One easy and satisfying way to give your aquarium fish fresh, wholesome food is to grow your own daphnia at home. These little aquatic animals are a terrific choice even for novices because they are simple to raise.
Often called water fleas, daphnia are easy to grow in basic setups and multiply rapidly in the right environment. You can guarantee your fish have the best possible diet by keeping a consistent supply of daphnia by learning the fundamentals of their care.
This tutorial will take you step-by-step through the necessary procedures for growing daphnia successfully at home, covering everything from habitat setup to feeding and upkeep. You can quickly establish a flourishing daphnia culture with just a little work.
- How to grow daphnia at home
- What to feed:
- How to feed
- Table of the amount of feed supplied from the density of the daphnia culture
- Maintenance of an aquarium / tank with daphnia
- Video on the topic
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How to grow daphnia at home
The characteristics of home breeding for Daphnia crustaceans. Advice on cultivating, tending to, and gathering daphnia
To begin with, let"s answer the question – where to get a live daphnia culture? In Western Europe and North America, everything is simple, crustaceans can be ordered online and the package will be delivered the next day right to your doorstep. In Eastern Europe and the CIS countries, such a service exists only in large cities and not in all of them. Residents of the provinces can use the services of pet stores as intermediaries, buying live crustaceans from them, or collect them in nature with a simple net. In the summer, zooplankton lives in large quantities in almost any lake or pond. However, in the latter case, there is a high risk of catching unwanted guests, for example, hydras or some parasites, which can later migrate to the aquarium with fish.
Daphnia can be cultivated in almost any tank (barrels, canisters, tanks, etc. d.). For simplicity of calculations, the article uses a 100-liter tank. The water should be clean, the hydrochemical composition does not matter, the temperature is 18–21°C. At higher temperatures, the reproduction process slows down, so you will have to find a cool place for the tank. Ordinary tap water will do. However, depending on the area, it may contain chlorine. It must be removed, for example, by leaving the water in an open container for a day. Additional aeration will not be superfluous.
For those who are breeding daphnia for the first time, a transparent aquarium is recommended to better control the development of the crustacean culture, the amount of food, etc. p.
What to feed:
Therefore, there isn’t a food specifically made for daphnia. Numerous sources list a broad range of goods, including bacon, finely chopped trout, yeast, and manure. Nonetheless, the majority of them act as a foundation for the growth of bacteria and fungi, which daphnia already consume, rather than being direct food for crustaceans. The ideal food, in the author’s subjective opinion, is:
Pet stores are supplied with powdered spirulina and/or chlorella algae, which is also widely available in online retailers. You could place an order on AliExpress or eBay, for instance.
Fish suppliers can order specialized micro feed for freshwater shrimp larvae, which is available in pet stores.
Available at any grocery store are regular wheat flour and dry baker’s yeast.
Doug’s concoction is the pinnacle of daphnia cuisine. is made up of one part soy flour, three parts wheat flour, one part floured peas, three parts baker’s yeast, one part paprika, and two parts spirulina or chlorella algae.
Doug’s mixture is the most successful, according to home experiments, but it takes a lot of time and ingredients to prepare. An even quicker and simpler preparation yields similar results when baker’s yeast and chlorella powder are combined in a 50/50 ratio. You can optionally add a small amount of paprika (1/10 part), which colors the daphnia and is then absorbed by the fish’s body, intensifying their color.
Remarkably easy to grow at home, daphnia can give your aquarium fish a fresh, healthy food source. It’s very simple to raise these little crustaceans; all you need is a container, some water, and some sunlight. They are inexpensive and low-maintenance because they feed on algae or yeast to thrive. Regardless of your level of experience, growing daphnia can be a fun and satisfying way to make sure your fish are getting the best nutrition possible.
How to feed
There are two methods to feed daphnia. First, according to the water’s transparency. Second, determined by the aquarium’s crustacean culture’s density.
Method 1: Fill the container with food mixture and stir gently until the water starts to turn murky. You ought to keep in mind how much food was provided. The water ought to become perfectly clear after a day. There was too much food if this does not occur. There won’t be enough food if the water clears up more quickly. Proficiency in this technique is necessary, as is ongoing monitoring of the mixture’s supply quantity. Only appropriate for a fully grown colony.
Method two
First, you will need to learn how to determine the number of daphnia per unit volume. In this case, one unit is 20 ml. Buy a regular 20 ml syringe at the pharmacy and leave only the flask from it. Attach it to a stick, for example, a bamboo one from under sushi/rolls, vertically with the tip down and cork it. You will get something like a ladle. With this ladle you need to scoop up water from different depths and each time count how many daphnia got into it. Then it remains to calculate the average value.
