Great Live Fish Food! - How to Easily Culture Daphnia / Water Fleas and What to Avoid
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2021
- Hi all,
Today I wanted to show you how to culture an awesome live fish food - Daphnia.
Daphnia, aka water fleas are a self sustaining, great live food to feed due to their health benefits and the way they move in the water column.
Daphnia are found all over the world and might be that last thing you need to get that stubborn fish to eat.
Hope you like this guide.
Please Comment, Like & Subscribe.
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#Daphnia #HowtoCultureDaphnia #BlakesAquatics
Excellent advice- thank you
great info blake
Great video, thanks
Very informative video, thanks!
Very Helpful Video! Thanks Mate 🍻
Cool, first vid I’ve watched on daphnia. Thanks Blake & have a great weekend mate.
Yet another of your tips I'm going to definitely try, thanks Blake.
I started my cultures by buying a live pack from my lfs. I dont have any aeration in my cultures,they live in windowsills. I thought I had lost my cultures over winter (in UK) ,but when temp increased in spring the jars sprang back to life. Fingers crossed I can manage to keep them going for a 3rd year. Never thought about putting some blackworms in,they have their own 10g tank 👍
Hey..thinking of doing this myself the same way ..what do you feed them?
@@pauljarvis7386 ATM a can of expired nutritional yeast flakes. In the past have used spirulina powder or bakers yeast dissolved in water.There are at least 3 cultures that have stayed alive all winter,.
Thanks for watching the video 👍
@@kayhalliday2676 Thanks for the info and quick reply!..going to try the spirulina flakes and grind them up...all the best.
@@kayhalliday2676 Thanks for the info and quick reply!..going to try the spirulina flakes and grind them up...all the best.
Thank you for sharing! I'm looking into starting my first daphnia culture and this is really helpful to know!
Never had daphnia but it seems cool. I didn't get to see much of the live yesterday but watched quite a bit of the replay. Keep it up. Awesome vid
One of my favorite topics. You really provided a lot of great info!
best daphnia explanation ive heard yet. thanks!!!!
thx a lot been needing to some rich protein foods for my fish defos gonna sub
Great video 🙂
Thanks Blake. I learned a lot. I just got one Drawf Pea Puffer and I am going back to get another one.
Good info, thank you!
😃👍
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks, very helpful 👍
Glad it was helpful!
This is so informative!!! Fantastic reporting!🌻🌼🐝
Glad you enjoyed it!
So helpful!! Excited to try it!! 🙏🙏🙏
Have fun!
thanks mate i recently bought these eggs and was looking for video on how to start them
Great video.. thanks
Glad you liked it!
Thank You!
You're welcome!
Nice mate. Time to get some daphnia
Great comprehensive Daphnia guide mate.
Glad you think so!
Thank you this is really helpful! I'm getting a betta in 1 month ( tank is already cycled) and I wanted to feed some sort of protein rich food. This seems like a good option for a planted bowl im planning. Definitely gonna subscribe
I have a 3000L hydroponics tub I use to culture daphnia, bloodworms and other critters. I've found over winter the daphnia die off leaving their eggs to hatch out when it gets warmer. Usually we only have below 18° weather in winter so usually only 3 months of no daphnia. Blood worms usually go year round
Best tutorial on daphnia I've watched to date! Thumbs up! Well done Blake!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great Video Blake. Nice Work. ....... YES Browny ....... oops watching the Dees ..... lol
Wow nice yes daphnia is good for fishes high in protein.
Good straight forward and informative without waffling on. Thanks.
Thanks
No annoying background music either!!
Thanks Blake. If you go down to collect Daphnia, you will probably pick up Cyclops as well, which of course egg hatched fry can eat.
I agree with everything you shared. I personally had more success using larger aquariums like a 20 gallon or larger. The larger the volume of water the larger the yield of Daphnia and more stable water parameters. I also do a 20% water change a week or bi-weekly.
It's good that Blake shows how it can be done in smaller vessels as most people can't accommodate a big tank just to house Daphnia. Great video.
What’s up man! Great video bro bro! It’s always good to see you. Keep smiling man.
Thanks! Will do!
@@BlakesAquatics
Great content mate. I'm up in CQ. Just wondering if bristlenose catfish will eat them?
@@brickehansen1625 maybe opportunistically but not a lot 👍
Thanks! I'm thinking of getting some Daphnia.
Go for it!
I just came across your videos, lovely to the point and very informative videos 👍👌
If you have the time, i would very much like to hear about doing combo with dapnia and blackworms... Is it "just" to combine your two videos tutorials in one tank? Is there anything to be extra aware of?
