5 replies to this topic

[Moontanman]

My daphnia vat is over run with tiny things that look like spheres, they are motile and some of my fish eat them but others act as though they irritate them, they are very tiny much smaller than daphnia anyone know what they might be?  

[littlen]

I've seen them pop up and thrive in daphnia cultures.  My guess was some sort of ostracod.  Never seemed to directly compete with the daphnia, other than in terms of eating the same food (I was feeding SELCO at the time).

[Kanus]

Yes I too think they are ostracods, and I wish fish liked them more because I always seem to do just fine producing them while my other cultures perish...

[Moontanman]

Ostracods makes sense, they are very tiny, my eyes are too bad to see any details. In mass in the net they look green but they seem to want to connect with the sides of the aquarium when i feed them to the fish.. 

[Moontanman]

Do you guys think i should clean out my daphnia vat or just let the ostracods run their course? 

[littlen]

I don't think the ostracods will 'cycle' (die-out) like daphnia cultures are know to do.  So as long as you keep it up and running, they will remain.  As far as I'm concerned, the ostracods don't bother the daphnia.  If your system is already set up for daphnia, just let them keep going, or set up a new culture and start rolling again.  I find that unless you really nuke the culture tank, a few ostracods will remain and quickly repopulate.  Get a tank of H. formosa....I'm sure they'll enjoy all the ostracods if no one else will.