Daphnia culture questions

Yesterday I set my (first) live food culture of Daphnia.

I took an unused 25 Litre tank, filled it with water-change water from my main (180 Litre) tank, added a heater set to 22C and have the light running for 12 hours a day. Once that was setup I went to my LFS, bought two small pouches of live Daphnia and just tipped them into the tank.

Then, I mixed yeast and water in a small pot, and I’m adding a little bit of it to the tank every day.

My first, and most important, question, is there anything else I should be doing, that I’ve missed in my research?

And the additional questions are:

• How soon can/should I harvest? Do I need to wait a couple of days etc?
• How much/how often should I be feeding? Is a little bit, of yeast/water, once a day enough? I read overfeeding can crash the culture.
• There is a load of stuff at the bottom of the tank, that might be old food/exoskeletons from the pouches I purchased from my LFS. I read that snails can be a good idea to help keep it clean, but I don’t have a filter in the tank. Are there snails that I can keep without a filter?

 

I kept small ramshorns with mine. Not really sure about the other questions, you just have to play it by ear. I used to take a netful out each day, unless the population seemed to be getting low, in which case I would wait a few days. Yes, I think a little yeast a day is enough. It will cloud the water, when the water is clear you can feed a little more again. If you have it in a sunny place you may get green water as well.

 

I kept small ramshorns with mine.

Excellent. Looks like they are fine without a filter too! Thanks!

Yes, I think a little yeast a day is enough. It will cloud the water, when the water is clear you can feed a little more again.

Do you mean it makes the whole tank cloudy? I put a drop in, and it looks like a cloud, but it definitely doesn’t spread throughout the whole tank. Does that mean I’m not adding enough?

Thanks for the help TClare

 

Excellent. Looks like they are fine without a filter too! Thanks!



Do you mean it makes the whole tank cloudy? I put a drop in, and it looks like a cloud, but it definitely doesn’t spread throughout the whole tank. Does that mean I’m not adding enough?

Thanks for the help TClare

Probably. Put more than a drop, more like a swish. Not too much though

 

Oki doki. Thank you

 

I really struggled culturing them indoors. I couldn’t keep a colony producing for more than 2-3 months at a time. Best advice I could probably provide would be to, 1)go easy on the yeast feedings, and 2) have a backup colony. Back up could be as simple as a 5 gallon bucket on the patio with some decomposing leaves for food

 

I am following this post . Sorry I have no hands on with daphnia as my eggs are supposed to be here tomorrow.

All my research suggests you are doing the right things. I have two containers set up myself as I wait because research suggests having a spare culture gives you options on how you look after one if the other crashes. How much to feed depends on how many creatures you have.

 

Hi, have you had a look at this stickied thread?
How To: Culture Daphnia | Fish Food Forum | 203724

 

1)go easy on the yeast feedings

There’s such a mix of advice online; half saying it’s best to overfeed and the other half saying it’s best to underfeed haha

2) have a backup colony.

I have thought about this, but it would require another tank as the UK can get quite cold in the winter and that would probably kill them all off

have you had a look at this stickied thread?

I haven’t, and that’s purely because I didn’t look. Apologies. I’ll look at that thread.

 

When researching I found a lot of videos without many daphnia actually in the video.
My understanding is the best place to find wild daphnia is in farm dams where the stock walk in the water. As the stock stand in the water they add nutrients .
While I have no intention of harvesting from the wild again for me this video blows the story of pristine water out the window.
Coradee I read the link , every little bit helps thanks.

 

That is interesting, I might give it a go, on a smaller scale. I have a larger plastic tub than the one I used before, perhaps the extremes of temperature would not be so bad in a larger volume of water. And daphnia is not just for fry!