# Breeding Daphnia



## Doodle (Aug 7, 2008)

Hey all! I have been thoroughly researching this recently because I get bored and I like for my fishies to have decent food!

I have so far found what to feed them (green water/yeast/decomposing organic matter etc), and how warm to keep them etc etc. What I don't know is how big a culture is needed to feed my tank!

I have 10 Endlers, 4 Corys, 4 Otos, 1 african glass catfish and 6 Harlequinn Rasboras. They usually take 2 40p bags of Daph a day and 1.5 sinking pellets. How big a culture should I have to feed this amount? (I'm planning on having 2 cultures to avoid any sudden crashes screwing me over!)

Thanks


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## madguppy (Jan 1, 2011)

A good way to culture them is in a out side water but or a large container such as a plastic loft tank. Put in some lettuce leafs ad 2 or 3 bags of Daphnia you may need to leave it for 2 or 3 weeks befor feeding any to your fish. it will also atract mosquitos so you will have plenty of mosquito larvae to feed to your fish it is a better food then Daphnia.
I find it best collect my own Daphnia I do this all year round. among the Daphnia. Are usually cyclops and glass worm all good live foods for the fish


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## ianxxx (Apr 25, 2011)

I keep amphibians/fish and grow my daphnia outside in a big tub, it also gets full of mosquito/midge larvae which is loved by everything in the house (except my wife lol), you will be surprised how much you can go through so the bigger the container the better. I also keep a reserve supply of daphnia inside the house to restock in case my outside culture crashes, i have no solution for winter daphnia when the tub freezes over as my inside supply is not enough to keep everyone supplied daily , i also grow baby brine shrimp, have you considered trying them? its quite easy.


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## Doodle (Aug 7, 2008)

madguppy said:


> A good way to culture them is in a out side water but or a large container such as a plastic loft tank. Put in some lettuce leafs ad 2 or 3 bags of Daphnia you may need to leave it for 2 or 3 weeks befor feeding any to your fish. it will also atract mosquitos so you will have plenty of mosquito larvae to feed to your fish it is a better food then Daphnia.
> I find it best collect my own Daphnia I do this all year round. among the Daphnia. Are usually cyclops and glass worm all good live foods for the fish


Unfortunately I live in city centre manchester, so an outdoors system isn't really an option for me  altho it's good to know that a culture can be started with so few individuals



ianxxx said:


> I keep amphibians/fish and grow my daphnia outside in a big tub, it also gets full of mosquito/midge larvae which is loved by everything in the house (except my wife lol), you will be surprised how much you can go through so the bigger the container the better. I also keep a reserve supply of daphnia inside the house to restock in case my outside culture crashes, i have no solution for winter daphnia when the tub freezes over as my inside supply is not enough to keep everyone supplied daily , i also grow baby brine shrimp, have you considered trying them? its quite easy.


I have considered BBS and will get some when the bettas are up for breeding! :mf_dribble: as above, I can;t set up outside really, how big is your indoor container, and roughtly how large a culture would you need to say, 8-10 bags of daph taken per week?


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

for that many you`re going to need a lot of cultures?
i`ve seen it grown in window ledges in those plastic planters, as long at they get a lot of sun to get the water algae growing and you drop a bit of vegetable matter in to feed the algae you should have sucess.

you might want to try frozen food and some quality flake for the endlers too.


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## Doodle (Aug 7, 2008)

pigglywiggly said:


> for that many you`re going to need a lot of cultures?
> i`ve seen it grown in window ledges in those plastic planters, as long at they get a lot of sun to get the water algae growing and you drop a bit of vegetable matter in to feed the algae you should have sucess.
> 
> you might want to try frozen food and some quality flake for the endlers too.


 
I'm sure I can feed them plenty, so I'm not worried, I'm thinking of using 5L water bottles and have 2-3 of these.

The normal feeding regime is crushed up flake, a few algae wafers, and some dried Daph or Bloodworm, with frozen thrown in as and when.

I much prefere using live Daph instead of frozen or dried, hence wanting to breed some. Any will be better than none tbf


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## CrAcKeRbEtTaS (Jul 22, 2011)

You may feed your Daphnia with green water and some dead leaves BUT the best food for them is chicken poop.


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## Doodle (Aug 7, 2008)

CrAcKeRbEtTaS said:


> You may feed your Daphnia with green water and some dead leaves BUT the best food for them is chicken poop.


I am aware animal waste is by far the best due to the rich flora and fauna found in animal guts.. HOWEVER, the gf has refused to touch me and the flat mate has refused to live with me if i have jars of watery poo in the lounge... :lol2:

Am currently using a mix of decaying leaves and Liquifry no2 which seems to be doing _ok_, but not as well as I'd hoped...


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