Daphnia Fish Food Views
Daphnia are a small crustacean, and are great to use as live fish food because they will exist in the tank water until eaten by the fish. Daphnia can also be sterilized if it is felt necessary by placing in a 5% solution of Clorox for 3 to 5 minutes. Very few micro-organisms can survive this. Be sure, however, to rinse them thoroughly before feeding!
Setting up the environment for daphnia as live fish food is quite simple. Many methods are used for collecting the water to use for the culture. The best advice I have heard is from Joe F. of Circle City Aquarium Club in Indianapolis, IN. He gave a presentation at the August meeting of Southwestern Michigan Aquarium Society, and recommends using tank water saved from a tank change. Joe has been raising live fish food for a long time, and has had good success. His video presentation was top notch.
Harvesting is quite simple a– simply use a small aquarium net, observing that the smaller Daphnia fall through the netting to grow further. In this way, the adults are harvested, and can be fed to your fish. The younger Daphnia can go on to produce still more live fish food. Harvested Daphnia can be kept in the refrigerator for several days in clean water.
Daphnia is also known as “water bugs” or “water fleas” due to their jerky motion. They live in freshwater and are really easy to cultivate at home. Daphnia can be used regularly to provide your fish with more variation, or seasonally to induce breeding. It can also be used as fry food for bigger fish. Unlike uneaten dried or frozen food, Daphnia will not foul the water – they will stay alive in the aquarium until the fish decides to eat them. Cultivating Daphnia at home is economical and will provide you with a constant source of disease-free live food.
Daphnia Fish Food Images