Thank you 😊
No not at all, it just makes sense to me to do that. More live food for the same real estate. The blackworms help further break down the discarded food and shell from the daphnia. Win wkn
I use milk and cornstarch, occasionally a bit of flour for extra protein. Works a treat in small quantities
This is just the information I needed to give me confidence to o give this a try. Also what is that wonderful black and white fish in the video?
Julidichromis transcriptus
I live that daphnia can be cultured in the tank with the fish. I still prefer to have seperate cultures as well.
gets too warm in sumer here, but this time of year I can catch them outside in tubs of rainwater I left over winter. So I do my breeding this time of year too, I find live food a great primer to getting fish to breed..
Absolutely
Hey, great video. Well done. We are successfully culturing daphnia magna in 3 vessels. We've watched a lot of tutorials -- yours is right up there with the best. But what we're missing is how to change the water without losing the eggs on the bottom (mixed in with snail poop, algae, and other muck). Yeah, we're keeping 2-3 pond snails in each vessel just to help keep algae growth in check. It seems to work, but we still worry about changing out the water. Any help appreciated. Best wishes.
Dip in a large, fine net and use a small cup to scoop up water inside the net.
What is the yeast/spirulina mix recipe? I am going to try it out.
Thank you for making that interesting video! Can I feet Daphnias to my Celestial pearl Danios? Thanks
Yes the love them
Hey Blake! Cultured these many times, I've just never managed a long term culture
As he said.. Don't overfeed..
Also.. Water Changes are a must. Feeding fouls the water or grows daphnia pretty fast. That means you need some new water to take away the wastes and ammonia, etc.
Given, you can have 10 times as many adults in a matter of weeks..
Then, you have 10 times as much food being processed.
People can hardly comprehend this, so it becomes a problem.
A few drops becomes a few spoonfuls.
Before you know what happened, they are all dead. So, keep removing them to feed your fish.
And, keep syphoning out some water.. You can swish a net in the bucket or dump it thru a shrimp net.. to get the syphoned daphnia.
This is Why they Crash.
You can also crash it by feeding before the water clears.. Rotting food creates a bacterial bloom.
(gets even cloudier and stinks!)
I have attempted the magna culture many times and failed many times until i started culturing green water. I have cultures last years now without feeding them anything other than the green water every few weeks.
Hmmmmmm...... I might play with these things.
Are the nymphs and mosquito larvae a problem? Or just more fish food?
No one likes my live cultures here at my house 🤣 Still have them hidden places though. Ordered some of your 3d prints today. Excited to get them, but no rush ✌️🙂
They have started printing mate 👌 was worried i had run out of brown but found a box of it. Thanks for the order
You're a star Blake
Very helpful video thank you. How often do you need to change the water?
Maybe 10% or 20% weekly. Its also a good idea to remove shed exoskeletons from the bottom
@@BlakesAquatics thanks
@@BlakesAquatics If you remove the shed exoskeletons from the bottom, are you removing potential eggs as well?
Will wiping algae off the glass in my fishtank with a sponge and squeeing it into the jar the daphnia are in be enough to feed them?
Do i need the aireation going constantly?
I was reading an article on micro plastic Blake. They said they are seeing this in Daphnia, so it is probably an idea to let their systems flush out. Fry that have been found ingesting micro beads, are often lacking the survival instinct and can affect their sexual development. Just a thought!
There's no way to flush it out completely unfortunately. Microplastic is in all bottled waters, tap water, even rainwater and snow.
What species of fish is that black and white banded little guy at 1:10? Very informative video.
Julidichromis tranacriptus 👍 cheers
do you mix a specific amount of spirulina powder and yeast per specific amount of water in preparing food for live daphnia?
thank you for this great video
i’m going to attempt culturing scuds and daphnia together
Nah i just go off vibe mostly 😄
Great Video
A two liter container is enough to keep daphnia and to breed them?
10L bucket would be better as a cheap option
I used IBc tanks and I get a tablespoon a day to feed my fish. I am in Australia. Life food for 8 months of the year and feed the daphnias every third day.
That is awesome!
Great video on how to build a daphnia set up!
I've been feeding my daphnia culture yeast, but the whole scape and glass ended up getting covered in the fungus. What do you recommend I do to remedy this? Do I just wait? Is there an organism I can introduce to clean it up?
I’ve recently gotten interested in living ecosystems in a tank. Can I use daphnia as a living food source for it?
Of course
Hey Blake, would it be possible to culture daphnia and scuds in say a 40 liter tank together? And possibly blackworms as well? I was just thinking variety in 1 central location thank mate🙂👍🏻
Scuds and daphnia yes but not blackworms, too hard to keep everything pristine enough when substrate and blackworms are involved
What ratio of yeast and spirulina to water do you use? Thanks
50/50 mix of yeast and spirulina, teaspoon of each mixed into 500mL of water.
