# Will corys commit daphnia genocide?



## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

I have a 125 gallon planted that I set up a month ago. The water's mostly clear now, except for a slight green haze, and a very healthy daphnia, copepod, and free floating worm population. (The worms do not seem to be predatory on the arthopods). I want to eventually add hundreds of neon tetras after many months when the plants have turned it into Eden. There are also at the moment some Malaysian live bearing snails and ghost shrimp. 

Right now though, I'm starting to want to add in some fish like Corys. 
As much as I enjoy watching the antics of copepods and daphnia its hard to watch them from more than 6" from the glass. I know the Daphnia are keeping the green water in check, so if I were to add in a fish that ate them I'd probably get another bloom. Are Corys safe?


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

For what its worth, I've never seen my spotted corys take any food from anyplace except the bottom, even when flake-food etc float right by them.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

I have seen a single Cory get every Daphnia in a 15 gallon tank. Definitely, your green water will be back. The best thing to do is to get fast-growing plants and wait until they are well established.


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

I've got right now, eleocharis parvula, marsilea crenata, marsilea polycarpa, lillaeopsis brazilensis, marsilea sp, cabomba carolinia, valsineria sp, and two anubias. They're growing pretty well right now, but I'll wait until they've taken over more of the tank.

Most shrimp will be safe with the Daphnia, right? 
I think I am going to set up a moss / shrimp / plankton tank before I add fish then.


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## THHNguyen (Dec 2, 2006)

Algae eating shrimp should leave daphnia alone, but cories will definitely eat daphnia if they can get them.


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## sb483 (May 29, 2006)

Nearly any fish will eat daphnia. My corys spawned shortly after adding daphnia, and the daphnia population disappeared.

I have no experience w/ shrimp, but I'd listen to the post above if you need to add anything w/o sacrificing the daphnia in your tank.


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

yeah, I've got some ghost shrimp in there and they're very cute. I love their low metabolism. I have to figure out how to get them to spawn though.


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## bristles (Mar 7, 2006)

Daphnia will be hard to maintain in a healthy tank as most fish go bonkers after them. Once you have the green water licked the daphnia will disappear. Even in a 125g tank hundreds of neons might be out of the question, even 75 in a 125 would be a lot


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

There is the concept of the Daphnia cage---a fine mesh cage that keeps the Daphnia from getting out or the fish from getting in. This works, but the cage should be made of a monofilament fabric, preferably not nylon.


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