@E Cox Try green water culturing. Put containers of water outside in a sunny area, add any organic matter (pinch of dog food, fish food, etc.) It will eventually turn green with algae. You can use this water to feed your culture. Once you get multiple containers of green water you can add daphnia to two of them. Always keep two cultures going, as one can die off. Alternate harvesting. If you have lots of fish to feed, just scale up. Always start new cultures of green water and daphnia as a back up. Keep the daphnia in partial sun.
I put some small daphnia into my shrimp and Chilli Rasboras tank, to feed the Rasboras. There was about 6 adult daphnia in with the that didn’t get eaten, and now, several weeks later, they’re still alive. They are very interesting to watch, when I feed the shrimp they all go and dance over the food dish, presumably picking up particles that break loose, they eat Genchem Polytase, and Aminavita and they love flower pollen. I also occasionally put a tiny bit of spirulina powder in. I’ve not seen any young, but that might be to do with the Rasboras. It’s great to see them in a fully planted and populated tank, I’ve not managed to successsfully culture them on their own though.
Flower pollen? That's fascinating. There are a lot of cattails in my area. I wonder if ground up, that would be useful as a daphnia food supplement. I'd have to be careful as with yeast, which can be easily overdone.
around january tried Magna Daphnia. dunked the starter in a small 7.5 gal tank. Big mistake. did the always cloudy tank big mistake. so after that crashed i had around 5 to 7 magna still alive got a bigger plastic container tub around 55 li. and deliberately underfed them. BOOM i wish i could post a video. now they are thriving. I make sure that they clear up the water and wait the next day to feed them again. but very sparingly. I also make sure to harvest. Thanks this video and all the other videos has been an awesome source of info.
That's soo cool that tank looks soo much better with the light on it I'm assuming that's the tank I got the chance to see when I bought some cultures off you
That hair algae also traps yeast, and makes cleaning much harder. I had to replace bins due to that algae. Wish I had seen this video before I started. Very informative video as always.
I've tried getting a green water tank going for weeks now before I got some. But I ended up ordering a few kinds of daphnia and different kinds of live algae 😬 hoping for success. Also going to start vinegar eels, black worms,and micro+ banana worms
Excellent tutorial on Daphnia. I will soon start a culture. What are the smallest kind of Daphnia one can get? Thank you for sharing! I enjoyed watching!
Jose Montalvo Thank you, I am glad it is helpful! There are some very tiny daphnia, only about about the size of about 3 newly hatched brine shrimp put together when they are adults.. I used to have a culture of them.
Thanks for the great tutorial on dafnia, great articulation. I’m thinking of starting a culture and this will really help. You pretty much said it all but I’m curious to know where the best place is to keep a culture? I’ve heard that if one has a basement to keep it there in the dark?? Quite the opposite of your tutorial on keeping a small backup jar in a window that’s indirect from sun light? Thanks
Mark Von Feldt daphnia are pretty adaptable. I prefer to keep them under a light, because they can benefit from the algal growth, but dim conditions work as well.
I got D pulex in a few small bags, emptied all of them in a bucket (including the dead ones). Then I set up several cultures with different methods, and all of them died within days. Except for the waste bucket that I didn't empty, there where still a few living specimens. Then from there I used pure RO water and eventually got bigger cultures. It seems they didn't like harder tap water (not chlorinated though). They prove to be a lot harder to keep and less prolific than Moina. In any case, with waterfleas, their short life span of about two weeks means that their own natural deaths can contribute significantly to the water pollution if you don't harvest regularly as you said.
Yes, regular harvesting and water changes are a must. Mine are acclimated to harder water, and they do need calcium to build their shells, but they can be a little tricky to acclimate to new conditions.
Be careful that the yeast is completely dissolved in water separately before adding it, and make sure not to overfeed. If you see it settling on the bottom, you are probably feeding too much
I recently purchased a daphnia starter kit with live daphnia. It came with food and fertilizer for the daphnia. My question is what is the fertilizer for? I have heard of people starting cultures in potting soil and I'm wondering if that has something to do with it...?
Savia good question! Fertilizer can be used to get a good crop of ‘green water’ going, upon which the daphnia feed. The potting soil can accomplish the same thing.
Azahari Hamzah Hi, good,question! I just use a normal siphon...I usually siphon out 2-3 gallona weekly. It is fairly easy to siphon out water in a darker spot where there are not many Daphnia. I use a gravel siphon and usually vacuum out some of the detritus on the bottom of the aquarium.
Cyrus Gonsalves they tend to give birth every 10 days or so. If conditions are good, and you start with 10, you can have thousands within a month! They mature in about 10 days as well.
Aquarimax. Thank you for answering me . I have daphnia in a 5 gallon tanks alot have died for no reason but I have all these little white dots moving I have been asking so many people and they dont know what it is are they daphnia
Thanks for the great video. I caught a bunch of copepods (cyclops) and daphnia from a local lake. After a week, I noticed all the daphnia are gone but there are plenty of copepods. Do you know if copepods kill daphnia somehow?
