Daphnia

[NoRp]

ok im planning on starting a sustainable Daphnia culture and i need some help
basically i plan on using a 2 liter water bottle. or a simple square glass vass( which is about 1 pint).
i only want to culture smallish amounts for a feed maybe once o twice a week tops.
is the air pump that important?
i was planning on keeping this in my cabinate which is dark, most of the day its not pitch black but very little direct light ( glass front)
i read that if they in dark this would make them produce more ephippia but isnt that a good thing?

for deeding i hear yeast is one way to go or putting a jar in the garden and allow it to go green is another

basicly i want as little hassle as i can get but with as much daph as i would need.

any help or advice would be great

i was also thinking of cultureing brineshrimp but that seems alot more hardwork?

 

[NoRp]

any ideas??

 

[three-fingers]

Daphnia are easy, get the water with the vase and place it on a windowsill that receive lots of sunlight or use something like a t5 power compact for light, and start a green algae culture. You will need to fertilize the water for the algae (small amounts of any plant fertiliser) and top it up when it evaporates (you should fertilise when topping up).

Then, buy some daphnia eggs, a bag of daphnia from the lfs (you'll want to avoid adding the bag water though, try to rinse the daphnia in fish tank water before putting them in the vase), or some from an outside pond or puddle. Put them in the vase and voila! They will multiply rapidly.

It's a good idea to put some snails in there too, as they will clean up the shed skin of the daphnia, provide infusoria food for the daphnia and their poop will feed the algae.

Don't worry too much if the water goes clear, but still provide light. Make sure the snails get a little to eat, say one small catfish pellet or a few fish flakes a week, but make sure they eat them and if they are still there after 12 hours, remove them.

You should always provide light, but if the tank has to be moved to somewhere that receives less light then you should start feeing the dapnia very small quantities (a good measure is the sea monkey feeding spoon available of the net separately, use the small scoop) of powdered fresh yeast (not as good as the other two), microzell or spirulina powder once a week.

Brine shrimp are more difficult and not economical to breed/raise to adulthood fro feeding fish. Fun though .