Need an ID on this tiny organism living with Daphnia

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Ostracod is the same as clam shrimp? They look like very small clam-shrimp to me (too?).
Agree with Noto- probably compete with the daphnia for food, to some extent, plus the water will mature & change over time and the parameters may be moving from daphnea-friendly to clam-shimp friendly. Culture them in a big tupperware. Fish eat the hell out of 'em, and that shell will enhance colour.
 
if it helps, think of them as edible clean up crew.
I've been trying to get a decent population of them going, but they sure don't breed like the daphnia. I'm more at a "at least I haven't killed them off " stage.
the cories just love'em.
 
In my daphnia culture there are more daphnia. But the daphnia population started going down and the population of these organisms remained the same. Maybe they are just more resilient/hardy than the daphnia. I figured they were just like daphnia too, but wondered if they had any responsibility for the daphnias' population to decrease other than competing for food. I have had some fairy shrimp and clam shrimp before but the clam shrimp I had previous were a lot bigger. I still have some of their eggs too. But I was not really successful in egg collecting.
 
Gill Blue said:
if it helps, think of them as edible clean up crew.
I've been trying to get a decent population of them going, but they sure don't breed like the daphnia. I'm more at a "at least I haven't killed them off " stage.
the cories just love'em.
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Yeah that is my observation too. They aren't as prolific as the daphnia, but seem to be more hardy than the daphnia. I still see some of them in my native tank surviving too. Cool little critters.
 
Theres a Daphnia grower in town, but thats one reason Im skeptical about...putting something in that may kill my fishes
 
Clam shrimp are conchostracans. They look similar to ostracods with a bivalved carapace and legs sticking out between the valves, but at least in freshwater ostracods are usually smaller and found in a wider range of conditions. Andyroo makes a good point about the water parameters (and probably microorganism flora and fauna) changing over time to favor one microcrustacean over another. This is what you see in natural ponds, and it seems likely to happen in a tank too unless you have very good control of water parameters.
 
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