@@Aquarimax Thanks much for replying! I looked more carefully and found out that the lake has way more copepods than daphnia to begin with. And to make it worse, the daphia got stuck on the surface, even though I didn't apply any air flow. It looks like I put too much of them together and they ended up pushing each other to the surface by accident. And once their body touches air, they can't sink back in. It seems that their body is hydrophobic.
@@signupisannoying if they get stuck at the surface, it is very hard for them to get back down, and that will wipe them out pretty quickly. Worth another try to get them going though.
@@Aquarimax Thanks much for all your replies. I found out I can put 90% of them back down into water by dripping water droplet about 1 inch above them. I tried spraying/misting at first, that didn't work at all. Accidentally I invented a method for me to separate out the copepods. First pick the daphnia from water surface using a small loop that just captures the surface (like water bubble blower device), then transfer it to another container.
Why are plants bad for them? I’m trying to set up an eco bowl for mine, walstad type. I have some green water already going into the bowl, and the plants would be there to help with the bioload.
It is hard to say. There may be allelopathic chemicals the plants produce. It may be that aquatic plants often introduce hydra into the daphnia cultures. It may be that daphnia require water with suspended food particles, which is not ideal for the plants. Some people seem to have success with plants and daphnia, but I have not.
omid Ba how cold does it get in your area? I have cultured this strain of daphnia in water with a thin sheet of ice forming over the water, so they can take cold quite well.
Thankyou for sharing your knowledge & tips with us. It's helped a lot. Kindly clarify below queries How do you do water changes without looking some Daphnia? My culture has dendritic worm & now can I clean my culture? Thanks
Bob S It can be, but will probably need some remineralization, as daphnia require calcium and other minerals for their exoskeletons. If the rain water is not contaminated with airborne pollutants, moss killers from the roof, etc, it can otherwise be a good source of water for daphnia. 👍
Lophix if they are stuck at the water surface, that is bad, it usually means that very small bubbles have been trapped within their carapaces. This can be a result of aeration that is too forceful, or aeration with fine bubbles. Are you using an airstone? That can cause the issue.
@@Aquarimax I don’t even use an air pump! I put them into a big bottle 2 days ago, I didn’t cycle the bottle, I put in some bladder snails and fed them with yeast. I used normal tap water without a conditioner because here in Germany we don’t have any chlorine or other harmful metals in our tap water. I’m planning to start a second colony as a backup.
A backup colony is a good idea. They may have gotten stuck as you were pouring them in, that can happen too. Yeast is not my preferred food for them, it tends,to contribute to crashes, but some use it with success.
An air pump is not necessary-i have cultured them long-term without the be-but a slow flow of coarse bubbles can increase yields significantly. There are many foods that work. Lately I have been offering well-dissolved active dry yeast mixed with hematococcus algae.
Aneesh B Ah, i see. Siphon of the detritus from the bottom, drain it through a coffee filter, thoroughly dry it, and freeze it, then add it to clean, dechlorinated water with a small amount of dried grass or hay.
I got a starter culture from a friend 2 weeks ago and my daphnia don’t seem to be multiplying. Do they need a certain temperature? I’m feeding green water and I have the airline but no heater. They’re in my garage where it’s probably around 60°.
They do seem to bred faster in warmer water, but if they are not breeding at all, something else is likely an issue. How much green water are you feeding?
Angelo Cowan to some extent, they will serve to help clean up, but mostly they are a live food. In a daphnia culture they also chew up solid food and release fine particles of the food into the water column where the daphnia can eat it.
Hi,I am going to try to start a daphnia culture and wondering if temperature is a problem in any way. Temperature in a tank I have prepared is 62 degrees Fahrenheit or 16.5 degrees centigrade.Many Thanks
Roedy Green drip,acclimation means to use tubing to slowly slowly drip the new water into the water the animals came in. In some situations, this can help them adjust to the new water conditions with a minimum of stress.
I received my first-time daphnia order on Thursday, by Monday most of them are dead. I think I can see tiny life inside, but not sure if it is baby daphnia or not. I used well aged water at 68 degrees. Not sure what went wrong. Any advice would be awsome.
Lisa Campbell Did you drip-acclimate them? They can sometimes be shocked by differing water parameters, even if that water is perfectly suitable. In a couple of days, you should be able to confirm whether the tiny creatures are daphnia. If not, don’t give up hope entirely....there may be resting eggs that will hatch after a large water change, and they will be adapted to your water.
@@Aquarimax No, I did not acclimate other than floating the bag. I will try the water change. I do still see tiny dots in the water, and some seem to swim in the same manner as the adults. I will keep trying. Thank you so much for answering.
Lisa Campbell the fact that some of the little ones are swimming in the characteristic jerky manner of adult daphnianis a good sign. I hope you find that they are indeed daphnia within the next few days! 👍
EVELYN HENDERSON they are a crustacean related to Isopods, and more distantly to Daphnia. They are sometimes known as freshwater shrimp, or gammarus, the scientific name of the species I keep is Hyallela azteca.
