Daphnia culture - am I doing this right?

Molch · Jan 22, 2011

Below a few pics of my Daphnia farm. I'm a bit nervous about this; the first larva will hatch in about a week, and I don't want these to crash:

- I got them in 4 tubs; each has about 3-4 ga of shallow water and weak aeration from an open airline (no airstone)

- there are microfex worms in all tanks

- I have a bit of hornwort and Ricchia in each tub and strip lights on top

- I feed a commercial Daphnia mix that I got from Wards; not much luck with green water - I only seem to be able to grow green water when I don't want it

. I'm also waiting on spirulina powder in the mail

How should I change/renew water in there? Anything you siphon will suck up Daphnia too. So far, hey seem to flourish, but I don't trust the whole thing....hopefully, if they crash, they don't all go at once.

axolotlfriend · Jan 22, 2011

wow that all looks very professional.

i'm hopping to get a Daphnia culture going soon myself. i'm thinking of using a big rubbermaid and feeding them soy protein and spirulina. nothing too complicated.

twistedfisher · Jan 22, 2011

LOL well i can vouch for your strain of daphnia.

It looks good but i personally dont feed mine any commercial food. Occasionally ill give them a shot of good old bread yeast mixed with water and allowed to proof for about 10 mins before i add it.

I am not familiar with the food but its all them same. daphnia are filter feeders!

The microfex poop is also a food source for them.

To preform water changes i use an air stone stuck into the end of air line and start a siphon. Mind ya it takes forever but its the best way Ive found to not suck out the daphnia.

Davo · Jan 23, 2011

When i syphon off any water for a water change i let it run through a very fine brineshrimp net, then i empty the net back into the tub. Some gets through but a lot is returned and once it is breeding you should be ok.
I have always got tubs of daphnia but last year i started to hatch brineshrimp and find it much more consistant, i have 2 hatchers, one hatching and 1 cleaning, i get fresh brineshrimp every 24-30 hrs.
I always find the daphnia slows down just as i need it where as you can control the brineshrimp to within 12 hrs with ease.

Molch · Jan 23, 2011

thanks all - how about the scum and detritus that forms on the bottom of the daphnia tub? Do you suck that up?

Davo · Jan 23, 2011

I leave the scuzz because that is where the eggs are, after 3 or 4 months i sart a new culture in another bucket, clean my original bucket out and start again.

twistedfisher · Jan 23, 2011

I currently have 6 tubs going and rotate who's turn it is to be harvested out completely and restarted. I hate this chore and only do 1 a week so mine go for 6 weeks without any real maintenance but sometimes they just crash! no reason for it, it just simply happens.

Thats why you always have at least 1 back up going!

LOL i started daphnia with about 50 of them about 7 years ago and have cultured them constantly ever since. The biggest thing in my personal experience is to not over feed them.

Molch · Jan 23, 2011

well, I got 4 tubs going and I add a pinch of food every 3 days or so, as per instructions the food came with. So far so good. I only need about 4-5 months worth of Daphnia until the larva are big enough to eat other stuff.

Of course, it would be nice to have a constant Daphnia supply for the adults, but in the long run this may be more work and space than I want to invest. At some point, I'll want my crafts table back

twistedfisher · Jan 24, 2011

LOL i lost my kitchen to fish tanks and your worried about a little thing like a craft table????

LOL if you only knew!!!!!1

MTS does not stand for malaysian trumpet snails it stands for multiple tank syndrome!

Molch · Jan 24, 2011

heh - I have definitely come down with a bad case of MTS, but I'm fast running out of space

about the Daphnia - when you underfeed them, will they just crash and die quickly? How about the microfex worms?

twistedfisher · Jan 24, 2011

They start producing eggs if underfed or if in bad water.

I take a turkey baster full of daphnia EVERY single day and put it ina clear jar to check a few things with them.

Firstly look for black dots in them. This is their eggs and tells you right off if something is wrong. Daphnia give live birth EXCEPT in times of harsh water conditions or in lean food times.

So if they got black dots and you have fed them well then your water quality has gone south on ya.

Secondly i look for their over all color. Since i know that your daphnia are Russian Reds and since im well aware of how they are supposed to be red in coloration from the ones i have here i can tell you with some assuredly that if you can see through them AND they are bigger then a pin had they are hungry.

Jennewt · Jan 24, 2011

axolotlfriend said:
i'm hopping to get a Daphnia culture going soon myself.

