Daphnia Questions

[Tommygug]

I found a store that carries it up here. All I need is the ground to thaw and I will give it a try. I have been fairly successful growing daphnia but having a more cost effective hopefully reliable way to grow them could only be a plus!!! I have learned my "new thing" for the day.

[Swimming Jewel]

If you ever come out this far I'll give you a few ziplock bags of my daphnia.

[Tommygug]

If you ever come out this far I'll give you a few ziplock bags of my daphnia.

Thanks, I may take you up on that..
If I ever do come over, keep your eye on your Lotus seed pods!!!!

Tom

[Swimming Jewel]

You'll have to go wine tasting too.

[Koijazz]

Tommygug, I have a couple more questions.

Did you filter the water when the daphnia were with the fry? If you did, did you just cover the pump so the daphnia wouldn't get sucked in?

I started trying to get the daphnia to grow almost three weeks ago and nothing's happening. I have chickens so I tried the chicken manure for a while and it didn't work and last week I put in some oak leaves and still nothing. Does the water look right? I don't know if it's suppose to look so brown?

I'm stirring the water a couple times a day to circulate the water, do I need to do it more often maybe?

Thanks in advance.

[Tommygug]

Your water looks ok. I found they grew better with green water versus brown water. What is the temperature of your water? If it is under 70 degree’s I would leave it out in the sun to warm up. I only used a small air pump to break the surface of the water when I first started the daphnia. I believe less is better. Once the fry hatched I moved the fry to a larger tank and still just used the air pump to break the surface. l did do daily 15 % water changes using “old water” from a 300 gal tub I had.
You may want to consider buying some daphnia online if you can’t get it started on your own. Good Luck. I have been searching for Chicken manure in the local store and can’t find any. I found some online but it will cost almost $50 to get it to my house….

[Koijazz]

I think the chicken manure is what turned my water brown. I think I may have put too much in. I emptied the water so I could move the tub to a new location where I can hook up an airpump, and this time, I'm only doing oak leaves to see what happens. I'll look into buying daphnia on-line. Do you think the daphnia will be okay with the filter in my fry tank?

[sundan]

I think the chicken manure is what turned my water brown. I think I may have put too much in. I emptied the water so I could move the tub to a new location where I can hook up an airpump, and this time, I'm only doing oak leaves to see what happens. I'll look into buying daphnia on-line. Do you think the daphnia will be okay with the filter in my fry tank?

within 10 days brown water will turn green if temps are 68-72 and have a small airstone pumping air in your small container. You may have added to much manure, just need a handful. Can get daphnia eggs for $20 at ...

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategor...phnia%20eggs/0

Daphnia is also known as “water bugs” or “water fleas” due to their jerky motion. They live in freshwater and are really easy to cultivate at home. Daphnia can be used regularly to provide your fish with more variation, or seasonally to induce breeding. It can also be used as fry food for bigger fish. Unlike uneaten dried or frozen food, Daphnia will not foul the water – they will stay alive in the aquarium until the fish decides to eat them. Cultivating Daphnia at home is economical and will provide you with a constant source of disease-free live food.

To start your own Daphnia culture you need to buy a starter culture from your local fish store. If your LFS do not have any Daphnia, contact your nearest aquarium club, somebody will probably be willing to sell or donate a started culture to you.

Place the container that you plan to use for cultivating Daphnia in a light spot, because Daphnia are more active when it is light. Artificial light works just as well as sun light, so you can for instance place them under a lamp in your basement. Add water to a container and pour in your Daphnia culture. Add a slow bubbling air stone to keep the water from becoming stagnant and oxygen depleted. Keep the water temperature around 72-75 degrees F.

Mixing one package of dry yeast with one cup of soy flour will provide you with a great source of food for your Daphnia. Stir 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of this mixture into a cup of warm water and pour it into your Daphnia container. This will cloud the water and there is no need to feed your Daphnia again until they have filtered out and consumed all the yeast-flour (i.e. when the water has become clear again). Avoid over-feeding, since this will cause the water to go foul and kill the Daphnia.

You should ideally avoid using a filter in your Daphnia container because a filter will catch a lot of tiny life forms that the Daphnia likes to feast on. Regular water changes are a better way of keeping the water quality up. You can combine water changes with harvesting by using a siphon to suck up a part of the water and filter it through a shrimp net. The removed water can then be replaced with new, fresh water and the shrimp net will be filled with Daphnia for your fish. You will also need to remove mulm from the bottom of the container every other week.

If you keep small fish and big fish in separate aquariums, you can use fish nets to size your Daphnia accordingly. This way, you will have big Daphnia for your big fishes, small Daphnia for small fishes and tiny Daphnia for fry aquariums.

[Swimming Jewel]

My daphnia like standing water, absolutely NO filtration or running water, full sun.
If you have algae in your pond, scrape some off and plop it in your daphnia tank. Do this every day if possible.

It's not rocket science.

Mine are back, all by themselves, like they come back every year thanks to Mother Nature.

[Koijazz]

Does this look better?

[Koijazz]

I bought my daphnia! All I have to do now is wait for them to come in the mail!

[Tommygug]

If you ever come out this far I'll give you a few ziplock bags of my daphnia.

THanks for the offer!!!

I had to laugh over the weekend. I have been searching the island for composted chicken manure, to no avail. This weekend I took my mom to see my dad(Calverton) and fiqured I would try a few places out east while out there. I went everywhere...I even found an Agway!!! I almost brought a few chicks there for my grandaughter(thank god I came to my senses in time). Thank god they didn't have ducklings!!! I didn't find any manure.
I came home, searched the web, and found a place that sells it less that a mile from my house!!! I tryed to swap them some small Koi for the manure but my guess is business is bad and the need the sale.
It was a great day, I got my Mom out of the house and I got to spend the day with her...

[Koijazz]

Will putting antifungus stuff in the water with daphnia kill them? Once my koi have bred, I plan on putting the spawning media full of eggs in my daphnia "tank". Usually I put in IchAway to prevent fungus but am wondering if it will kill the daphnia in the process?

[ormabe]

I got my daphnia from this place, good service!


http://www.aquaculturestore.com/fwinverts.html

You can email them asking which is good for you area. (Atlanta here). I ordered magna and pulex, one is more smallest than the other, good source of food for frys.

Green water is good to raise daphina and also you can mix yeast and feed them.In my case , specially the smallest daphnia reproduced quickly.

You can have more than one container to raise daphnia, not put all the eggs in one basket in case one fail.
orlando