Raising Daphnia?

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Pyramid_Party

Pyramid_Party

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2008
4,916
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68
Monterey, CA
HI,


So I am thinking about starting up some Daphnia cultures. But I don't know anything about raising and breeding them. Should I get 2 different species? What size/kind of containers to raise them in? Is it better to raise indoors or outdoors? I am planning to seed my pond with them and also feed them to fish fry. WHat materials do I need for a dapnia set up? And what's a good price to pay for them. I found a few sources and the prices vary. Just wanna make sure I don't get ripped off.

Thanks
 
I have found it easier to keep them outside. I don't do anything specials. I just have a few large containers(30+ gallons) outside a week or two before I added daphnia. They survive just fine. I harvest from one container twice a day and alternate containers daily.
 
What foods do you guys feed the daphnia? I am looking for foods besides green water. I was hearing you can feed yeast and rice flour and bacteria off of meaty foods. I have a container of Phytoplan. It says for filter feeders. Could I feed this to Daphnia?
 
I will post pics later today. i don't feed mine anything,they get their food from the water outside. I have found that if you have dirty gutters. Put a large container to catch rainwater from it. The water from the gutters is very dark and cloudy and daphnia seem to thrive in it.
 
I have just started (about a month) re-culturing daphnia (first time didn't go to well.) and they are doing much better this time around. I got the red russians this time (the seller does both e-bay and aquabid) through the mail and keep them inside in 2 5 gallon buckets with a smaller 2 gallon container with just a few for a backup. I use a tetra 10 air pump divided into 4 for air/water movement. I feed them daily, brown rice flower as a main food 3-4 times a week and on the other days they get instant yeast just mixed in water, (no blooming) or some kents zooplankton I'm just using up. I get enough to feed 2 tanks (90g and 55g) twice a week + a huge feeding when I do a bi weekly water change (top water only) by pouring into another bucket straining the draining water. the days I harvest I feed them pureed paprika, and yellow and orange carrots for the color pigments.
I may need to reduce the feeding some though. I'm getting so many daphnia my fish are getting fat.

avoid tree leaves in your cultures, they increase daphnia heart rate reducing reproduction and lifespan. do a google for daphnia Allelochemicals if you you want to read a fair numbers of studies on it.

I'm actually a bit ticked I put snails in my cultures. their poo may help provide some micro organisms for the daphnia, but I don't think it's as much as the slime layer that forms on the sides of the bucket. when there's no or little food in the water column I'd have lots of daphnia hanging on the walls enjoying the slime. then the snails come along and eat it. when I get another 5g bucket I'm going to try to transfer the contents of one of my buckets minus the snails to compare.
 
I have learned a lot of practical things, thank you!
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You ever heard of the food Phytoplan made my Two Little Fishies? Ingredients are spray-dried Phytoplankton. Think I can use this as Daphnia food. Says it's for all filter feeders.
 
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