Joshua Emmanuel Namoco I’m not sure what effect that would have...it might be fine, it might make it difficult to maintain stable parameters. Rather than do a half day, I might let it run for an hour every day.
I know this video is 4yrs old lol but maybe someone can still help me? I have a newer culture growing fast, but so many of them (adults) are stuck at the surface and…. drum roll…. i’m NOT using air. Just doing good water changes. Any suggestions? Is there a safe chemical free way to break the surface tension so they can fall?
I am from philippines. How can i ship daphnia to philippines. I want to culture daphnia but i have no idea how to start this culture. Should i also buy 20 gallon aquarium tank in order to start this culture?
Aquarimax why my daphnia turn to white instead of red color? Any advice would be appreciated. They are still alive but the color red in thier body became white color. Why is this happening to daphnia?
Jay Tee the color change can be a result of diet, or of oxygen levels in the water, or both. Low levels of oxygen can cause the Daphnia to produce more hemoglobin and turn redder. If your water is well oxygenated, the Daphnia may become paler. What are you feeding your Daphnia?
Aquarimax i am feeding half tsp of active yeast mix with warm water and half tsp of spiriluna powder. I pour 5 cup mix of yeast and spiriluna came from my 350 ml bottle. I use the cup as my measurement. I feed them with 5 cupfull once a week.
Hi! I just started my daphnia culture in a jar, I don't know a lot about them, but my teacher told me to feed them with yeast. They're reproducing ok, but I'm worried that on the bottom of my jar, there are these very tiny black bugs (?) or little black moving things. I don't know what they are, but someone had them already, and said that their whole population died because of them. Do you have any idea what they could be, and what should I do to prevent the death of my population? Thanks! :D
Erd beere the small black dots could be seed shrimp. Look up seed shrimp and see if that is what they look like. I have had them in my cultures before. They don’t necessarily harm daphnia directly, but sometimes conditions can favor seed shrimp and not daphnia.
@@Aquarimax Do you think they're harmless, or should I do something with them? Now when I looked closely at my jar, I noticed milions of even tinier white "bugs" at the bottom, and on the sides of the jar they're really microscopic, do you have any idea what they could be?
Hello Sir. My daphnia culture crash and the next day small dots like cloud appear. What is that tiny dots? Its small compare to daphnia. Do you know why?
Yeah if they eat snails, they are definitely a different kind than the 100% vegetarian, exclusive algae eating scuds of Central Texas. Also, the daphnia around here are very fond of algae and love to get buried in it. The only way I know they are there (as well as copepods and seed shrimp) is to take a piece of algae and shake it until they settle out. As soon as I stop they head back to the algae.
Johnny Morales That explains it! The species of scud I have is almost certainly not the same if you collected yours in central Texas. I wonder if the daphnia you describe are Ceriodaphnia sp.?
I just got a few hundred daphnia yesterday, have them in a small tank without an air stone but I notice most of my daphnia are always at the top, near the surface. They're darting around and still alive but I'm concerned why they aren't swimming throughout the water column more
Sham Maideen do you have any aeration at all? If they are near the surface, they could be attracted to light, or if oxygen is low in the tank, they may be trying to stay where the oxygen is more plentiful.
@@Aquarimax I did... got a small air pump with a slow trickle, no air stone. Bubbles are big and slow, similar to a simmering boil. But it seems like after the introduction of the air pump, many have died and I can see only a few still swimming. Thankfully I have 3 more jars which seem to be thriving. Main jar with aeration is a 1 gallon while the other 3 are pickle jar sizes. Lets see how it goes. Should I keep the air pump running 24/7?
@@Aquarimax thank you so much by the way for your very prompt response to all my queries. You have been so helpful. Will update you on the situation tomorrow.
I have mystery, ramshorn, nerite and pond snails all with my scuds. I feed a ton because it's my grow out tank for my mystery snails. I wonder if maybe they turn to the ramshorns when food runs low?
Brad Lewis That could be it. In fact, the snails were attacked when I was out of town for a couple of days. My son was feeding the culture...maybe he didn’t feed enough?
I got a couple boxes of eggs I don't remember ordering, just put the eggs in a little habit I made Started watching videos to figure out wtf they were, cause I had never heard of them They seem neat! Their Apparent ability to reproduce asexually is sort of concerning considering they're just in a goldfish bowl 😅
Andy Chow Daphnia produce tiny resting eggs, which can be transmitted by wind or on the feet of birds in dried mud, so sometimes they seem to come out of nowhere, but this generally happens in outdoor ponds. The best way to get them going is to buy a starter culture.
Hi Aquarimax I love your videos they have inspired me to try culturing my own live food for my fish. The main reason I am commenting is I noticed some of you videos on mini mealworms a long time ago that eventually turned out to be a different species I found a website (the links below) and asked what species of mini mealworm they were selling and they said Tenebrio Obscorus. I thought you might be interested, I may get some later on and try they are a bit pricey. Heres the link www.carolina.com/mealworms/mini-mealworm-larvae-living-pack-of-500/144287.pr
Thanks for watching my videos, I am glad to hear you enjoy them, and that they have helped inspire you to try culturing your own live foods. 😊👍 Thank you for the link as well! In my research I have found out a few things about Tenebrio obscurus. One is that they aren’t really smaller than T. molitor, and the other is that the adult males have elongated front legs. If these are significantly smaller than T. molitor, they may well be Alphitobius diaperinus, the buffalo worms I ended up with.