@@BlakesAquatics I know I'm late, but about how long does that last you fella?
Brilliant video! Is there any reason why you couldn’t use a sponge filter to help keep the water parameters in check?
Smaller bubbles and the daphnia will get sucked into it
@@BlakesAquatics if you did use some kind of filtration, would 200 nm filter cloth cover it well enough to stop the Daphnia from being sucked in? Or something slightly larger?
Even if they werent sucked in i think they would be sucked toward it and get stuck on it.
Daphnia feed on bacteria stuff, that’s why yeast is a good food it’s a live bacteria. You don’t want to remove all that from the water. Just use a turkey baster and get a few siphons from the bottom and add some more water.
How long can I keep the yeast/spiraling mix in the refrigerator without it going bad? Thank you
About a week mate
could i seed an amano tank with daphnia, then introduce chili raspora for a natural food supply?
yes but the daphnia will eventually be eaten, it wont last forever
What do you think about using a foam filter for the culture?
It would have to be large in area so that they dont get sucked to the outside of it
@@BlakesAquatics Actually attempting this already. Running the filter with a light bubbling. They seem to have no problem with water movement.
Can I use sieved Daphnia/moina as an alternative to BBS if I use correct size (less than 500 micron) sieve?
Absolutely
Few questions which is easy scud or daphnia? Rather then using a bubbler why not use duckweed or frog bits?
You can its just harder to catch them with duckweed. Scuds easier but bigger
Is the fish in the video a Julidochromis Marlieri?
Close. Julidichromis transcriptus
What fish is at 1:11? Really helpful vid btw.
Julidichromis transcriptus 👍 cheers
Would you say they need water changes the same as an aquarium?
Depends on feeding and cleaning but i do yes
Can you have live daphnia and live brine shrimp in the same culture tank?
Just answered my own silly question...key word BRINE!!!!
Correct 😄
What kind of ratio of spirulina:yeast/volume water do you use. Would this also be suitable to feed brine shrimp to mature?
The more spirulina the better, 1/2 tsp to 250mL
Can i just use spirulina powder without the yeast?
How do you store the eggs and how long do they stay viable?
In a cool dry place they should last months
Mine didnt crash but I panicked why some died underneath adults... then I known they last for a few weeks-months only...
You need to bread those pea puffers. So hard to find them
Can you culture them with brine shrimp?
Brine shrimp need saltwater, daphnia fresh
Daphnia and black worms could be culturing together?
Yes
How often do you feed the daphnia?
Every 3 days or so
I have found daphnia great as a food source but I wouldn't put them in the same tub as ostracods (seed shrimp), because the daphnia do eventually end up eating them.
Great tip!
tips for where to buy em? ebay just has from Thailand or Russian for the most part. carolina bio supply seems to get iffy reviews... struggling to find a good US source
I think aquabid. Thai ones are good
@@BlakesAquatics there was like one seller on aquabid. Would like locally sourced, guess will keep lookin
@@zoemorn good luck with the search, hard to know what different countries options are
How do you avoid spreading green water into display tanks when feeding daphnia who are being fed and kept in green water?
if the other tanks are balanced the greenwater shouldn't really 'spread'
Hey guys what do you think is the very best live food I should culture other then baby brine?? for apistos mainly
Microworms 👌
I got the instructions that i could feed daphnia only with spiruline once a week. Have you tried that, is it fine? Or is this mixture that you are showing in this video better? If I would use your tehnic, how many times per week should I feed fleas? You said in the video that to much food is critical. While in the beging of a video you are showing much food on the floor of the tank with daphnias in its near. Why do you think my daphnias swam first day quicker and now there are slower? Why they are swimming faster in the tank than in a big jar? There is also something on the floor. Is that possible that would be dead daphnias, after a first day that i got them and when i got them they were a live?
Thank you for your answers.
Yeah thats fine. They were probably stressed day 1. The stuff on the floor is shed skeletons, best to vac them out
I there can u plz tell the live food for freshwater mussels...
Spirulina
@@BlakesAquatics do freshwater mussels eat daphnia as there food..???
@@Princetaylor7373 no they eat free floating particles. Daphnia are too big
@@BlakesAquatics Can u suggest me some names for the mussels food.. In zooplanktons..other than chlorella, green algae, phytoplankton,.. Spirulina.
So it sounds like daphnia will not survive and populate in a tropical tank thats kept at 78*F 25*C?
Correct
I don't think that these are a parasitic creature in my tank, but I see little creatures running around their shaped similar to lice or shrimp, but they're super super small as long as they're not attaching to my fish. Is that daphnea that I didn't try to culture and it just happened? It's a planted tank I've had for about 2 years. I got it from a friend. It was completely dried for 6 months before I got it, though I did get some driftwood from her that they may have attached to but I didn't intentionally add them. I don't know if they came with my live plants but I haven't added anything for over a year and just noticed them now after I was looking for Cherry shrimp that are no longer there. Although I still have a ghost shrimp colony
Sounds more like seed shrimp, also nothing to be worried about
I tried culturing daphnia from eggs and they never hatched for me. The tank I kept them in has turned to green water though.
