Daphnia Questions Answered! 

Glad it is helpful!!

They may be resisting in the tap water.

Robert Lees sounds like a great, low-maintenance method! 😊👍

Sean Meister I hope you do...few live foods are quite as magical...

I totally agree with you...during the summer I also get mosquito larvae outside from a bucket of water, fish loves those too...anything that wiggles and darts and swims frantically! @@Aquarimax

Sean Meister definì...mosquito larvae are like fish candy...but full of healthy HUFAs...!

Glad to hear it! I should probably make an update 😁👍

EverythingCREATED Sounds like a bird with muddy feet may have left you a gift! That’s great! Your platies will love them. 👍

Aquarimax Pets or maybe a raccoon with mud on its feed

*feet

How does this happen? I've seen it before.

@S.Trades their eggs can survive being dried and be carried by the wind, or on the muddy feet of birds

Randy Tompkins they can be...outdoor tubs do often make the easiest cultures.

@@Aquarimax thanks Rus! Love your videos! Your passion for the hobby has introduced me to so many new critters to appreciate. Keep up the incredible videos!

Randy Tompkins comments like this make it all worth it!

I am delighted to know that you found this helpful! Let me know what you think of the other videos 👍

Pup314 Two good suggestions! 😊👍

Glad to hear this was helpful! They can be tricky to start, but once you get them going you should be able to maintain them indefinitely. 👍 Frequent small water changes really help mine breed prolifically!

@@Aquarimax Thank you for that advice. I've found it very hard to do water changes without sucking up a portion of them. Any solid ideas to avoid that? Or do I just have to deal with losing some no matter what?

@@anga9495 I usually end up siphoning some out, but you can pour the waste water through a net and then feed the daphnia to your fish,

@@Aquarimax yeah I thought about that, but even placing a baby Artemia net in front of the hose I'm worried to suck out the babies. I'm the type that won't kill anything unless it's necessary. But, I suppose they all end up dead without a water change.

@@Aquarimax ty for taking the time to respond to me. I really appreciate it.

I get the best results when mixing the flour with the other ingredients, but it will work on its own too 👍

Luca Lo Nardo that is a good idea, as long as you make sure not to exceed the capacity of your drainage container. 👍

Storing a small amount of debris with the eggs can work. Too much debris, and the bacterial bloom may reduce oxygen once the mix is rehydrated. A little debris will provide enough food for microorganisms that the daphnia will feed on, though.

The Koi Pond Experience you’re very welcome, I am happy to help!

Hi! Great questions. Raising daphnia in the same tank with fish doesn’t tend to work out, as the fish will constantly feed on them until they are gone, and the type of water quality fish prefer (and the water clarity we prefer) are not ideal for daphnia. Some Neocaridina shrimp might be worth a try, though. I have kept and bred Neocaridina and other shrimp, but haven’t kept them with daphnia.

I will take that as a compliment 🤣

@@Aquarimax Chuck Norris feeds fish to his daphnia...

In your case, I would simply use a small tank, maybe even a couple of 1-gallon jars. That way, you can produce the numbers you need.

@@Aquarimax ahh, that makes sense. Thanks!

You’re welcome! Most of the larger fish nets have appropriately coarse mesh, it’s the smaller nets with the finer mesh that will also catch the younger ones.

@@Aquarimax Cheers 🙂

Kyle Spotted Bear Thank you!

A very small snail would probably be a good idea, if it is young enough not to have mated already...otherwise you might end up with too much bioload as you mentioned.

@@Aquarimax Thank you!

A long pipette can usually reach them…just get one that matches the depth of your aquarium. Generally the density depends on the species, the feeding and water changing regimen, and whether or not there is aeration. 👍🏼

Your concerns are valid. Some people have used a fine mesh net breeder to protect the daphnia…the green water and some of the tiny young dapjphnia get through, but the daphnia are protected from both fish and filter, and can handle the green water quite well from inside. I haven’t tried it, but others have with success.

kohle65 Interesting! What do you mean by ‘I only complete every two weeks’?