Oh thanks for letting me know I didn’t even realize that. I wouldn’t have any idea of what to culture or how to without your videos its nice to have so much information in one place.
Probably the best daphnia guide on TH-cam. Thank you sir.
João Gonçalves Thank you! I am glad you think so. 😊👍
I’m trying daphnia again. 4th times the charm
Simply Betta I hope they work this time...I’m happy to help if I can. Good luck 🍀! 👍
Did you achieve success simply Betta?
E Cox probably, if you can make the particles fine enough 👍
@E Cox Try green water culturing. Put containers of water outside in a sunny area, add any organic matter (pinch of dog food, fish food, etc.) It will eventually turn green with algae. You can use this water to feed your culture. Once you get multiple containers of green water you can add daphnia to two of them. Always keep two cultures going, as one can die off. Alternate harvesting. If you have lots of fish to feed, just scale up. Always start new cultures of green water and daphnia as a back up. Keep the daphnia in partial sun.
They need sunlight the most for their growth and oil cake helps them to multiply.
Ive watched a lot of daphnia tutorials and this one is the best i was able to maintain my daphnia culture for 6months already
Delighted you found it useful!
I put some small daphnia into my shrimp and Chilli Rasboras tank, to feed the Rasboras. There was about 6 adult daphnia in with the that didn’t get eaten, and now, several weeks later, they’re still alive. They are very interesting to watch, when I feed the shrimp they all go and dance over the food dish, presumably picking up particles that break loose, they eat Genchem Polytase, and Aminavita and they love flower pollen. I also occasionally put a tiny bit of spirulina powder in. I’ve not seen any young, but that might be to do with the Rasboras. It’s great to see them in a fully planted and populated tank, I’ve not managed to successsfully culture them on their own though.
Deanne Sherriff it will be interesting to see how long they live in your planted tank...in the meantime, your rasboras will get periodic snacks! 👍
So what happened later ?
Flower pollen? That's fascinating. There are a lot of cattails in my area. I wonder if ground up, that would be useful as a daphnia food supplement. I'd have to be careful as with yeast, which can be easily overdone.
@@fritzwilhelm8258 Aquarimax don't use yeasts. 👈
@@DEXTER-TV-series Me neither. It's far more trouble than it's worth. Just mentioned the possibility of similar fouling.
around january tried Magna Daphnia. dunked the starter in a small 7.5 gal tank. Big mistake. did the always cloudy tank big mistake. so after that crashed i had around 5 to 7 magna still alive got a bigger plastic container tub around 55 li. and deliberately underfed them. BOOM i wish i could post a video. now they are thriving. I make sure that they clear up the water and wait the next day to feed them again. but very sparingly. I also make sure to harvest. Thanks this video and all the other videos has been an awesome source of info.
Wonderful video!!! Thanks for the information!
That's soo cool that tank looks soo much better with the light on it I'm assuming that's the tank I got the chance to see when I bought some cultures off you
Yep, this is the tank when illuminated.👍
Aquarimax why not light it like a normal tank ?is it only light when filming ?
jayscrazzy obsessions I have it on a timer, it has a normal photoperiod, it just starts and ends fairly early. 👍
That hair algae also traps yeast, and makes cleaning much harder. I had to replace bins due to that algae. Wish I had seen this video before I started. Very informative video as always.
Juunkead That hair algae is pretty nasty when it comes to Daphnia, I agree! Glad to hear it was helpful! 😊👍
I've tried getting a green water tank going for weeks now before I got some. But I ended up ordering a few kinds of daphnia and different kinds of live algae 😬 hoping for success. Also going to start vinegar eels, black worms,and micro+ banana worms
Off to a great start!
great information Rus...thank you!
Sean Meister Thanks Sean! 👍
Excellent tutorial on Daphnia. I will soon start a culture. What are the smallest kind of Daphnia one can get? Thank you for sharing! I enjoyed watching!
Jose Montalvo Thank you, I am glad it is helpful! There are some very tiny daphnia, only about about the size of about 3 newly hatched brine shrimp put together when they are adults.. I used to have a culture of them.
Thanks for the great tutorial on dafnia, great articulation. I’m thinking of starting a culture and this will really help. You pretty much said it all but I’m curious to know where the best place is to keep a culture? I’ve heard that if one has a basement to keep it there in the dark?? Quite the opposite of your tutorial on keeping a small backup jar in a window that’s indirect from sun light? Thanks
Mark Von Feldt daphnia are pretty adaptable. I prefer to keep them under a light, because they can benefit from the algal growth, but dim conditions work as well.
Does anyone know what the little shrimp/cricket things on the glass are at ~1:30 into the video???
