Daphnia dead? How to culture?

[Sirkavu]

Hello everyone,

I know I am creating some posts regarding different topics and I hope it is ok. I have had some free time to pay more attention to my tank and now I am really into it and all its wonders.

I got some live Daphnia yesterday and for some reason, a video on culturing them popped up on my YouTube. So I got home and fed some to my fish and put the daphnia and its water that came from the local AFS into a jar. I did put some rice flour in it and some algae wafers to see if it would feed them.

I woke up today and I believe most of it died as 80% of them are just a the bottom. Picture below.

If they did, would it still be ok to feed them to the fish?

And, has anyone managed to culture Daphnia? I would love to learn how I can do this or maybe other live food, if easier.

Thank you

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I got some live Daphnia yesterday and for some reason, a video on culturing them popped up on my YouTube. So I got home and fed some to my fish and put the daphnia and its water that came from the local AFS into a jar. I did put some rice flour in it and some algae wafers to see....

Does it have lid? They would need very minimal feeding.

View attachment 228894

A container with a much larger surface area would be better.

Cheers Darrel

 

[Gill]

If you have room on your balcony just leave a bucket of old tank water out there and add the daphnia to it.
I prefer to feed with Spirulina Powder, just a tiny amount added to the water for them to filter feed on. i get it from ebay/amazon.

 

[Sirkavu]

Hi all,

Does it have lid? They would need very minimal feeding.

A container with a much larger surface area would be better.

Cheers Darrel

Nah, no lid. I read it kind of needs air and to leave it open. Should I not?

If you have room on your balcony just leave a bucket of old tank water out there and add the daphnia to it.
I prefer to feed with Spirulina Powder, just a tiny amount added to the water for them to filter feed on. i get it from ebay/amazon.

Going to buy some spirulina powder then.

I guess I will feed all of this today to my fish and next week pop in again to my AFS, get some more and split into two containers, just in case 🙂

 

[Gill]

Yeah and just top up the bucket with water from the tank when you do a water change, All the nutrients in the tank water will add to the daphnia.
With the Spirulina, mix a tiny amount into some tank water and then add. As it is very very fine so doesn't mix in well if just sprinkled on the waters surface.

 

[Sirkavu]

Yeah and just top up the bucket with water from the tank when you do a water change, All the nutrients in the tank water will add to the daphnia.
With the Spirulina, mix a tiny amount into some tank water and then add. As it is very very fine so doesn't mix in well if just sprinkled on the waters surface.

Thank you very much Gill! I shall do that and update here later 🙂

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Nah, no lid. I read it kind of needs air and to leave it open.

Yes, "no lid" is definitely what you want.

Cheers Darrel