@@Aquarimax normal vaporization of water. I complete water until I have 30l again.I add water until a mark is reached. It simulate the rain and they like it. I think water replacement you have to do if you permanent overfeed them.

kohle65 I see! That is an interesting low-maintenance method. I have found that my daphnia respond better to water changes rather than replacing evaporated water, but as you say, it may be that my method is a more intensive culture with higher nutrients... in any case, daphnia are pretty adaptable, and there is more than one path to success with them. Thanks for sharing! 😊👍

bbSeal Thank you! 😊👍

Tare Wade Thanks for watching! This is a very good question...I have always had to deal with hard, alkaline water, so I never run across this issue. If you are certain your aquarium water is hydra-free, you could probably use old aquarium water with success. Baking soda and calcium carbonate are worth a try, though. It would be great if you could set up 3 or 4 culture containers with different water conditions to discover which daphnia did best.

​@@Aquarimax Yesterday I received my Daphnia Magna & my Moina and set up 3 different culture containers for each. I checked the pH of the water the Daphnia came in and it was around 7.8, so I adjusted rainwater with baking soda up from 6.0 to 7.8, and added a small amount of calcium carbonate. I then added a portion of of the Daphnia to these gallon jars. Then I set up jars with water from one of my planted aquariums, and from an ibc tote that I have outside which I have Wakin goldfish in. Both of these tanks were from rain water that i had adjusted the pH with baking soda, added calcium chloride, magnesium sulfate, & potassium sulfate. Both of these tanks have fairly heavy fish loads, well filtered, and have had a 50% water change a little over a week ago. The pH in the Wakin tank is about 8.2, and the aquarium is about 7.8. Today I checked on the cultures, and to my surprise the Daphnia in the jars of water from both fish tanks look great despite the added minerals I had used, and the higher pH from the tote. Unfortunately, in the rainwater I had carefully adjusted using calcium carbonate & baking soda, the Daphnia died. Not what I expected. I was careful about keeping temperature the same also as to not shock them. Looks like there is something about the old water they like.

Tare Wade They do tend to like old water. I am glad you set up several different containers as suggested...that can be a lifesaver with daphnia! 👍

You can keep either snail species with daphnia…they may eat dead daphnia, but not really the active ones. Too many tannins might have a negative effect but. Little should not be bad if they are properly acclimated

Thanks for the answer. Is mystery snail consider an active snail? And what is the effect that tanning will do to daphnia, im just curious.

@@cassiepham456 I would say mystery snails are quite active when the water quality is good. Tannins tend to bring down pH, and in my experience daphnia prefer pH above neutral

All the daphnia disappeared?

Kazi Ayesha Thank you! I have had copepods as incidental inhabitants of my daphnia/scud cultures for years, but I have never attempted to mass culture them separately. I know that people do it, though.

@@Aquarimax I do not need to culture them as they are plenty of them in my house water tank . They are pretty easy for me to harvest also, but are they nutritious for betta ?

@@Aquarimax And what are scuds ?

Kazi Ayesha I would say that copepods are a good natural food source, but their nutritional value would depend partly one what they are eating. If they are growing in conditions where algae is growing, they are likely to pick up some nutrients from that, and would be a good food for appropriately sized betta fry. Here is one of my videos about scuds: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BIRyuTnWF6c.html

@@Aquarimax thank you very much Rus you are always ready to help and take out some time for reading our comments 😃 Here is one last request I wanted to download your videos on my device not via RU-vid but , I want to download them from google please share the link of your website . I wanted to download your videos and share them on social media to increase your subscribers.

I might suggest tying a different food …green water can be a great good, but it can also influence pH quite a bit. My current feeding regimen is astaxanthin & well-dissolved active yeast, along with sinking fish food pellets (the tank is well-populated with ramshorn snails). I change about 10-20% of the water 1-2 times per week. This seems to result in excellent reproduction . How often are you changing water?

@@Aquarimax I've been trying to promote reproduction recently by changing 15-20% every 3 days. Started about 3 water changes ago. Prior to that it was once a week. I did test my PH a few days ago and it was around 7.4 i have a small bag of crushed coral to keep alkalinity up for them. My tap is around 7.0. i used dechlorinated water and aerate for 3 days in prep for the next WC

The Fishy Life ! Good point! That is exactly where I got my first scud cultures...

That is so true. I ordered some baby tears a while ago and grew them (emersed?) Anyway, my daughter had some sea monkeys/fairy shrimp from a little kit and I added a tiny strand of the baby tears for fun and looks and within days the sea monkeys were overtaken by what I believe to be daphnia. Honestly, I no longer see any shrimp at all now. But we now have thousands of daphnia and had to upgrade the tank.lol

Both, really. Various wastes build up and seem to slow reproduction. The influx of new water seems to stimulate them to breed as well.

