# Anyone With Daphnia Cultures?



## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

I just ordered one on Aquabid. I hope to sustain a live food source for my blue eye rainbows.

Seems Daphnia will consume greenwater (not a good option for me), yeast (better), Liquifry (better), etc. Any experiences?


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## guppy (Mar 7, 2004)

Looks like you got your new tank up and running I hope everything is well with you.

I remeber talking to a killi breeder and he said he would feed the daphina he caught with green water. Looks like you might have to set up a spare tank just to feed them or maybe a container of some sort.

this looks like a promising article Daphnia


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

I have a 10 gallon tank with green water. Come help yourself. Just bring some aged tapwater so I can finally see my fish again. 

I read that daphnia could be used to clear green water, but then I realized my fish would be nice and fat, and my tank would still be green. =/


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## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

Shane--thanks--not yet. Our second son was born on the 2nd ... the stand's still under construction. 

Re: greenwater ... it's never there when we want it!


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## toddnbecka (Sep 20, 2006)

Some folks culture daphnia in plastic garbage cans full of water. I never tried it myself, works best in warmer weather anyway.


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## essabee (Oct 11, 2006)

toddnbecka said:


> Some folks culture daphnia in plastic garbage cans full of water. I never tried it myself, works best in warmer weather anyway.


I tried that ended up with green water, water beetle, dragonfly-larva, mosquito larva, water skaters, etc etc and abandoned the project.


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## fredyk (Jun 21, 2004)

a local hobbyist grows daphnia and sells at every meeting, and he just gave a talk about it. Said he takes one cup of boiled sweet potato and blends that with a gallon of water, and feeds this suspension to the daphnia. does not feed again until it's all consumed. he also has three tanks going because a culture will crash and he has backup cultures. BTW he said there's two types and he has daphnia magna, which is the larger daphnia.


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

Hi John,

I cultured daphnia for about three years. My experience was mostly positive; they are a great food for fish.

The easiest way to do it is to feed preprepared foods like the Daphnia food from LFS cultures or the sweet potato method. Unfortunately, this was also the least successful method for me. The yields per culture were very disappointing and crashes were frequent as the water fouled rapidly. Also, the culture tanks tended to have a noticeable odor to them.

More difficult but *much, much more successful* was the greenwater setup. I had three 10 gallon aquariums which were exposed to light something like 16 hours a day. The water in those tanks was water from a very messy South American cichlid aquarium - rich in nutrients for the euglenia (or other green water species). If you decide on the greenwater method, *always keep multiple green water cultures going*. They crash without notice.

The green water method was so successful that I could harvest daphnia daily, or at worst, every other day. All fish loved them, even the saltwater fish. I noticed that with the green water method, the fish eating the daphnia seemed to have better color and seemed easier to spawn (i.e., they would spawn without my doing anything special -the best way!)

Either method the daphnia cultures had their own 10 gallon aquariums with strong, but not extreme, aeration. I ran two cultures at once (I found three tanks of green water would sustain two half full 10 gallon aquariums of daphnia). I put a little bit of crushed coral into the daphnia cultures to supply calcium for their shells (my water was very soft).

Whenever the water in the Daphnia cultures became clear, I drained the culture, catching the daphnia in a brine shrimp net (a big one!). I would refill the culture tank with green water, put the daphnia back into the culture tank. I would then top off the green water tank with water from the cichlid tank.

Culturing daphnia was pretty cool and I plan on doing it again at some point in the future when life calms down.

Oh - I forgot - I did try yeast cultures and liquifry and did not have success. If you can't do greenwater cultures, I recommend using the preprepared foods or sweet potato methods.


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## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

Great account Andy--thanks.


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## essabee (Oct 11, 2006)

Andy
My hat is of to you.
Please write with more details and post it separately, please do.
Daphnia is the most natural of the live food we can offer the aquarium fish other than algae.
Tubifix grows where fishes can’t, Blood worms too, but daphnia lives in the same environment as fish.
It would be just lovely if you find a foolproof method of producing Daphnia!
Do a little more with your method and find us a routine system of producing Daphnia, and I on my part and on behalf of the rest of the aquarium community if possible nominate you for a Nobel Prize.


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

Two more quick comments...

John, when I cultured daphnia in the mid '90's, the resources that were available were essentially non-existent. Nowadays there are a tremendous number of additional resources available.

For example, you say green water will not be convenient... but look at this: multiple easy to store and use algae cultures. Now all of those on that page are saltwater but I bet if you took some of those concentrates and added just a little at a time to a freshwater daphnia tank, they would eat it without a problem. You can also easily purchase F/2 algae food to keep a culture going.

It may be much easier to keep green water going now than it was when I was doing it!


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

essabee said:


> Please write with more details and post it separately, please do. Daphnia is the most natural of the live food we can offer the aquarium fish other than algae. Tubifix grows where fishes can't, Blood worms too, but daphnia lives in the same environment as fish.
> It would be just lovely if you find a foolproof method of producing Daphnia!
> Do a little more with your method and find us a routine system of producing Daphnia, and I on my part and on behalf of the rest of the aquarium community if possible nominate you for a Nobel Prize.


Hmmm, a Nobel, that is tempting... :bounce:

I will write it up but it may take a little while. Really, the I covered the basics in my post. I am excited by the idea of being able to try some of these new options for feeding daphnia or supporting green water cultures. I bet that will be the way to go.


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## miles (Apr 26, 2006)

i've used spirulina powder. the main problem with it is that it is difficult to keep in suspension (especially with mild aeration), it tends to settle on the bottom. also, it's not too cheap. 

i had a 10 gal filled with water from my main planted tank, and added a watery spirulina slurry to tint the water green. added more as the tank clears. was able to harvest weekly. 

it crashed one day (feed too much), and i've yet to start it up again.


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## fredyk (Jun 21, 2004)

Well, I got a bunch of Daphnia Magna at the local aquarium club auction eight days ago and divided into two batches, fed some sweet potato water, and it's all gone-crashed. It's like throwing $4 into the trash can. Not my first attempt! 

Mark


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## JeffLL (Oct 20, 2006)

*Thanks, Indeed*

Andy,

Excellent resource. Please start a new thread with the same info, or reworked. If our community is lucky it will become a sticky.

I for one am into the circle of life thing, and agree that live food is always best. My wife would kill me if I tried to cram a series of culture tanks in our 1400 s.f. townhome. However, when (if) we move to a larger house one of the rooms will be tanks galore. When that time comes I'll be seeking your advice.


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

Andy, I would be so excited to learn how to do this. I have just learned how to hatch brine shrimp (artemia) eggs = Nauplii to feed to my baby Endler fry. 

But I would LOVE to learn how to hatch or raise Daphnia! The whole concept of Daphnia eats my growing algae and then fish eat my Daphnia sounds PERFECT!

It took me about 3-5 tries learning how to hatch Brine Shrimp Eggs. I learned that the most important thing was to get 'fresh' eggs, not something that has been sitting around for the longest time. 

I got motivated by the article by Mike Helleg and Gary Lange in the Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine on - Hatching Brine Shrimp. I read that article over, and over, and over and over again trying to figure out EXACTLY what I had to do to get this down pat. I feel like I have finally gotten myself to the next level in this hobby. 

I would love to read your sticky with the step by step directions. 

Maybe you could submit an article to the Tropical Fish Hobbyist also? Both would be EXCELLENT!!!


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