Looking for Spaghetti Worms

[Ninong]

DT's live phytoplankton has to be shipped overnight refrigerated (dry ice) and it has to be kept in a refrigerator at the LFS. Not only that, it has an expiration date printed on each bottle. Dennis uses five months as his claimed shelf life. That's because Rob Toonen did a performance test on Dennis' phytoplankton several years back and the viability drops off after about six months. You want to try to buy it as fresh as possible and you can't order it direct from Dennis. The problem is that many LFS who do stock it find that they can't move it fast enough after the shipment comes in and then customers won't buy it if it's already two or three months old. Another potential problem is that you never know it it was properly cared for at the LFS before you purchased it. Each bottle has to be stored upright, not on its side, and each bottle has to be gently shaken at least once a week.

I purchased mine from Premium Aquatics online and it was only two weeks old when I bought it. The overnight shipping is expensive. I called all of the LFS in my immediate area (meaning within 60 miles) and none of them carried it. The closest LFS that carried it was in Lafayette, 100 miles from my house. I called them just to see if they had any in stock. They did. I asked the LFS genius on the phone to please check the bottles for me and tell me the expiration date. He wasn't even aware that it had an expiration date. He checked. His stock was more than a year past the expiration date!

Yeah, my guy feeds them though I'm not sure with what but guessing cyclop-eze or something similar. Every time I go in there he's got several containers of DT pods out with the lids off. At any rate, every time I've bought some from him their all good. I'll PM you his number if you want more info about this.

We're talking about two entirely different things. I'm talking about phytoplankton and only phytoplankton.

D.T.'s phytoplankton has to be kept refrigerated and unopened the entire time and you can't feed phytoplankton. The bottles have to be kept standing upright, not lying on their side, and they must be "gently shaken" at least once a week. They should not be opened until you are ready to use them and you should not order more than you can use in the next couple of months.



P.S. -- You can't feed copepods to copepods. Cyclop-eeze are copepods, too. Copepods eat phytoplankton and particulate matter, not other copepods.

[metalhead]

We're talking about two entirely different things. I'm talking about phytoplankton and only phytoplankton.

D.T.'s phytoplankton has to be kept refrigerated and unopened the entire time and you can't feed phytoplankton. The bottles have to be kept standing upright, not lying on their side, and they must be "gently shaken" at least once a week. They should not be opened until you are ready to use them and you should not order more than you can use in the next couple of months.



P.S. -- You can't feed copepods to copepods. Cyclop-eeze are copepods, too. Copepods eat phytoplankton and particulate matter, not other copepods.

Aha... That could explain why he doesn't keep the DT phyto in stock. Maybe he's feeding those pods with marine snow!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Next time I'm up that way I'll get the skinny on what he's using. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll actually know what the hell I'm talking about.

[twisted]

ninong, how come you say you cant order from dennis direct? i call him and he sends it out. he charges half of what the stores sell it for

[Ninong]

I asked Dennis to ship me some and he said he couldn't sell directly to customers because that wouldn't be fair to his retail partners. That was about six years ago. At that time, the only LFS in the state that carried it was in Lafayette, 100 miles away, and when I called them, their stock was several months past the expiration date.

I ordered some DT's live phytoplankton online from Premium Aquatics but the overnight shipping with dry ice was expensive.

[twisted]

maybe he changed his views on the retail stores? i dont know...maybe he just felt bad for me...lol...he shipped me a container of pods and a bottle of phyto for 33 buks shipping included

[Ninong]

That's good to know. When I called him back in 2003, he suggested that I talk to my LFS and have them call him to set up an account. Then he would sell to them wholesale and they could sell to me retail. I talked to both of the LFS nearest to me (51 miles away) and both of them told me they weren't interested in carrying refrigerated foods. In fact, only one of those stores even carried frozen foods.

When I relayed this information to Dennis, he told me about the LFS in Lafayette that carried it and mentioned that I could get it online from Premium Aquatics. Obviously it would be much better to order it directly from DT's.