I want to keep Daphnia as a live food for my fish, I can get them free localy ( lake near the home). My question is I see alot of people that keep them in everything from Jar, small containers , large container ext. If you have kept them sucessfully what did you keep them in? I can gather its best to have two cultures in case one crashes. On another note I would like to feed them yeast and spirlina powder will this work or do I need to make green water? Thanks for anyone that helps.
Keeping Daphnia?
- Thread starter cman2014
- Start date
Have at least 2 (preferably 3 or 4) cultures going in case one or two crash.
Bigger containers are better and less likely to crash. The minimum size I would use is 100 litres (25 gallons) and 200+ litre containers are better.
Green water is the easiest way to keep them because you aren't adding anything to cause ammonia problems that kill the Daphnia.
If you get wild caught Daphnia from a pond that has water birds or fish, do not use those Daphnia for your fish. Add those Daphnia to a container of green water and let them live and breed there for a month or so. Then take some of the baby Daphnia and put them in a new container of green water. Let them grow and breed and move some of the young into another container of green water. The first (original) container can then be discarded and you use the other 2 cultures.
The reason for discarding the original wild caught Daphnia is because they can carry parasitic worms they pick up from the birds and these can infect the fish. By using the wild ones as a starter culture and then taking young to start new cultures, you should be able to prevent worms and other diseases/ parasites infecting your fish.
You can get Daphnia and Moina and they both get cultures the same way. Daphnia does better in cold water, Moina is better for slightly warmer water. You can also get rotifer cysts and culture them in the same way as Daphnia and Moina.
The following link has information on making green water cultures and growing various live fish foods, including Daphnia.
www.fishforums.net
Bigger containers are better and less likely to crash. The minimum size I would use is 100 litres (25 gallons) and 200+ litre containers are better.
Green water is the easiest way to keep them because you aren't adding anything to cause ammonia problems that kill the Daphnia.
If you get wild caught Daphnia from a pond that has water birds or fish, do not use those Daphnia for your fish. Add those Daphnia to a container of green water and let them live and breed there for a month or so. Then take some of the baby Daphnia and put them in a new container of green water. Let them grow and breed and move some of the young into another container of green water. The first (original) container can then be discarded and you use the other 2 cultures.
The reason for discarding the original wild caught Daphnia is because they can carry parasitic worms they pick up from the birds and these can infect the fish. By using the wild ones as a starter culture and then taking young to start new cultures, you should be able to prevent worms and other diseases/ parasites infecting your fish.
You can get Daphnia and Moina and they both get cultures the same way. Daphnia does better in cold water, Moina is better for slightly warmer water. You can also get rotifer cysts and culture them in the same way as Daphnia and Moina.
The following link has information on making green water cultures and growing various live fish foods, including Daphnia.
Back to Basics when Breeding Fish
STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...
www.fishforums.net
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