daphnia, pros and cons needed

[KittenFishMom]

Last night I took a flashlight and large mosquito net and caught a LOT of daphnia in the lake. I put a some in each tank after staining it in a bbs net.

There are still daphnia swimming in all the tanks. I tested the water and they don't need changes today. I figure the way the fish went into a feeding frenzy last night, and they have not finished off what is in the tanks, I don't need to feed fish food today.  I put a small puff of easy fry food in the tanks for the daphnia, and some in the bucket with the daphnia I did not feed to the tanks. 

What are the pros and cons of keeping some daphnia in the tanks. Does in change what I should be feeding the fish. Does the daphnia tend to clean the water, or foul it? Should I put a container in the tank that the fish can not get into for the daphnia to hide or breed in?

Any advice on keeping the daphnia that I did not put in the tanks? I know they have a tendency to crash. I fed them a little fry food and a few droppers of green water and will add an air hose without a stone. Should I add hornhort or substrate? should I put them in clear containers instead of the white plastic bucket? (the bucket is about 3 gallons) I figure I should split the daphnia between several containers so I can recover from crashes. 

All opinions advice and experience is welcome.

Thanks KittenFishMom

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/15/2022 at 6:51 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Last night I took a flashlight and large mosquito net and caught a LOT of daphnia in the lake. I put a some in each tank after staining it in a bbs net.

There are still daphnia swimming in all the tanks. I tested the water and they don't need changes today. I figure the way the fish went into a feeding frenzy last night, and they have not finished off what is in the tanks, I don't need to feed fish food today.  I put a small puff of easy fry food in the tanks for the daphnia, and some in the bucket with the daphnia I did not feed to the tanks. 

What are the pros and cons of keeping some daphnia in the tanks. Does in change what I should be feeding the fish. Does the daphnia tend to clean the water, or foul it? Should I put a container in the tank that the fish can not get into for the daphnia to hide or breed in?

Any advice on keeping the daphnia that I did not put in the tanks? I know they have a tendency to crash. I fed them a little fry food and a few droppers of green water and will add an air hose without a stone. Should I add hornhort or substrate? should I put them in clear containers instead of the white plastic bucket? (the bucket is about 3 gallons) I figure I should split the daphnia between several containers so I can recover from crashes. 

All opinions advice and experience is welcome.

Thanks KittenFishMom

I think it’s highly unlikely that Daphnia could be able to live and breed in an aquarium.

Filters and fish should deal with them quite quickly.

 

As for keeping those who you didn’t feed, I’d add some plants and feed fry food every now and again.

Have a nice day!

[KittenFishMom]

@TheSwissAquarist I do have pre filters on the HOBs. so that should help.  I was surprised to see some still swimming in all the tanks. The fish really went nuts for them when I added them last night.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/15/2022 at 6:57 PM, KittenFishMom said:

@TheSwissAquarist I do have pre filters on the HOBs. so that should help.  I was surprised to see some still swimming in all the tanks. The fish really went nuts for them when I added them last night.

Under the cover of darkness a lot of things go unnoticed 🙃

[KittenFishMom]

@TheSwissAquarist That is very true 😁

[KittenFishMom]

I just found this:

I'm a member, it is member only. I am watching it now. "Aquarium Co-Op Club: Carlos Rodriguez - Culturing Daphnia" on youtube.

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by KittenFishMom

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/15/2022 at 10:22 PM, KittenFishMom said:

I just found this:

I'm a member, it is member only. I am watching it now. "Aquarium Co-Op Club: Carlos Rodriguez - Culturing Daphnia" on youtube.

 

That will certainly help answer your questions.

Have a nice day!

[TOtrees]

Agree with others above they won’t survive to breed in a tank with fish. 

For the “extras” bucket, I suspect that even fry food will be too coarse for them and will only foul the water. I feed my cultures a mix of 3:1:1 spirulina powder, chick peas flour and rice flour. If you have green water that’s better.

Most daphnia keepers do not add plants, because they take nutrients that you want to be converted into green water. 

I do water changes and collection (to feed the fish) at the same time. Eg remove (say) 50% of water with daphnia, and refill with “clean” tank water. Then strain/filter the daphnia from what you removed and feed to tanks. Strong light is good. Snails help, to eat/remove any food that settles to bottom. 

[TOtrees]

[Duplicate removed]

Edited October 16, 2022 by TOtrees

[KittenFishMom]

I put a few bit of lake seaweed in the lake water bucket with the daphnia colony.

While I was raking seaweed out of the lake to launch my row boat, I saw a tiny bluegill flopping on the shore, so I picked him in the butet with the daphnia and seaweed and air hose to see if he was hurt. He is gobbling my daphnia like crazy. I should let him go before the daphnia is gone, but it is so much fun to see him hunting in the foxtail seaweed from the lake. It looks like hornwort, but is much denser. I will probably let him go and catch more daphnia after dark. 

I am toying with acclimating him to the tank with the big female guppies and see if he can clean up some of the little guppies that the betta missed. Probably should not until the females are out of the tank. I don't want to contaminate the fish going to the fish store. I hope they are going to the fish store !

I do have some green water, I have put droppers full of it in bottles of water from fish tank changes. I hope they turn into green water. I will put a few snails in all on the containers. should I add a bit if yeast as well?

[KittenFishMom]

@TOtrees 

On 10/16/2022 at 12:09 PM, TOtrees said:

I do water changes and collection (to feed the fish) at the same time. Eg remove (say) 50% of water with daphnia, and refill with “clean” tank water. Then strain/filter the daphnia from what you removed and feed to tanks. Strong light is good. Snails help, to eat/remove any food that settles to bottom. 

Thanks for the water change info. I have been trying to figure out how to change the water without sucking out the daphnia.

