Getting rid of green water/breeding daphnia

Here's something interesting i caught while forum trawling, on fishforum.com

I was looking for a method to breed daphnia like you'd breed brine shrimp... I got this:
http://www.fishforum.com/member-submitted-articles/getting-rid-green-water-breeding-daphnia-15195/

Getting rid of green water/breeding daphnia Daphnia is one of the most common live foods available.

Sometimes sold dried, these are useless, but in their live or frozen form they can provide a great deal of fibre and encourage natural behaviour.

They can be purchased in small bags from aquarists/LFS or captured from clean unpolluted water such as large lakes. Daphnia do not last in these conditions however [clean water/no algea]. They die; mainly from starvation.

Dapnia can be kept alive and by the same process be bred in large quantities by the following method:

Select two containers of at least 10g [...30 liters...] that allow as much light as possible (an old tank, clear plastic tub etc.)
To get the best and fastest results these are best filled from a pond or water feature that exhibits "green water". This can be mixed with old tank water to bring up the volume and add the nitrates that will feed the algae.

Both are then put into an area were they receive maximum sunlight. The idea is to propagate the free floating algae that will become food for the daphnia.

After a week (give or take) both tubs should be completely green , its now time for the dapnia to be added, from whichever source is available.

About half coffee mug full for a 10g tub is fine, less will take longer to bring up their numbers. Add dapnia to both tubs.

After another week or so you will notice the green water/algae becoming clear as the daphnia feed, now they can be harvested from one of the tubs depending on the fish to be consuming them.

A course net will capture the adults and leave the smaller ones to grow when the numbers in the tank being used are few, move to the other tub. The low numbers of the daphnia in the used tank, will allow the algae to bloom again, repeating the cycle. Food=breeding etc.

Another use for these animals is to clear green water from a tank this is very simple if the tank contains no fish [cuzz they're gonna munch on the daphnia]. Simply add daphnia and wait for them to clear the bloom.

...If there are fish present, a reasonable result can be gained from putting daphnia into a fine net breeder in the water current, away from hungry mouths...

Hope anyone else found that interesting too... sounds usefull, now to find a way to implement the daphnia eating alge in a tank, and being able to breed them as well, while the fish can also munch a few, but not down the colony completely...

 

Put a large drum/bucket outside - add half a handful of chicken manure and leave for 3 days --- Lots of green water

Add Daphnia and let them breed adding a little fertilizer when the green dies down - or keep 2 large drums/buckets going and keep transfering the daphnia.

NOTE: when you harvest the dapnia - keep it for 2 to 4 hours in water dosed with Sterazin - this will kill off most of the possible bugs and things that are not good for the fish

 

Here's another 'guide' to breeding daphnia for live food:
source: http://reviews.ebay.com/Raising-and-Breeding-Daphnia-for-Fish-Food_W0QQugidZ10000000001691865

Daphnia are a small freshwater crusteans are found most places in the world. They are an easy to raise as a live food for fish. There are two species that are mainly used for tropical fish. The larger one is Daphnia magnus. It is about 1/5 of an inch long and a pinkish color. The other species is D. pullex which is smaller and either whitish or clear. In both species the females give birth to about fifteen babies every three days. This is in ideal conditions. The babies grown and start producing babies in a few days. All Daphnia are females except during special circumstances. Just before a tank crashes a few male are born and the females will produces cysts or eggs. You can go from a few to a tank full in less than a month. The other species is D. pulex which is about 1/4 the size and a clear or white color. It reproduces at a similar rate. It is easier for smaller fry to eat. You must be careful with the amount of Daphinia that you feed to fish. The shells of the bodies can give the fish digestion problems if given too regularly. They should be fed to fish only once or twice a week.

Daphnia are filter feeders. They are constantly straining the micro-organism from the water. They live off bacteria, algae and other small animals. The easiest source of food is green water. You can either buy green water or start your own. Place a pea in a quart of water. It will turn green as the algae absorb the nutrients from the decaying pea. When the water has turned a nice cloudy green color. You can add some to a ten gallon fish tank. You can add lettuce leaves or pea to fertilize this tank. When the water has become so green that you can see through it to can add a few Daphnia. I had three tank going this way using a flourescent light turned 24 hours a day. There are two ways to keep the tanks going. I have used old aquarium water. This fed the green water. Some sources state that you must use clean spring water. You can buy some cheap at your local grocery store. Daphnia are very sensitive to pollution in water. They are used to test the toxicity of water by environmental labs all over the country. If you try using your tap water and they all die you know something is wrong with your water.

After you add the Daphnia there will be a population explosion in your tank. In a short time the water will become clear. You can start harvesting your Daphnia with a shrimp net. When you dump them in your tanks the fish will usually eat them all in minutes. The Daphnia population will approximately quadruple every day. You can harvest every day for some time. You will need to do partial water changes to keep the water from getting too dirty. At some point the population will crash. This is the reason to have three tanks going when one crashes another one will be coming online to do the work. Share these with your friend so if you lose them all you can always get more. I went for a year and half once I figured out how to keep them alive.

 

Can you use frozen daphnia to populate?

 

nope. They B deadz...

 

Thought it is like drowning a fly then revive it with salt.
Where can we get Daphnia then to populate?

 

i found a small shop that will get stock next week, thats why i went looking for the info in the first place
its in a shopping centre just off simon vermooten, pet & outdoor i think

lol, me and my LFS crawling

 

Die dammetjies in die botaniese tuine krioel met daphnia

 

isit? ek was lanklaas daar, vra hulle ingang?
Kan mens ingaan met n sakkie of iets en skep sonder dat jy inni moeilikheid gan kom ,dis die vraag...

 

LOL.Ek sien alreeds drie "sluipers" met Glad vleissakkies en sykous nette.

Hulle bewonder net die dammetjies................

 

Thanks for the info Ferryman,, very interesting read,, yet to see a pet shop in CPT stock live foods.

 

Keep a lookout at The Fish Nook Forum......:blink1:

 

Slojo - Actually yes you can - The frozen daphnia has cycsts (eggs) in it - so drop a few frozen daphnia sqaures into some algae water and wait - takes about a week to 2 weeks

 

well thats just freakin weird!... like something from the Alien movies, lol, mommy is a zombie kids, stop tugging on her arms like that, they'll fall off and you'll be sorry