Add some garden soil and you'll have infusoria.
Hi Blake, thanks for the video. I will be in Lismore, NSW, Australia during Oct to Dec, and will need a constant supply of live Daphnia for 4 weeks. Please let me know if you sell them. Otherwise, please let me know the best and cheapest place to get them.
Hey got your email, sorry but I dont ship daphnia. Best of luck finding some
Any reason you can't use a sponge filter?
I have tried but it tends to crash the culture. I dont know if they get stuck to the sponge or something but it doesnt work
@@BlakesAquatics thanks. I've tried to keep them twice and now I know why it hasn't worked! Keep up the great vids
What kind of yeast? ☺️
There are different kinds of yeast? Bakers yeast I reckon then if I had to guess
@@BlakesAquatics there's a ton of different kinds of yeast to make alcohol
Hey Blake.. I like the 80's pop tune intro.. (chuckle)
If you add a couple of pretty dancers in the glittery skirts.. You'll get lots more subs!
- It would be a kick in the pants! 💋
You would be the only one..
😂🎈
Your content is good.
-And we would get a laugh every time we watch one.. 👍💦
Could green acreen it if you wanted to change the backdrops from time to time..
Thanks for the suggestion 🤣
If I wanted to make a bottle of food using yeast and chick pea powder, what would be the ratio? eg one teaspoon of each in 1 litre of water??
1L would be a huge batch, i wouldnt recommend that because you really only want to feed the yeast mixture for a couple of weeks. id only make up 100mL or so, 1/2 tsp of each yeast and flour
@@BlakesAquatics Thanks. Appreciate the quick reply.
I gather water changes are still required. If so, I assume a fine cloth (eg handkerchief) over the intake of the suction hose is used.
@@madmax1412 i just water change via an ordinary gravel vac along the bottom of the tank. Helps pick up old shells and most of the living daphnia are up toward the light
I usually buy live food, sealed in a bag. Currently have 3 small fish so the fish can't eat the entire content of the bag. Can I split the bag into two by feeding half one day and the second half of daphnia a few days later? That is, will the rest of the daphnia survive in an open bag?
Should be ok, you can try putting in the fridge as well
@@BlakesAquatics thanks for your advice
When are you supposed to harvest them ?
As needed, daily, every two days
i’ve had my quarantine tank running with no fish for 6 months and its absolutely full of them now 🙂 i have no clue where they came from initially though
But they can't reproduce without light. is there light in your quarantine tank?
are u fro masutralia
Correct
How often do you need to feed Daphnia?
Once or twice a week is plenty
@@BlakesAquatics thanks!
What happens if you just put cultures in a planted tank with your fish? Will the cultures reproduce and just become part of the ecosystem?
The fish will eat them all id think
One Daphnia Egg capsule on eBay costs nearly $15. You can buy an entire bottle of Brine Shrimp from Brine Shrimp Direct for the same price. It doesn't seem that practical to me, since you have to monitor your cultures. The Brine Shrimp you can grow whenever you want to.
Well in theory that one capsule could get you infinite daphnia if you monitored it closely enough
@@BlakesAquatics What is "Green water" to do water changes for them, and what about the temperature to keep the Daphnia culture at in the United States? We don't have the hot, humid weather that you do in your country, and I would like to try to culture some in the future for my fish just to give it a go.
@@MaicoMoon water that has turned green from free floating algae anything around 68 deg f
@@BlakesAquatics Most videos I've watched after seeing yours first have been culturing them outside in the sunlight in tubs. I might have to give it a go with a small nano tank. It's around 70 degrees F inside the house now in the Winter time with no heat on, but for most of the year, we keep the house at 77 or 78 degrees. When I get around to it, I'll give you an update. It seems a lot more intimidating than this Brine Shrimp hatching dish I've seen from a brand called Hobby that Brine Shrimp Direct sells, which looks dummy proof. I just read comments on all the videos from people who don't live in Southeast Asia where they can culture them easily saying that their colonies crash in several days, and it's hard to keep them. For $15 a capsule for every crash seems like it would add up a whole lot over the course of trying to learn and experiment with it. Thank you for taking the time to reply though, love your videos and been learning a lot about beginner plants and going to buy plants soon for my tank.
Fermentation and reproduction with chicken manure
can daphnia survive in 26?
I doubt it
@@BlakesAquatics Thank you very much for the response. It’s extremely helpful.
You look like luka Doncic
ill take it