is that the females, like greenfly,  clone themselves many times over,  They are truly microscopic and more than one of the largest can sit happily on a pin head.