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I know daphnia eat algae. I know fish like to eat daphnia. Is there any point to culturing some in a tank and just letting them continue on? What would the pros and cons be? How easy would it be for their numbers to go out of control?

Does anyone keep them in their tanks? Got pics?

I had a betta tank that had these tiny dark critters crawling all over everything (it was found in the garbage with a live betta - old story). Bubba was healthy and quite at home among these critters (which is why I did not think they were parasites) and I always wondered if they were daphnia. They crawled on the stones, the glass and despite high nitrates, there was no visible algae. Could this have been daphnia?

What kind of algae do they eat?

Toirtis - I expect your feedback here

Last edited by Cory_Di at 12-Jan-2005 13:20

My guppies usually enjoy eating all of them. Every once in a while I get a tank with some living it. They clean the water. They compete with the fish for oxygen. Every time I add them to the tank I risk adding something I do not want.

I am talking about daphnia moina. I have some half plastic barrels that frogs, racoons, birds and whatever keep stocked with moina. Every once in a while the tadpoles or something wipes out a half barrel of moina. Sometimes I get some of the pulex or magna, but they multiply too slow. Moina are small for adult guppies but they do not mind.

I also have a 10x30x2 feet pond that is full of them right now.

I have tried to culture moina and pulex from the internet without success. I think my water is too hard. I am only successful in green rain water. Well, the moina living in tanks is a rare exception.

My camera takes fuzzy pictures and you almost need your nose in the water to see moina. I recognize the way they move in the water like a shrimp.

max

i never thought bout raising live ones for non food purposes i feed frozen to my fish quite often they love it
really brings out the colours

I have kept them on many occasions. The trick is though, you need to keep two tanks of them, if you really want to keep them going. As they can turn all males, and stop repoducing for you. This is what is called a "crashing culture". This is the reason you keep two tanks. If one crashes, you can start it back up, with a culture from the other tank. The really good thing about these guys, is you can feed them foods that you would like for your fish to eat. Foods that are high in color enhancing things. Like carrots and beets. Just liquify the foods and feed them only the liquid from the foods. Not hard to keep really, just clean water, and a fairly good current going, like an air stone. You still have to do water changes, as any foods that are not eaten, will cause rotting in the water, and thus cause a spike in the ammonia and such. If you ever get a tank of green water, and you don't want it, just add these guys to the tank, and watch it clear up in a couple of days, they love green water.

HTH...

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There is always a bigger fish...

How do you do a water change on a bunch of tiny bugs - send them down the python express?

Hey - what i saw in Bubbas tank, little brown buggers crawling all over the rocks and pebbles - were they possibly daphnia?

Does it create a smell?

I can see I'll need to wait until I get into my next house. My tiny condo can't handle even one more tank I'm running out of electrical outlets too.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 13-Jan-2005 23:28

Yep, you do lose some down the drain when you do some water changes, but they come back, lol. Just turn off the water current for a few minutes before doing the water changes, and only take water off the top part of the tank.

You don't need a big tank, I usually use a 10 gal for my main culture, with a little 2 1/2 gal for my back up.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Don't mind my questions, but how often do you feed 'em and how often do you do the water changes?

I feed them about every other day, and do my water changes at the same time as the other tanks, about once per week.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Get some panty hose and put it around a gravel vac tube with a rubber band to keep them from going down the drain.

max