Feed should be given based on the number of daphnia per unit volume – the same 20 ml. Use the table below as a guide for compiling your own. For example, if the average value is about 20 crustaceans per 20 ml in a 100-liter aquarium, then every day you need to stir 2 teaspoons (h.l.) food mixture (without a slide). Be sure to monitor the transparency of the water as was said in the first method. Perhaps, the proportions will need to be changed.
Table of the amount of feed supplied from the density of the daphnia culture
Density of Daphnia per 20 ml
Crustaceans are easily overfed during the early stages of daphnia growth, when their population is very small and they are only being brought for breeding. Uneaten food spoils fast and contaminates the water, which can eventually cause the colony to perish. Food should therefore be administered sparingly—a few pinches at a time.
Maintenance of an aquarium / tank with daphnia
It is necessary to change the water every 2-3 days (at least 25% of the volume) with fresh water of the same temperature. It is advisable to combine the water change with cleaning the bottom, where various organic debris and dead crustaceans will settle. The water is drained using a siphon – often its role is played by an ordinary small-section hose (within 1 cm) with a tube at one end. It is convenient to move the tube along the bottom, sucking in debris. As with a regular aquarium, over time, the walls will become covered with an organic coating. It is easy to remove it with a scraper, and remove the fallen particles with a siphon.
If you are replacing only the water, you should place a fine mesh screen over the siphon’s drain end. This will catch several dozen daphnia, which will eventually find their way into the hose. The fish will start consuming these crustaceans as part of their diet.
A significant, and possibly even deciding, element is the abundance of snails in the tank. the exact ones that are frequently employed in aquarium maintenance. They are safe for daphnia and make great live cleaners. They consume leftover food and other organic materials, and the nitrifying bacteria that are part of the nitrogen cycle can grow colonies in their shells. They minimize the risks of raising nitrite and nitrate concentrations to dangerous levels and drastically lower labor costs for maintaining an aquarium containing crustaceans.
An aerator-equipped daphnia tank that mixes food evenly throughout the entire volume and enriches the oxygen
It is useless to use a biological filter or any other kind because the food will be swiftly sucked in before the daphnia can reach it. Crustaceans suffer from malnutrition as a result, and the filter material clogs quickly. An aerator is the only piece of equipment needed to grow daphnia. In addition, if the temperature falls below eighteen degrees, you might require a heater. Aeration provides a solution to multiple issues by introducing oxygen into the water and blending it, which guarantees that the food is distributed evenly throughout the volume. The latter is crucial for the proper nutrition of crustaceans because food particles should always be in suspension rather than sinking to the bottom.
If everything is done correctly, then after a few weeks the colony should reach a concentration of more than 10 daphnia per 20 ml, which means 100-150 grams (wet weight) per 100 liters per week. A smaller amount will indicate a problem. In this case, carefully inspect the aquarium / tank for natural predators, such as flatworms, hydras, etc. Problems may be related to the conditions of detention, here are two main signs: crustaceans do not reproduce well or there is a high mortality rate. In the first case, the matter is probably in the temperature. And in the second, everything is much more complicated. You will need to check each component: water quality (especially for chlorine), the composition of the food and its distribution throughout the entire volume of water, how cleaning occurs, perhaps too much loss is associated with the siphon, etc. d.
Step | Description |
1. Prepare the container | Choose a clean container, like a plastic tub, and fill it with dechlorinated water. |
2. Add the daphnia | Introduce a small starter culture of daphnia into the water. |
3. Feed the daphnia | Provide food like yeast or green water every other day to support growth. |
4. Maintain water quality | Change 20% of the water weekly to keep it clean and oxygenated. |
5. Harvest daphnia | Use a fine mesh net to collect daphnia for feeding fish, but leave some to keep the population growing. |
Daphnia can be grown at home and provide your aquarium fish with a steady supply of live food. It’s a rewarding and doable process. You can raise a healthy daphnia culture with the appropriate setup and regular maintenance.
Don’t forget to keep your daphnia’s water clean, give it enough light, and give it the right food on a regular basis. Maintaining the longevity of your culture and averting problems require careful monitoring of the quality of the water.
With a healthy daphnia colony supporting the growth and well-being of your aquarium fish, you can create a more vibrant and well-balanced environment in your home aquarium by following these simple steps.