Those are copepods, small crustaceans that can also serve as fish food
Great advice... that helps alot. 😊 thnx 🐸
Tesartmania Glad to hear it helps! 😊👍
I got D pulex in a few small bags, emptied all of them in a bucket (including the dead ones). Then I set up several cultures with different methods, and all of them died within days. Except for the waste bucket that I didn't empty, there where still a few living specimens. Then from there I used pure RO water and eventually got bigger cultures. It seems they didn't like harder tap water (not chlorinated though). They prove to be a lot harder to keep and less prolific than Moina. In any case, with waterfleas, their short life span of about two weeks means that their own natural deaths can contribute significantly to the water pollution if you don't harvest regularly as you said.
Yes, regular harvesting and water changes are a must. Mine are acclimated to harder water, and they do need calcium to build their shells, but they can be a little tricky to acclimate to new conditions.
THAT’S AWESOME AND AMAZING KEEP UP THE AMAZING AND FANTASTIC AND GREAT WORK RUS YOUR THE BEST OF THE BEST😊😁👍!!!
Dinosaurs terroir World 😊👍
Aquarimax your welcome😁👍
guide on how to heat treat leaves?
ethan vandal good idea!
Thank you Kapayan for this valuable educational video. If the daphnia initial culture is fed by spirulina, can I shift to dry yeast without problems?
Be careful that the yeast is completely dissolved in water separately before adding it, and make sure not to overfeed. If you see it settling on the bottom, you are probably feeding too much
I recently purchased a daphnia starter kit with live daphnia. It came with food and fertilizer for the daphnia. My question is what is the fertilizer for? I have heard of people starting cultures in potting soil and I'm wondering if that has something to do with it...?
Savia good question! Fertilizer can be used to get a good crop of ‘green water’ going, upon which the daphnia feed. The potting soil can accomplish the same thing.
Hello sir. How to water change?
Azahari Hamzah Hi, good,question! I just use a normal siphon...I usually siphon out 2-3 gallona weekly. It is fairly easy to siphon out water in a darker spot where there are not many Daphnia. I use a gravel siphon and usually vacuum out some of the detritus on the bottom of the aquarium.
Aquarimax tqvm for your respond and informative video
Azahari Hamzah Happy to help!
If I start culturing today with a small amount ... Approx aftet how many days should I harvest them ...and how fast do they reproduce and get big?
Cyrus Gonsalves they tend to give birth every 10 days or so. If conditions are good, and you start with 10, you can have thousands within a month! They mature in about 10 days as well.
Aquarimax okk .. I had brought my culture about a week ago they are not much may be 100 -150 should I start harvesting them?
Cyrus Gonsalves how big is your container?
Aquarimax around 2ft box
Cyrus Gonsalves I would wait another week or two before harvesting then.
how do you do water changes, how do you keep the daphnia getting pumped out
EVELYN HENDERSON Nowadays I just use a small gravel siphon. I can usually avoid the swarm of Daphnia, though I might occasionally siphon out a few.
cool. thanks.
Suprub video....
The conclusion is inexplicably funny
Aneesh B Thank you! Glad you enjoyed that bit at the end! 😝😊
Hi is a light necessary or a must for growing daphnias?
When there babies are they the size of pin size ?
Wolfdreamer 29 they are a little bigger than a newly hatched brine shrimp, but not by much.
Aquarimax. Thank you for answering me . I have daphnia in a 5 gallon tanks alot have died for no reason but I have all these little white dots moving I have been asking so many people and they dont know what it is are they daphnia
Wolfdreamer 29 They could be seed shrimp or copepods...if you Google Those, do they look anything like that?
Aquarimax is there a place I can contact you to show you I'm really not 100% sure if not I understand
Wolfdreamer 29 you can go to my about tab and email me from there 😊👍
Thanks for the great video. I caught a bunch of copepods (cyclops) and daphnia from a local lake. After a week, I noticed all the daphnia are gone but there are plenty of copepods. Do you know if copepods kill daphnia somehow?
I have heard of large numbers of copepods attacking larval fish…but I wonder if you have an issue with hydra.
@@Aquarimax Thanks much for replying! I looked more carefully and found out that the lake has way more copepods than daphnia to begin with. And to make it worse, the daphia got stuck on the surface, even though I didn't apply any air flow. It looks like I put too much of them together and they ended up pushing each other to the surface by accident. And once their body touches air, they can't sink back in. It seems that their body is hydrophobic.
@@signupisannoying if they get stuck at the surface, it is very hard for them to get back down, and that will wipe them out pretty quickly. Worth another try to get them going though.
@@Aquarimax Thanks much for all your replies. I found out I can put 90% of them back down into water by dripping water droplet about 1 inch above them. I tried spraying/misting at first, that didn't work at all.
Accidentally I invented a method for me to separate out the copepods. First pick the daphnia from water surface using a small loop that just captures the surface (like water bubble blower device), then transfer it to another container.
Thanks for your insight. Can daphnia and amphipods flourish in freshwater? Or, must you have a saltwater tank? Thanks
UNDERDOG THE DJ You’re welcome! The Daphnia and amphipod species I keep are freshwater species.
