daphnia

[ali000]

Hi
does anyone know if it's possible to buy live daphnia from a shop and get them to breed?
I'm going to set up a tank and want to breed daphnia to feed my (soon to be) larvae. I will need to have the tank outside (house is already overrun with tanks) so it may get quite warm... although this is England in May so just as likely to snow
will they require any special needs, filtration etc and what food will they eat?

lots of questions, sorry

Alisonx

[Jay]

Hello ali000,

Daphina are usually sold at pet stores and aquariums. Sometimes they are sold as "sea monkeys" instead of daphina. They should be relatively easy to find.

As to how to breed them, here is an article explaining the process in detail:

http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/

NB. The reference (related links) have even more information at your disposal.

Jay.

[Mark]

Fish and Fins sell live daphnia online although you may find that your local aquatic shops sell them.

Sea Monkeys are more likely to be adult brine shrimp. I've never seen Daphina labeled as Sea Monkeys in the UK.

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Mark

Sea Monkeys are more likely to be adult brine shrimp. I've never seen Daphina labeled as Sea Monkeys in the UK.

My apologies, I got the two organisms mixed up. Sorry for any confusion.

Jay.

[ali000]

my local shop does sell them, thanks for the link I shall have a good read

[Phil]

I find the wild daphnia much easier to breed/culture. Seems a lot more hardy than the stuff from the pet shop.

Of course with Wild Daphnia - you risk introducing disease and possible other harmful creatures - but I haven't had a problem.

[ali000]

we go critter catching occasionally at a local river, we often catch freshwater shrimp which hubby feeds to his fish, I suppose I could try to breed them as a food source, never seen any daphnia in there for some reason, often find damsel/dragon fly larvae we put those back though, nasty viscous things lol

[Phil]

You can daphnia out of ponds (rather than rivers) - I use green water to feed them and a couple of buckets to keep them in (indoors over winter, but outside now). Although I'm trying out a 2ltr pop bottle method I read about somewhere.

...if you keep fish, save the water from the filter for the daphnia.

Takes a good couple of weeks to get them going; and have at least a couple of cultures - in case one "crashes".

Oh, and if you put a container outside with some dirty water in - leave it to go off - you should get loads of Mosquito Larva (for when your Axolotls are a little older :-)