Explain about daphnia/brine shrimp

[echopkb]

I have read in several places about feeding daphnia/brine shrimp to guppy fry. Is it live? Freeze-dried? Where do you find live ones?

 

[copeina]

First, when people talk about brine shrimp, they generally mean baby brine shrimp. The young shrimp still have their yolk sacs, and are small enough for most fry to eat. Adult brine shrimp have very little nutritional value.

Now:

Frozen brine shrimp are adult brine shrimp - no value to raising fry.

Frozen daphnia - a blend of various sized animals - convienient, but you will need to clean the leftovers out of the tank before they fungus.

Live baby brine shrimp - the staple food for fish breeders everywhere. See here for information about hatching your own. (It's not hard at all, remember sea monkeys?) http/home.earthlink.net/~photofish/BrineShrmp.html

Live daphnia (greenwater) - in the warmer months, toss a leaf of spinach in a pail of water on your patio. Come back a week later and the water should be teeming with mini thingys. Using an eyedropper, transfer the mini thingys to your fry tank and watch the fry grow!

Good luck!
/Kris