Why are plants bad for them? I’m trying to set up an eco bowl for mine, walstad type. I have some green water already going into the bowl, and the plants would be there to help with the bioload.
It is hard to say. There may be allelopathic chemicals the plants produce. It may be that aquatic plants often introduce hydra into the daphnia cultures. It may be that daphnia require water with suspended food particles, which is not ideal for the plants. Some people seem to have success with plants and daphnia, but I have not.
What’s the best way to do a water change with something so small? Put fine mesh around the gravel vacc?
That works...sometimes I just drain the water I to a jug, and then give that water to my fish!
Hello. I live in Iran. How is Daphne maintained in the winter or in the cold?
omid Ba how cold does it get in your area? I have cultured this strain of daphnia in water with a thin sheet of ice forming over the water, so they can take cold quite well.
Thankyou for sharing your knowledge & tips with us. It's helped a lot.
Kindly clarify below queries
How do you do water changes without looking some Daphnia?
My culture has dendritic worm & now can I clean my culture?
Thanks
Thanks 😊
TortoiseFan I hope it had the info you were looking for. 😊👍
is water from a rain barrel good?
Bob S It can be, but will probably need some remineralization, as daphnia require calcium and other minerals for their exoskeletons. If the rain water is not contaminated with airborne pollutants, moss killers from the roof, etc, it can otherwise be a good source of water for daphnia. 👍
how do you do your water changes to avoid loss
You can gently direct the water you remove through a brine shrimp net, and either feed off the resulting daphnia, or return them to the culture.
What is scuds?
EHAYES scuds are small crustaceans, amphipods is a more technical term for them. They are a great live fish food too.
Oh okay. I think i had a crash bc of over feeding on accident
Do you find that your sponge filter clears the water? Or does it eventually plug up enough to not be a problem?
I have used sponge filters in daphnia tanks, but I don’t connect them to air. They do tend to pull particles out of the water.
My daphnia stay at the water surface because of surface tension... is that bad? what can i do?
Lophix if they are stuck at the water surface, that is bad, it usually means that very small bubbles have been trapped within their carapaces. This can be a result of aeration that is too forceful, or aeration with fine bubbles. Are you using an airstone? That can cause the issue.
@@Aquarimax I don’t even use an air pump! I put them into a big bottle 2 days ago, I didn’t cycle the bottle, I put in some bladder snails and fed them with yeast. I used normal tap water without a conditioner because here in Germany we don’t have any chlorine or other harmful metals in our tap water. I’m planning to start a second colony as a backup.
A backup colony is a good idea. They may have gotten stuck as you were pouring them in, that can happen too. Yeast is not my preferred food for them, it tends,to contribute to crashes, but some use it with success.
are the scuds harmful to fish? does the fish eat the scuds?
C Otake scuds are great food for fish. Scuds could eat fish eggs, or maybe tiny, newly hatched fry, but not a healthy, free-swimming fish.
Do you really need an air pump? Cos some claim you dont need one. And what is the best food for them?
An air pump is not necessary-i have cultured them long-term without the be-but a slow flow of coarse bubbles can increase yields significantly. There are many foods that work. Lately I have been offering well-dissolved active dry yeast mixed with hematococcus algae.
@Aquarimax Ok thanks
What species of daphnia are these?
I bought the original stock a very long time ago, and they were unfortunately not sold to me with a scientific name .
Can you please help me by advising how to collect daphnia eggs 🥚?
Aneesh B Do You mean
collecting them from a body of water in the wild, or from an existing captive colony?
Sir, I mean from my daphnia colony maintained in my home 🏡.
Aneesh B Ah, i see. Siphon of the detritus from the bottom, drain it through a coffee filter, thoroughly dry it, and freeze it, then add it to clean, dechlorinated water with a small amount of dried grass or hay.
dear sir,
Do you have any video 📹 in this regard
Aneesh B Not yet, but that is a good idea!
I got a starter culture from a friend 2 weeks ago and my daphnia don’t seem to be multiplying. Do they need a certain temperature? I’m feeding green water and I have the airline but no heater. They’re in my garage where it’s probably around 60°.
They do seem to bred faster in warmer water, but if they are not breeding at all, something else is likely an issue. How much green water are you feeding?
Whats the scuds purpose? Does it act like a snail s too?
Angelo Cowan to some extent, they will serve to help clean up, but mostly they are a live food. In a daphnia culture they also chew up solid food and release fine particles of the food into the water column where the daphnia can eat it.
what kind of calcium i can use cacium carbonat or cacium phosphate both are slow release
Khaled Kotb I use calcium carbonate. 👍
Hi,I am going to try to start a daphnia culture and wondering if temperature is a problem in any way. Temperature in a tank I have prepared is 62 degrees Fahrenheit or 16.5 degrees centigrade.Many Thanks
tonyrob86 that temp range should be just fine. 👍
What does drip accommodate mean?
Roedy Green drip,acclimation means to use tubing to slowly slowly drip the new water into the water the animals came in. In some situations, this can help them adjust to the new water conditions with a minimum of stress.
