How I Culture Daphnia

[@BlueRidgeBreeders]

Your videos are the best. Specifically anything having to do with live food cultures.

[@Aquarimax]

Well thank you! I try ☺️

[@frankdughtank8327]

Excellent Video Rus! Daphnia are such an easy feeder and sometimes I can get some from driftwood I buy online !😂

[@Aquarimax]

@@frankdughtank8327 Ah yes, perhaps some ephippia come along with the driftwood!

[@nazarnovitsky9868]

Thanks for the new video !!! 😊

[@Aquarimax]

Glad you liked it!

[@corydora2894]

5:42 my thought was "Those are fast snails" until i realized I was most likely watching a time lapse at 2x speed...

[@Aquarimax]

Right! I included some time-lapsed footage. :)

[@TheChefmike66]

This makes me want to get back into it. Thank you!

[@Aquarimax]

That’s just what I love to see! It

[@fishyerik]

Great video! A lot of people seem to think that the name of the species is by far the most important thing to know, but in it self it's useless information, the Daphnia don't answer to it anyway. Russian red daphnia used to be a common name for Moina, I googled it just now, and it seems like most people think that is a red form of Daphnia magna. But, Daphnia magna is big for Daphnia, females grow to up to 5 mm, and the thick shells makes them less attractive for most small fish. Daphnia magna is also not nearly as easy to culture in small containers like small aquariums as Moina is. It seems most cultures people manages to keep long term in moderately sized indoor containers actually are Moina, which isn't as important as knowing how to culture them regardless of their name.

[@Aquarimax]

@@fishyerik Great points! These could indeed be a form of Moina, I had found the same info…I am still not sure because I got a culture of Moina years ago from an aquaculturist friend, and they were quite different…easier to culture in very high densities. Hard to say, but I am pretty sure, as you say, that my culture is not Daphnia magna. I have kept those before, and these are considerably smaller.

[@KarmeshMadhavi]

Good explain. Thank You.

[@veryanbrown979]

Thank you for the new video!

[@Aquarimax]

I'm so happy you enjoyed it!

[@MrBlack-8]

Great video! Its been a while since you've posted about live food culturing, thanks for the updates! Could you add your Amazon link for the algae powder?

[@Aquarimax]

I just added it to the description, thanks for the reminder!

[@sharkaroid]

Thanks Rus! I want to know whether i can keep them outside on a bucket. Do temperature fluctuations hurt them too much, even if the average during the day is 25C?

[@Aquarimax]

@@sharkaroid I have a very old video on that very topic, it should help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJWXfZynnbGJiaMsi=54wiGyjXxKJ90Hlr

[@TheropodHunter]

So snails, and daphnia have a somewhat symbiotic relationship?

[@Aquarimax]

At least in this setup, they seem to!

[@comfortablynumb9342]

They probably share lots of microbiology

[@shawndoe2834]

I'm trying a very simple eye-ball measurement of %40 Yeast, %40 Spirulina & %20 Astaxanthin. When the water clears up in my 2g jar, I stir it up & I'm noticing the water turn pink again..... so I think I'm overfeeding the Astaxanthin. I'd really like to buy a microscope so I could checkout the moina gut content. Do you have a general recipe or amount of Astaxanthin to feed or a ratio of Astaxanthin compared to the other ingredients?

[@Aquarimax]

@@shawndoe2834 I am still fiddling with the recipe, but it is more like 5% astaxanthin…enough so that there is a decided orange/red tint to the mix, but not much more.

[@shawndoe2834]

@Aquarimax Awesome. I'll give that a try. Thanks Again.

[@portatoman9321]

Would you be able to add substrate and plants to a daphnia/snail culture or would there end up being problems? And if you dont control their population do they end up overpopulating and crashing?

[@Aquarimax]

I have done limited experimentation with daphnia in planted tanks. They don't seem to do as well, I think part of the reason is that daphnia need a certain concentration of particulate matter in the water...many plants don't appreciate that. Daphnia cultures benefit from frequent harvesting. I find in most cases that they reach a carrying capacity and don't reproduce as much, rather than crashing, but this may vary depending on conditions and type of daphnia.

[@Kakk_]

Right now I have some neon tetras, and sometime in 2025 I am hoping to set up a paludarium and get vampire crabs, do you know if they would munch on daphnia in their water? Would it be wise to try and get a culture going steadily long before ever getting the crabs? If they would eat them that is. Otherwise, are there benefits to feeding the neons live food like this over just flak, pellets, and bloodworms?

[@Aquarimax]

Neons would certainly eat daphnia, I am not entirely sure whether vampire crabs would or not. My opinion is that some live food for fish is beneficial, partly because it allows them to participate in natural hunting behaviors.

[@mr.2minutes161]

can mosquito larvae thingy in water destroy the culture?

[@Aquarimax]

It depends on what exactly they are, size of the culture container, etc.

[@mr.2minutes161]

@@Aquarimax if i want to harvest roughly 1 kilogram a day or 2 ponds, what kinda operation do you think i need? making 10 meter cube capacity tank? its for fish hatchery, i only need rough estimate since i dont even know how much small one could produce

[@Aquarimax]

Great question…I have never worked with them at that scale. You might start with the volume of water you mentioned and see how much you can produce, and go from there.

[@Rex_Draco]

Hello, i have a question. Is there any way to contact u by dm? I really need help of someone that knows about mantis because mine is a baby, it has his house with net on the roof and everything but tonight i found him not able to move at all except for his front legs and idk if he is dying or molting he had ate this morning

[@Aquarimax]

Is it lying on the bottom, or hanging from the netting?

[@Rex_Draco]

@@Aquarimax he is on the bottom

[@Rex_Draco]

@@Aquarimax he tried a few times with My help to be on the roof but he falls

[@Aquarimax]

I am afraid it doesn’t look good, will he drink any water? From a Tony droplet on the end of a toothpick or something like that?

[@Rex_Draco]

@@Aquarimax sadly he won't, this morning i found him and i'm pretty sure it's dead sadly i'm not sure what caused this but i did all i could