David Jenoure I have had mine outside when air temperatures were 100+ degrees +. The water temp stays considerably cooler. I am not sure of a specific Florida source, but aqua bid.com does have some Florida sellers...

@@Aquarimax do you export fish and Daphnia out of the country

David Jenoure unfortunately I can’t at present.

@@Aquarimax Keep up the good work. Thank you

David Jenoure i hope you are able to source some daphnia!

If you can find daphnia eggs for sale, generally you can add them to R/O water or distilled water with a small amount of organic material (leaf litter, for example) and they will hatch within a week or so, , amd then care is the same as described in my other videos. 👍🏼

From where I can gets these eggs?

Dan Krohn They are indeed different species, aquabid.com usually has them to

It depends on the weather where you are. I raise them year round indoors, and outdoors in my climate, I can produce them from about May to October…a little ice on the surface of the bucket did no harm.

in my entire life i have found daphnia in two spots. one was a ephemeral puddle where the town dumped their leaf collections, and another was a sediment pond where water flowed through from a harbor silt pumping operation. i going to check the leaf collection site soon before summer, but the other location has been dry for years now. keep looking, gold is where you find it.

That is strange that there is so much trouble getting them to live in your area. I find them in my pond just scooping up plants and mud and they live under many different conditions. My household water is very hard water from a natural spring though so maybe that is why they survive for me.

Hmmm....I wonder if there is something in your water? Do you drip acclimate the daphnia when you receive them? I would be interested in hearing more from you about it...you can go to my contact me page if you like and email me

@@Aquarimax I acclimate them similar to the way I do fish and shrimp. I've tried adding just a tiny bit of water at a time. I've wondered if there is something in the water, but then I know people that keep delicate fish and have no problems at all. I wonder if I could use bottled water from another part of the country and condition it to get different results.

Lori B if i kynit we’re practical to use water from a distant source...i have failed with some strains of daphnia and succeeded with others. That could have something to do with it as well.

Well, it depends on quantities, etc., but they won’t typically last long in an aquarium with fish.

@@Aquarimax thanks for the response. appreciate it

Glad it helped!

The betta will probably overeat at first, clearing out all the daphnia. Scuds would be a better option for low-density live food in with your betta.

This can work for fry, or in very large ponds. In general, in an aquarium, the fish will eat them quickly and completely.

I was thinking about putting the daphnia a bottle with small holes, sink it in the aquarium, letting the adults inside the bottle and breeding while the fry will hopefully comes out from the holes. But I guess Inwill have difficulty in feeding the daphnia. Did you ever tried solid foods instead of dissolved spirulina and flours?

@@alvingalang5106 i dont think the adult ones live very long though. But it could work. Not necessairly to trap adults in, but give them hiding space in general. I think big javamoss patches and good soil would help too, as i unintenionally bred them in a guppy bowl that way..

I wouldn’t suggest adding the eggs directly to the tank, as they might not hatch, and if they did, any fish in the tank would probably finish them off quite quickly. If you have green water, you can try adding a mesh breeder, and then adding adult daphnia to that. That way the daphnia can access the algae, but the fish can’t get to the daphnia (at least not all of them). Various people have reported success with this method.

@@Aquarimax thank you very much!

Not completely necessary. It will improve production, but it can be omitted.

@@Aquarimax how about light? I want to culture it indoor,is the room light is enough?

Are they dying?

@@Aquarimax yeah they are dying

Tawny kittie Galloway you’re welcome! Didn’t I use one of your questions in the video?

Thanks for asking! You can message me here : www.aquarimax.com/contact/

You can visit www.aquarimax.com/price-list/#Livefood

Ric B most species of mosquito larvae only eat microscopic organisms they filter from the water. There are some other insect larvae, such as damßelfly larvae, That are predatory and could go after daphnia.

@@Aquarimax thanks!

Not too long, from what I've read. Typically, they live about 2-3 months on average, although in some cases they can live about 5-6 months.

XiAmFAUSTX ghost shrimp are very opportunistic...I am not surprised. Scuds make a much more suitable tankmate for daphnia. 👍

I have done it successfully in a 10-gallon tank for about 2 years. Later I upgraded to 20 gallons...but the 10 gallon worked. 👍🏽

@@Aquarimax I was just thinking that live food like daphnia and scuds would be better for the fish than flake food.