I received my first-time daphnia order on Thursday, by Monday most of them are dead. I think I can see tiny life inside, but not sure if it is baby daphnia or not. I used well aged water at 68 degrees. Not sure what went wrong. Any advice would be awsome.
Lisa Campbell Did you drip-acclimate them? They can sometimes be shocked by differing water parameters, even if that water is perfectly suitable. In a couple of days, you should be able to confirm whether the tiny creatures are daphnia. If not, don’t give up hope entirely....there may be resting eggs that will hatch after a large water change, and they will be adapted to your water.
@@Aquarimax No, I did not acclimate other than floating the bag. I will try the water change. I do still see tiny dots in the water, and some seem to swim in the same manner as the adults. I will keep trying.
Thank you so much for answering.
Lisa Campbell the fact that some of the little ones are swimming in the characteristic jerky manner of adult daphnianis a good sign. I hope you find that they are indeed daphnia within the next few days! 👍
Scuds may eat snails for calcium
derrick shavers that makes sense, although in my case they did not eat the shells.
@@Aquarimax wow predators
Do you sell daphnia magma? Plus tutorial on how to culture daphnia. I am planning to buy daphnia from you.
Jay Tee I do indeed sell Daphnia! I am not sure if they are magna...
Am i supposed to have a heater in the tank? And is it normal to have a few casualties?
what are scuds
EVELYN HENDERSON they are a crustacean related to Isopods, and more distantly to Daphnia. They are sometimes known as freshwater shrimp, or gammarus, the scientific name of the species I keep is Hyallela azteca.
thanks.
How much do you feed it a day and with what?
Is it ok to use airpump only half day?
Joshua Emmanuel Namoco I’m not sure what effect that would have...it might be fine, it might make it difficult to maintain stable parameters. Rather than do a half day, I might let it run for an hour every day.
What do you feed them?
what would happen if i didnt put aeration to my daphnia culture tank?
Cold Iced You could still culture daphnia, but generally with less production from the culture.
I know this video is 4yrs old lol but maybe someone can still help me? I have a newer culture growing fast, but so many of them (adults) are stuck at the surface and…. drum roll…. i’m NOT using air. Just doing good water changes. Any suggestions? Is there a safe chemical free way to break the surface tension so they can fall?
I would use a little light air…there may be an oil/protein slick that light, coarse aeration can help break up.
This finally stopped for some reason. But I think your right. I started swirling the surface after feeding and they started staying down 🤿
I am from philippines. How can i ship daphnia to philippines. I want to culture daphnia but i have no idea how to start this culture. Should i also buy 20 gallon aquarium tank in order to start this culture?
Jay Tee I don’t think I can get live Daphnia to the Philippines 😢
Jay Tee you wouldn’t necessarily need a tank, you could do a bin or bucket as well.
Aquarimax why my daphnia turn to white instead of red color? Any advice would be appreciated. They are still alive but the color red in thier body became white color. Why is this happening to daphnia?
Jay Tee the color change can be a result of diet, or of oxygen levels in the water, or both. Low levels of oxygen can cause the Daphnia to produce more hemoglobin and turn redder. If your water is well oxygenated, the Daphnia may become paler. What are you feeding your Daphnia?
Aquarimax i am feeding half tsp of active yeast mix with warm water and half tsp of spiriluna powder. I pour 5 cup mix of yeast and spiriluna came from my 350 ml bottle. I use the cup as my measurement. I feed them with 5 cupfull once a week.
Hi! I just started my daphnia culture in a jar, I don't know a lot about them, but my teacher told me to feed them with yeast. They're reproducing ok, but I'm worried that on the bottom of my jar, there are these very tiny black bugs (?) or little black moving things. I don't know what they are, but someone had them already, and said that their whole population died because of them. Do you have any idea what they could be, and what should I do to prevent the death of my population? Thanks! :D
Erd beere the small black dots could be seed shrimp. Look up seed shrimp and see if that is what they look like. I have had them in my cultures before. They don’t necessarily harm daphnia directly, but sometimes conditions can favor seed shrimp and not daphnia.
@@Aquarimax Do you think they're harmless, or should I do something with them? Now when I looked closely at my jar, I noticed milions of even tinier white "bugs" at the bottom, and on the sides of the jar they're really microscopic, do you have any idea what they could be?
Erd beere the little white critters could be paramecia, rotifers, copepod nauplii...lots of possibilities.
@@Aquarimax should I be concerned?
Erd beere I’d say no, not unless your daphnia seem to be dying off.
Hello Sir. My daphnia culture crash and the next day small dots like cloud appear. What is that tiny dots? Its small compare to daphnia. Do you know why?
Does dapnhia survive direct sunlight?
What species are scuds?
Roedy Green there are many different species, the one I culture is Hyallela azteca.
Yeah if they eat snails, they are definitely a different kind than the 100% vegetarian, exclusive algae eating scuds of Central Texas. Also, the daphnia around here are very fond of algae and love to get buried in it. The only way I know they are there (as well as copepods and seed shrimp) is to take a piece of algae and shake it until they settle out. As soon as I stop they head back to the algae.
