Is live daphnia good source of food for my fishes?

[professorjimjam]

A friend of mine had set up large buckets that has a lot of live daphnia and throughout summer he provides me free daily live daphnia.
If I feed my fishes everyday live daphnia , do I need to expect any issue with this type of food? Is live daphnia good source of food for my fishes?
Is it safe to give them live daphnia everyday?

sometimes the-live daphnia stay on the water surface for longer time as the fishes become full and they eat them later in the day. I asssume that daphnia is not going to pollute my tank water as they are alive. Right?

also, I turn off thewater pump and instead turn on the air stone so that the daphnia is not sucked up in the filter. I turn on thewater pump only when all daphnia are eaten.
I would appreciate your insight

 

[Deadeye]

I have a colony of daphnia living and breeding in my tank - fish eat it as they please (though I can’t say I’ve actually watched anything but mollies show interest). It’s a standard part of the diet for many small fish.
Like every food item, variety is key so it’s okay as long as it isn’t the only thing the fish are eating.
For whatever waste they do put out, it would probably take thousands to hit the bioload of a guppy, so I doubt there is any issue there.
Good move turning off the filter during feeding. Considering the fluval flex has a surface skimmer built in, everything would just get sucked up during feeding if you didn’t.

 

[tlindsey]

A friend of mine had set up large buckets that has a lot of live daphnia and throughout summer he provides me free daily live daphnia.
If I feed my fishes everyday live daphnia , do I need to expect any issue with this type of food? Is live daphnia good source of food for my fishes?
Is it safe to give them live daphnia everyday?

sometimes the-live daphnia stay on the water surface for longer time as the fishes become full and they eat them later in the day. I asssume that daphnia is not going to pollute my tank water as they are alive. Right?

also, I turn off thewater pump and instead turn on the air stone so that the daphnia is not sucked up in the filter. I turn on thewater pump only when all daphnia are eaten.
I would appreciate your insight

It definitely would depend on what you were feeding. For example great for fry big enough to eat the Daphnia also great for the Freshwater Pipefish to eat daily.

 

[professorjimjam]

Many thanks guys