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Daphnia Food for winter cultures


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#1 Guest_gunner48_*

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Posted 09 December 2012 - 11:31 AM

Thought this might be helpful has many native fish keepers like to keep some daphnia for use in spawning tanks and to tempt newly captured fish to eat.


For years I have kept cultures of Daphnia to help seed my outdoor above ground pond and summer tanks. In the summer the cultures are fairly easy to keep if they have a supply of Green water. Cultures stop reproducing when it gets hot but they get going again when it cools. In winter I bring in everything including some Daphnia. I have no idea what species I have but it has been fairly hardy. In winter the cultures are kept in two five gallon tanks, in case one dies out, and I have used a variety of foods to keep it going. Yeast, various flours, V8 have all had some success but mostly all have drawbacks. Most of the time the culture just survives and usually does not produce much extra production for feeding fish.

This fall i decided to try and find a better food. I work at a large Supermarket chain and happened to walk down the baby food aisle. They now have pre-packaged puree baby foods in little tubes. A wide variety of various fruits, green foods, and some grains are offered. I bought several kinds and tried them out using one gallon jars. What I was looking for was one that would stay in suspension when added to the water or very slowly fall out. The baby foods come in a large variety and they varied in how well they stayed in suspension. If one looked promising I tried it out with a culture of Daphnia. The nice thing about most of these baby foods are the ease of use and most are organic and I have not had any Daphnia die off. A typical tube costs about a buck and half and it will last about a week and half if kept in the fridge, after it is opened. They have and unopened shelf life of around six months and they do go on sale from time to time.

The winner, according to the Daphnia, is Ella's Kitchen Brocooli, Pears, and Peas. The stuff comes out of the tube looking like brown mush. I put it in a small glass, how much depending on tank and culture size, and fill the glass with regular tap water. I stir it up very well and add it to the tank. The small amount of tap water does not seem to bother the Daphnia. The tank has and airstone and I do a partial water change from a fish tank about every ten days. Temp is 70 F. The cultures have done well with the new food and the tank does not get filled with slime which has happened with other foods. I have also used this food on a copepod culture and they seem to like it has well. I would think it would also work with brine shrimp. The Daphnia reproduce much better with this stuff than with other foods, but not has well has real green water. The Daphnia are also smaller on this food, than on green water. Might also consider adding some scuds or cherry shrimp to the Daphnia tank to feed on food that falls out of suspension.

Might be worth a try with any creature that feeds on suspension foods, like rotifers or Monia. Baby food is much cheaper than the pre-packaged phyloplankton.

Hope this helps

#2 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 09 December 2012 - 05:48 PM

Won't scuds eat Daphnia?

#3 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 09 December 2012 - 06:04 PM

That's interesting. I raise my marine tisbe harpacticoid copepods by dissolving yeast in a cup of water and then pouring it in the tank every few days, and it's been working. I wonder why daphnia are harder to raise on yeast?

Here are my copepods:


#4 Guest_exasperatus2002_*

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Posted 10 December 2012 - 08:41 AM

Have you tried powdered spirulina?

#5 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 10 December 2012 - 03:55 PM

I have tried growing Moina indoors with spirulina powder and never succeeded more than a month or two. Cladocerans just seem to be more delicate than copepods - sensitive to water qual changes and starvation. I have freshwater Harpacticoids (no idea where they came from) that I can ignore for months and they dwindle down but always bounce back when i add new water and food. Moina and Daphnia are much more prone to total crashes with no survivors, especially if they run out of food. I'll have to give that broccoli/pea/pear baby food a try.




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