@@Aquarimax would it work if they were the only food that the fishes ate or would that be too much of a toll on the colony. I have 5 tanks.

I would consider the daphnia and scuds a supplemental food...even if I had a 300 gallon stock tank to culture them in, and could pull out more than enough to feed all of my fish to satiation every day, I would still offer my fish flake food, just to round out the nutrients they would receive. There’s no doubt daphnia and scuds are great foods...but flake probably contains some nutrients that they are deficient in.

@@Aquarimax ok. Thank you? Are scuds attracted to light like daphnia are?

Some might, but they do tend to be sensitive to metal contamination in the water.

@@Aquarimax that's what I was reading. I tried anyways but I didn't see any last night when I held the light on the water for a while.

Light, coarse aeration, but no mechanical filtration, is my preference, as anything pulling particles from the water would be competing with the daphnia for food.

I use a gravel vacuum, and siphon out the waste from the bottom at least once a week

I am not sure how much of a danger planaria pose to your daphnia, to be honest. They are predatory, but I would expect daphnia to be able to outmaneuver them.

@@Aquarimax yea, ookey thank you

Are they Triops?

@@Aquarimax is triops's big?theyre a bit smaller than daphnia

Ah! Possibly copepods

@@Aquarimax can i keep em for food?

@@erikpratama320 copepods make good food for many small fish...not so great for adult bettas though

orlan dalisay you will need daphnia is from somewhere...the dry eggs are occasionally brought to bodies of water by the wind or birds, but you need either live daphnia is or eggs to start.

Thanks master,,, from philippines 🇵🇭 👍

Can you buy dried eggs online? Another option is to collect daphnia in a fish-free pond, especially one where livestock such as cows are in and around the pond a lot.

@@Aquarimax can u pls send me the link of product so that I can buy them !

Tahmeed Mazumder Hmm... tell me more about the food you are using and the aeration...

Under certain conditions possibly.

Algae and other small organisms suspended in the water. 👍

Armenestra Patey I have heard of some people having success hatching them...never done it myself...

How to culture this

Very similar...they culture the same way.

@bojo perez I wonder if there is anything you can do to tell if it's fake? Like... if it is supposed to be spiral shaped then you could look at some under a microscope to see if it's that way

Zom Bee Nature how strange! Fortunately it is also available online. 👍

bojo perez it is possible that it contains some additives that harm the daphnia...

@@Aquarimax I was very surprised, since the only thing I associate with Spirulina is a health food store. I have never actually seen it though. I am very curious, if you put Spirulina into an aquarium or pool or whatever, does it grow?

Zom Bee Nature Good question... what I understand, the dried spirulina that we buy is no longer viable.

I haven’t used it with daphnia. They tend to be sensitive to many chemicals though.

Rebeça Sabourin I am glad it is helpful 😊👍

RealFurious This may have to do with light. Daphnia usually try to go towards the brightest light source.

Aquarimax Pets thank you for your help

RealFurious you’re welcome!

Good to know! I gu as the information I had on that point was not correct..

​@@Aquarimax 90% of what you said was correct. btw, I meant primiparous instar, autocorrect changed that. for the record, it is very easy to vary the fatty acid composition of Daphnia by changing their diets. if their are fish that need a super high quality diet (i.e., high EPA content) that can be accomplished.

@@MichaelTBrett How do you incorporate those oils into the food, or is it the type of food? What is your source for the fatty acids?

They are easy to breed and very sensitive, like the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

Rochelle Nilson-huntley That is Tiki, one of our crested geckos

Bob S They are getting harder to find these days...my daughter just found some in a reservoir while we were herping last week. I wish the best of luck in your quest!

Probably possible to find them at any time, but your best luck will be in the summertime corresponding with algae blooms. I'm looking for a culture too, so this isn't from experience but rather a guess

metrikal1 i have found and collected wild daphnia many times, and I would agree...they are at their most abundant when there is lots of algae available.

K P 2 fl oz. of water per 1 tsp. Powder for the mix, and 1-2 ml per feeding.

That can happen if the scuds don’t get enough to eat. Though i cultured them together successfully together for years, I now culture them separately? ASI do get higher daphnia yields this way. I Made a video about this a few months ago.

🤣 I am afraid you heard me wrong. I said ‘the continental United States’. 🤣

@@Aquarimax oooooh lol