Raising Daphnia

[olliesshop]

Here is a "How to Guide" I pulled together for Cichlid-Forum regarding raising Daphnia (BTW I liked Moina the best vs. Magna) ... http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?nomobile=1&f=23&t=224327&start=0

I loved raising them (for a couple years), but it got too smelly for my wife, so I quit.  My Brichardi absolutely went nuts over them, though, so they're worth a try if you have some time.

Also, here's links to the videos I made on the subject:
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90h4hkmTaOw
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ka5esRHFOk
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeiZZ83wTQQ
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGYljtaFlm8

All the best !!! 

[jamarini]

Pretty neat, Ollie.  Where did you obtain your Moina?  If you said so, I missed it.  I have had D. magna and D. pulex cultures in the past but they never lasted for very long.  I found D. pulex to be more robust than D. magna and better for a wider range of fish sizes because they are smaller.  I have tried to find D. moina in the past but they seem much harder to come by. 

I had tried many times to culture my daphnia on green water but my green water cultures never did well at all.  So, I had to switch to other foods.  I've tried live yeast and that never worked consistently for me.  I have never mixed live yeast and green water or other combinations, however.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.  I've always found live daphnia to be eaten greedily by all my smaller and medium sized fish and it does seem to awaken their natural behaviors. 

[olliesshop]

Pretty neat, Ollie.  Where did you obtain your Moina?  If you said so, I missed it.  I have had D. magna and D. pulex cultures in the past but they never lasted for very long.  I found D. pulex to be more robust than D. magna and better for a wider range of fish sizes because they are smaller.  I have tried to find D. moina in the past but they seem much harder to come by. 

I had tried many times to culture my daphnia on green water but my green water cultures never did well at all.  So, I had to switch to other foods.  I've tried live yeast and that never worked consistently for me.  I have never mixed live yeast and green water or other combinations, however.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.  I've always found live daphnia to be eaten greedily by all my smaller and medium sized fish and it does seem to awaken their natural behaviors.

I actually bought the Moina on eBay.  This looks like a good current link ... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0&_nkw=daphnia+moina&_sacat=0&_from=R40 (yeah, I don't think I mentioned it) and they arrived very healthy.  BTW, I also was never able to get green water cultures to grow either ... that's why I went to food. 

With regard to food, I did a lot of research and tried different types and quantities of food.  The best I found was a big pinch of yeast with a slightly heaping baby-food spoon full of Spirulina powder, mixed with a cup of tank water.

I really loved raising them ... I just wished they didn't smell like a dirty pond all the time (even after I cleaned the tanks, which was every week or two).

Hope it helps and all the best !!! 

[Regalblue]

Thank you for posting this Tim.  Daphnia is excellent for small Centrals & I've used hikari freeze dried many times in the past.

[djlamonica]

Interesting I've been looking into raising live food for some of my tougher to breed cichlids and fry.

[olliesshop]

Interesting I've been looking into raising live food for some of my tougher to breed cichlids and fry.

It takes some patience, but I found it to be very rewarding for both my Brichardi and I.

Some key things I remember, since it's been a year or so since I've raised them is:

• I changed the water twice a week, with water from the aquarium.  Chlorine, from tap water, will kill them off very quickly.
• Feeding them just the right amount of yeast and spirilina powder was critical and took some practice.
• Always keep two tubs/tanks of them in case one colony crashes.  Then you can repopulate the tank.
• I cleaned the tanks every week or two.
• Enjoy them !!! They're really fun to watch and see how fast they reproduce.

[olliesshop]

Oh, a few other things ...

• Make sure to aerate the tanks with just slight bubbling, too much will kill them.
• Keep the tanks at room temperature with no heaters.  I kept them around 75 degrees
• Don't use filtration in the tanks.

Hope this helps ... all the best !!!