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Re: Culturing Daphnia (was APD V4 #124
Hello Neil,
There are several live-food sellers advertising Daphnia in the aquarium
magazines.
Unfortunately, not all "Daphnia" are alike, nor do all of them give
equally good results under YOUR conditions.
The advantage of collecting your own is that it is for free, it can be
fun and the critters are probably adapted to your water -- if your tap
water is similar to the pond water. If you select for culture individual
cladocerans, subculture them several times, then the chance of dragging
in parasites is nil.
There are more recipes for raising Daphnia than anyone can try out. The
best way is follow the directions of the person you get the starter
culture from. If you get them from the wild, then have fun and patience
experimenting.
I have done this several times, both ways, and find it both fun and
practical, if you want to "fatten up" a female for spawning. I could
never produce enough Daphnia to feed all my fish every day. Once a week
feeding of all tanks is about average.
Best,
George
> Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 07:29:37 -0500
> From: neil.anderson at asbury_edu
> Subject: Daphnia
>
> For years I have been told the benefits of live daphnia as a food for
> freshwater fishes (beginning with my reading of Innes' Exotic Tropical Fish
> nearly 40 years ago as a kid). I was recently reminded of this during an
> outbreak of green water. Although I didn't try it (I cleared the tank with
> a diatom filter), some suggested that I introduce live daphnia as a algae
> control measure. I've seen freeze-dried daphnia in the LFS but never live.
> Can anyone enlighten myself and others on how one goes about securing and/or
> raising live daphnia? I would think that daphnia strained from local
> streams and ponds would be risky in terms of introducing unwanted parasites.
>
> Thanks!
>
> ***********************
> Dr. Neil D. Anderson
> Asbury College
> Dept. of Bible and Theology
> Wilmore, Kentucky USA
> Office: (606) 858-3511 ext. 2455
> E-mail: neil.anderson at asbury_edu
> ***********************