Our Aims

The basic aim of the group is to provide a means of communication between members, to share hints, tips and methods for the identification of water fleas, to encourage recording to species level and research on life history and behaviour. We formed in Britain in the hope that eventually a better picture of the distribution of these fascinating creatures across the British Isles may be built up such that we begin to see which species are common and which are rare.

With better recording we may also be able to use the cladoceran fauna of a pond or stream to aid diagnosis of the health of the aquatic ecosystem contained within.

However, although we formed in Britain a much wider membership rapidly evolved and we now have members in 12 countries as far apart as China and Australia. We are very happy to publish articles in our newsletter based on the fauna of other countries providing they are of general interest to all or more specific information can be posted on our website that Cladocerists worldwide may access.

It is also our intent to encourage anyone with an interest in the group, but little knowledge of the difference between species to develop their abilities further. We therefore would hope that such people will download our newsletters and other materials and consider not only submitting records but joining the group.

A large number of our members are amateurs who find it prohibitively expensive to obtain papers from online library sites, who often set their charges based on a research lab budget (with apologies to those who feel their research budget is far too small!) If you have written a paper you feel would benefit others and would like to donate it to this site to share with others then we would be glad to receive it. It can either be included for open distribution or put into a password protected area for members only to download, the choice is yours. For contact details to send donated papers or for anything else click here or use .

If you also run a website with content about water fleas we would like to exchange recipricol links with you, please see our contacts page for the relevant email address.