There's a good pun. Daphnia hop.

Jennewt · Jan 24, 2011

Underfeeding to a modest extent isn't bad. The thing to avoid is overcrowding. In my experience, it doesn't matter if a crowded colony is underfed or well-fed, they will go into epphipia and crash. If you are building up a good population, you should start harvesting. Feed any excess to your adult newts, they'll love them.

Molch · Jan 25, 2011

of course, now I'm not sure whether mine are crowded or not. I have them in these shallow tubs, and when I turn the lights on, they will form several small crowds underneath the light with very few or none in the rest of the tank...

I tried to grow green water, but not much luck so far. It's winter in the Arctic, and we get only a few hrs of geriatric sunlight daily..

Jennewt · Jan 25, 2011

If you have more than one tub, try keeping those tubs at different densities. Then if one crashes, you still have the other. If you see a big swarm, you might be reaching the point where you should harvest some. You can do partial water change and harvest at the same time if you want to (remove water together with daphnia, strain out the daphnia, discard the water).

I've never used green water, and the daphnia have been going nonstop for years. They reproduce faster with green water, but it's not required.

Molch · Jan 25, 2011

Jennewt said:
I've never used green water, and the daphnia have been going nonstop for years. They reproduce faster with green water, but it's not required.

what are you feeding them? I have some commercial Daphnia food from Ward; it's a super-fine orange powder, but they weren't able to tell me what is in it. I also tried some yeast water and some spirulina powder is in the mail...

stanleyc · Jan 7, 2012

Molch said:
what are you feeding them? I have some commercial Daphnia food from Ward; it's a super-fine orange powder, but they weren't able to tell me what is in it. I also tried some yeast water and some spirulina powder is in the mail...

I would also like some info on this. I've had no luck growing green water as well. Since this thread has been around for a while, how has the Daphnia food been working out? And the spirulina powder?

Coastal Groovin · Jan 8, 2012

Molch how are the new batch I sent you doing?

Stanlyc I feed mine regular old fish flakes and spriulina flakes. Crushed as fine as I can. I feed about every three days.

I have just learned myself light seems to be important for them. You should keep a light on the 15 hours a day. Seven hours of light doesn't seem to cut it. They like that summer day length.

Your green water growth prolem may be the same problem. Not enough light or long enough photo periods. For green water there is nothing that is to much or to long when it comes to light.

Also you really need well aged water that has been seeded with green algae. This will produce alot faster for you. Adding some miricle gro is also needed.

I don't like yeast. It didn't work for me. I had a culture crash the day after trying yeast. So I never tried again. With the fish flakes working I figure why screw with what is working.

Hope this helps you.

satyrlike · Jan 21, 2012

I set up some "test tubs" of daphnia and it was going so-so. Not great but not terrible and then I got the idea to start adding axxie poo to one of the buckets. It really started to take off. After about a week of this, I felt back for the other buckets and started adding axolotl egg casings to on of them. WHOA! The output from that bucket is unreal! I had to start another bucket due to the population explosion. I'll go out of my way to save egg casings from now on. Anyone else ever try this?

stanleyc · Jan 21, 2012

Coastal Groovin said:
Molch how are the new batch I sent you doing?

Stanlyc I feed mine regular old fish flakes and spriulina flakes. Crushed as fine as I can. I feed about every three days.

I have just learned myself light seems to be important for them. You should keep a light on the 15 hours a day. Seven hours of light doesn't seem to cut it. They like that summer day length.

Your green water growth prolem may be the same problem. Not enough light or long enough photo periods. For green water there is nothing that is to much or to long when it comes to light.

Also you really need well aged water that has been seeded with green algae. This will produce alot faster for you. Adding some miricle gro is also needed.

I don't like yeast. It didn't work for me. I had a culture crash the day after trying yeast. So I never tried again. With the fish flakes working I figure why screw with what is working.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks, I have been having the daphnia under about 10 hours of light a day, so I will add another 6 hours a day.

Yeast have in the past worked so so for me, but I have had to do water changes and turkey baster the muck at the bottom out more often than most people do, and I have had 1 culture crash and on several occasions, had close calls. I feed them spirulina powder and yeast right now. But I am waiting on a green water starter culture, so if that works out, I'll most likely take off yeast completely and go with the green water, spirulina, and experiment with fish flakes.

Thanks for the advice.

Daphnia culture - am I doing this right?

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