[KittenFishMom]

@TOtrees 

On 10/16/2022 at 12:09 PM, TOtrees said:

Most daphnia keepers do not add plants, because they take nutrients that you want to be converted into green water. 

I am trying to start green water in some jugs of use fish tank water. I have a container that went green by itself a while ago.

I put some dropper of that in the used tank water in a window. I wouldn't put plants in that.

I have the impression that you feed green water to daphnia and the water should clear in about 15 minutes.  I add plants to the daphnia colony with the water that is clear most of the time. Do those plants need to be removed?

Should I add yeast or your 3:1:1 mix to the jugs I want to turn green into sources of green water?

Also, how long to daphnia normally live?  What is  the time from hatching to reproducing? (I added some hornwort and foxtail and more java moss to the tank with loaches and all the daphnia. I figure the adult daphnia might be too big for the loaches at this age, but the baby daphnia won't be. I'm trying to figure out when the daphnia will be gone from that tank, if they do not reproduce. and I don't add more daphnia.)

 

[TOtrees]

So many questions!!! 😝

Water clears after feeding over a day or so, give or take 12 hrs. Yes that’s a big range, it depends on daph population, tank/bucket size, etc. 

I rarely have green water so I only feed my 3:1:1 mix. I feed daily, amount depends on how clear or cloudy the water is. If you have green water cultures that are going well, that could be you way of feeding them, otherwise use the spirulina (which can work on its own if you want, I think). I’ve never tried yeast, so don’t know how well that will work. 

A good YouTube resource is the vids from Russ of Aquarimax Pets. 

[KittenFishMom]

@TOtrees sorry about so many questions. Thank you for ALL the info. It is very helpful !

I'm asking all these questions at once because there is a narrow window to catch daphnia at the lake here. You have to have complete calm so the surface of the lake is like glass. It has to be before or after mosquitoes season, or you get eaten alive (If you feed them, it only encourages them). If you are harvesting from a tub and snage mosquito larva, and you have a planted tank. you can have a building FULL of hungry adult mosquito. (I did that last summer. It was weeks before they were gone. We would not use bug spray near the open 120 fish tank in the garage.)  

So given this narrow window, I am trying to get it close to right the first time.  Also, they will be taking the level on the lake down very soon, and we are at the muddy shallow end. It is wonderful for studying wildlife, but you can not get to open water once the Throughway Authority drop the lake to make room some spring snow melts and rains.

Thanks again for answering so many questions so patiently.

[TOtrees]

I only meant there are a lot of individual questions in your post(s) and I couldn’t get to them all. In some cases answering 1 of your questions negates some of the other asks, so I tried targeting those. 
I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned. 😀

[KittenFishMom]

You did a very nice job. I may break don't nd buy red Russian Daphnia eggs if these don't work.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/16/2022 at 9:13 PM, TOtrees said:

enjoy sharing what I’ve learned. 😀

Don’t we all 😉

[KittenFishMom]

@TOtrees and @TheSwissAquarist Don't we all enjoy share what we have learned and learning what is shared. I love this forum.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/16/2022 at 9:19 PM, KittenFishMom said:

@TOtrees and @TheSwissAquarist Don't we all enjoy share what we have learned and learning what is shared. I love this forum.

Agreed😏 It’s one of , if not the best Aquarium forum out there

[bryanisag]

I put daphnia in a tank that had gone green after taking the Betta out. The daphnia cleaned the water for me and I tried to keep them going after reintroduceing the fish but eventually they were all eaten

[KittenFishMom]

@bryanisag How big was the tank? All my current tanks are about 10 gallons. Each tank has a male betta.

2 of the tanks are well planted. I just put a huge foxtail piece of seaweed from the lake in to the loach tank. It was in probably 3 feet tall, with lots of branches. I broke it into 4 parts and put each stem through a ceramic ring and hide it deep in the substrate. The betta can't seem to get his nose in to the base of the leaves, but the yoyo loaches can.

The other 2 tanks have female guppies and very few plant, nothing very tall, nothing floating. These 2 tanks don't have much daphnia showing now, but they may be hiding.

I collected daphnia from the lake again tonight. I am still removing damselfly larva from the bucket. I would guess I caught about 1 cup of drained daphnia tonight in less than an hour. I would guess I put about 2 tablespoons drained daphnia in each tank last night.  I'm sure at some point the daphnia with be eaten or die off, but it should take some time in the planted tanks. I plan to set up several colonies and hope keep some going even if some crash.

The daphnia really seemed to help clear up the bacteria bloom from vacuuming the substrate. I don't think I will be able to do much vacuuming now that I have added the foxtail.

I am really looking forward to starting up the 55 gallon tank. My husband bought the pool sand today. We need to move  the tank and stand forward a bit and make a few adjustments, then the build can begin !

[bryanisag]

Well you are sure having fun!! Keep it up! My tank was a 20 long with moderate plants

[KittenFishMom]

I put more daphnia in last night, and all the tanks still have a lot of daphnia this morning.  I put a pinch of guppy food in for variety. The neon tetras get very excited. I think they can eat the daphnia, but I don't think they can smell them. 

[TOtrees]

@KittenFishMomI got some pics for you last night, along the principle of show don't tell. 

Here's the ingredients of my 3:1:1 (spirulina, yellow chick pea flour and white rice flour)

Here's the mix in the jar (before it gets combined, this just happens to be a refill day), and the amount I feed my two cultures daily. My cultures are a 20 gallon tank and a 5 gallon bucket, for reference. 

Here's the 5 gallon culture, before adding, during adding, and after adding.

And here's the same for the 20 gallon culture, before, during and after. 

FYI the substrate in the bottom of each culture is aragonite, for calcium. 

[KittenFishMom]

Thank you so much! Now my daphnia want to come live at your fish room !