Crystal Posted July 18, 2011 Report Share Posted July 18, 2011 (edited) I am interested in starting a daphnia culture and I am curious anyone could give some advice and tips. I am after a small live food culture that can live in the aquarium for several hours if uneaten, and these guys are just the right size for cyp fry. From what I understand I need a container, starter culture, slow aeration with no fine bubbles, and can feed green water, yeast, or powdered/liquid spirilina. Does it require a light all the time? Can I get away with using the window for light? I am probably going to use yeast or spirilina. For the yeast, do I just mix a bit of water with it and add to the culture? How much should I feed and how often? Edited July 18, 2011 by Crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syno321 Posted July 18, 2011 Report Share Posted July 18, 2011 [ For the yeast, do I just mix a bit of water with it and add to the culture? How much should I feed and how often? The amount to feed depends on the numbers of daphnia in the culture. Feed just enough dissolved yeast to make the water cloudy and then don't feed again until the water is clear ( shouldn't be more than 12-24 hours). Under feeding is OK until you get a feel for how much the culture will consume. Over feeding will kill the culture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted July 19, 2011 Report Share Posted July 19, 2011 Same amount for spirulina - I used a BBS net, and got a bunch of flakes wet, then just squeezed it thru the net to make the water cloudy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystal Posted August 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 I had a bit of difficulty finding daphnia, from hobbyists or ponds. So with a bit of research I found some people claiming that when they fed frozen daphnia to their fish, they often saw small daphnia 5 days later. So just out of curiosity, I filled a 3g pail with tank water, threw in a dozen snails (they produce enough infusoria to feed a couple daphnia), a couple of water lettuce, and 4 cubes of frozen daphnia. Sure enough, 5 days later I can see a couple of very small daphnia. A very good trick to know if I ever need to start a culture from scratch. Now for the fun part. Keeping them alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Znaika Posted May 16, 2012 Report Share Posted May 16, 2012 TNT Aquatica in Edmonton offers Daphnia culture for $10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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