Feeding Live Daphina

[JustKia]

One of the LFS sells live daphina, in a plastic tube bag, in a slightly pink solution.
If I bought some of this - how do I feed it to my fish? Just cut it open and pour the whole lot in?
How much should I feed to my fish, or is it ok to just dump the whole lot as it's live and the fish will just catch it as they please?
Will I end up with a tank full of breeding daphina?
Sorry - lots of questions today.

 

[fish48]

pour the lot in the fish will eat a small bag of them in no time
the pink solution is to help preserve the daphnia. You Won't end up with a tank full of breeding daphnia Well you have fish waiting to eat them.

 

[modaz]

always drain the entire bag over a fish net over the sink, wash the net in the tank to release the daphnia, never a good idea to add any live food solution to your tank, you shouldnt do it with adding new fish so you also shouldnt with live foods

 

[JustKia]

OK thanks, I'm presuming then that these little fellas aren't going to jump around once out of their solution? I understand that they are "water fleas"?

 

[OldMan47]

I raise my own. The best way to collect them is using a brine shrimp net because they are all sizes and quite a few will slip right through a normal fish net. The much finer brine shrimp net will catch them all. If you don't want to feed them all at once, they can be kept alive for days in old tank water and wait until you are ready to use them. I keep mine in a 10 gallon tank and feed them a blend of brewer's yeast, spirulina powder and soybean meal. I have an air stone going and I remove enough to feed a small tank daily and never run out. Partial water changes go through a brine shrimp net and the shrimp that come out of the tank go right into my other tanks. The "new" water for the daphnia comes from partial water changes on my fish tanks because daphnia cannot survive any chlorine at all. If you have lightly populated tanks, some daphnia will survive for days if they can find cover and a bit of the infusoria that exists naturally in most tanks. I have also seen daphnia suggested as a baby sitter for fish fry because they are constantly producing some daphnia fry that are small enough for fish fry to eat but the adults are too big for the fry. This constant production of feeding material can help your fish fry survive several days of you not being home to feed them.