Johnny Morales That explains it! The species of scud I have is almost certainly not the same if you collected yours in central Texas. I wonder if the daphnia you describe are Ceriodaphnia sp.?
I just got a few hundred daphnia yesterday, have them in a small tank without an air stone but I notice most of my daphnia are always at the top, near the surface. They're darting around and still alive but I'm concerned why they aren't swimming throughout the water column more
Sham Maideen do you have any aeration at all? If they are near the surface, they could be attracted to light, or if oxygen is low in the tank, they may be trying to stay where the oxygen is more plentiful.
@@Aquarimax no, i don't have aeration at the moment. I'll go out and get an air pump today
Sham Maideen that will likely help. As you mentioned before, just don’t use an air stone and keep the aeration to a trickle. 👍
@@Aquarimax I did... got a small air pump with a slow trickle, no air stone. Bubbles are big and slow, similar to a simmering boil. But it seems like after the introduction of the air pump, many have died and I can see only a few still swimming. Thankfully I have 3 more jars which seem to be thriving. Main jar with aeration is a 1 gallon while the other 3 are pickle jar sizes. Lets see how it goes. Should I keep the air pump running 24/7?
@@Aquarimax thank you so much by the way for your very prompt response to all my queries. You have been so helpful. Will update you on the situation tomorrow.
Do you sell microorganisms? Or, can you recommend a reputable place to purchase? Much appreciated sir!
UNDERDOG THE DJ I do sell these little crustaceans from the video. Are you located within the continental US?
Dear sir,
I have a doubt. Whether the daphnia pulex and moina are same?
No moina are much smaller and can take more poluted water and overcrowding.
How many days it take from 20 to becone 100
If they are mature adults, between 1 and 10 days usually.
@@Aquarimax thnx buddy
I have mystery, ramshorn, nerite and pond snails all with my scuds. I feed a ton because it's my grow out tank for my mystery snails. I wonder if maybe they turn to the ramshorns when food runs low?
Brad Lewis That could be it. In fact, the snails were attacked when I was out of town for a couple of days. My son was feeding the culture...maybe he didn’t feed enough?
First thing you always want to try is rebooting😅
True, but you need a microscope to
Find Ctrl+Alt+Del on a daphnia. 😁
@@Aquarimax lol
My dalphnia culture having 😅white fungus thing it's sticky ....it's food or bad?how to rid off??
Is it on the bottom? What are you feeding them?
@@Aquarimax it's on all the sides I'm using tub all sides of tub and air pump tube .....then I'm feeding dry yeast warm water mix 😅
When I got mine we're red now they are not why is that
jgottinc Food and oxygen levels can impact color, but it isn’t necessarily a problem. Lower oxygen causes higher hemoglobin levels=redder color.
I would be feeding the mealworms from the beetles to my leo.
👍☑ , happy groundhogs day🐹
AquariumCop Happy Groundhog Day! 🐹
I got a couple boxes of eggs I don't remember ordering, just put the eggs in a little habit I made
Started watching videos to figure out wtf they were, cause I had never heard of them
They seem neat!
Their Apparent ability to reproduce asexually is sort of concerning considering they're just in a goldfish bowl 😅
You mean you just put some chlorinated water and decaying plant and the daphnia will appear from nowhere?
Andy Chow Daphnia produce tiny resting eggs, which can be transmitted by wind or on the feet of birds in dried mud, so sometimes they seem to come out of nowhere, but this generally happens in outdoor ponds. The best way to get them going is to buy a starter culture.
@@Aquarimax thank you for your explanation. Cheers
Andy Chow you’re welcome!
i believe in our culture will have some annoying worm swimming around... that worm will kill daphia ?
Ifish malaysia It depends on which type. Look up Dero works amd detritus Worms. If you have those, they are no problem.
Troubleshoot??
Hi
Aquarimax I love your videos they have inspired me to try culturing my own live food for my fish.
The main reason I am commenting is I noticed some of you videos on mini mealworms a long time ago that eventually turned out to be a different species
I found a website (the links below) and asked what species of mini mealworm they were selling and they said Tenebrio Obscorus.
I thought you might be interested, I may get some later on and try they are a bit pricey.
Heres the link
www.carolina.com/mealworms/mini-mealworm-larvae-living-pack-of-500/144287.pr
Thanks for watching my videos, I am glad to hear you enjoy them, and that they have helped inspire you to try culturing your own live foods. 😊👍 Thank you for the link as well! In my research I have found out a few things about Tenebrio obscurus. One is that they aren’t really smaller than T. molitor, and the other is that the adult males have elongated front legs. If these are significantly smaller than T. molitor, they may well be Alphitobius diaperinus, the buffalo worms I ended up with.
Oh thanks for letting me know I didn’t even realize that.
I wouldn’t have any idea of what to culture or how to without your videos its nice to have so much information in one place.
Rose Pulaski You’re welcome! I really appreciate the positive feedback, it makes my day. 😊