Mosquito Larvae In Daphnia?

[mcgrimes]

Hi its me again, well today i went out and bought some more fish, and while i was there i bought some daphnia! Well, i added all of one bag to my tank, most of which have been eaten now apart from the big ones, but in my second bag i noticed what im pretty sure to be a mosquito larvae? Hes greenish, bigger and much different than the daphnia, can he cause problems in the tank or should i kill the little bugger?
Also, while im asking, can leaving any leftover uneaten daphnia in the tank do any damage? And also, i was instructed not to poor the water the daphnia came in into my tank, does this contain toxins?
Thanks again!

 

[Inchworm]

Can anyone help mcgrimes with this?

 

[Colin_T]

Mozzie larvae are black not green. If you can post a pic of the green thing we should be able to id it.

Daphnia can be left in a tank until they get eaten. You can normally just pour them and the water into your tank but if they come from a dirty pond then it is probably a good idea not to add their water to the tank.

You can grow your own daphnia in a plastic tub outside under a tree. Fill up a 60+litre container with freshwater and add a small handful of lawn fertiliser. Leave it until the water goes green and then add some daphnia. In a few weeks the water will start to clear and there will be thousands of daphnia to harvest. Take some out each day and feed them to your fish.

 

[three-fingers]

Can you take a picture? If you can, try to get as much light above it without using the flash and use the macro (flower) mode on your camera.

Are you sure it's green?

In bags of daphnia, there's often loads of glass midge larvae which look like this and will naturally appear roughly the same colour as their background.

They are harmless and make good fish food. If the fish don't eat them, they may turn into a small non-biting fly though.

 

[mcgrimes]

Thanks for the replies guys! As for the mosquito larva, or other fly larvae, i simply squished it through the plastic bag the daphnia came in! At the moment though, i poured everything from that bag into a 1.25 litre coke bottle full of my tank water and have set it aside on a window ledge with a piece of algae wafer inside. The green larvae isn't in there anymore so i must of disposed of it on the first night.
Should i still use this batch or simply flush them away just in case?

 

[Colin_T]

the daphnia won't eat an algae wafer.

if they are still alive in the bottle then you can feed them to the fish.

 

[mcgrimes]

the daphnia won't eat an algae wafer.

if they are still alive in the bottle then you can feed them to the fish.

I put the algae wafer in to help provide nutrients for the water, as ive read that the daphnia feed on green water and putting an item of food such as veg or algae wafers will provide the nutrients required for green water

 

[Colin_T]

green water is simply water with free floating algae in. Adding an algae wafer or any sort of fish food will provide ammonia, and that will encourage algae to grow. But it takes a few weeks for this to happen. If the ammonia levels get too high it will kill the daphnia.

 

[OldMan47]

You can feed daphnia directly. I have a 10 gallon devoted to growing them. I feed them a blend of soybean meal, brewer's yeast, some finely crushed spirulina flakes and a little paprika. The 10 gallon produces enough daphnia adults for all my other tanks to get a treat once a week. I use a fish net to harvest because the youngest daphnia slip right through it while the larger ones get caught for feeding. The tank is unfiltered but has an air stone going and I replace some of the water each week with tank water.
I tried the green water approach but could never seem to grow enough to feed the daphnia and almost lost my culture from a lack of adequate food supply. Green water is the best food for them but I can't seem to grow any. Of course I come on here all the time and read threads about people trying to get rid of green water so who knows what will work for you.