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Article:
How To Grow Daphnia For The Aquarium by: Alden Smith The benefits of feeding live food to fish in a community tank are many: live food will improve vigor and color, and more closely resemble the food found in the fish's natural habitat. Live food is easily obtained. Some drawbacks include the transmission of diseases or parasites to the aquarium, it is time consuming to maintain the cultures, and a lot of space needs to be devoted to raising live foods. The cost of equipment and supplies needed to maintain cultures is also a consideration for the beginner. In this article I will discuss how to raise Daphnia. This article will be part of an on-going series on live foods. You can find many more related articles on http://www.kingdiscus.com. Daphnia belong to a group known as the Daphniidae, and are close relatives of the freshwater shrimp, and the brine shrimp (Artemia). Their generic name is generally referred to as 'water flea.' This common name is derived from the jerky movements of Daphnia in the water. The over 150 different species can be found in North America, with a similar amount of species growing in Europe. Some of these species find common ground on both continents. Daphnia are a small crustacean, and are great to use as a fresh 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! Daphnia can be raised both indoors and outside. Many people raise daphnia in a small children's wading pool. A more controlled environment, however, is done indoors, and can be done year round if one lives in northern climes. This can be as simple as a couple of two liter bottles, to a 20 gallon tub purchased from a store such as Menard's. The ideal situation is to have as much oxygenated surface area as possible, so if there is room for a larger container, by all means use it. A shallower environment suits daphnia best for prolific growth. Setting up the environment for daphnia 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 foods for a long time, and has had good success. His video presentation was top notch. PH levels for successful Daphnia cultures should be in the range of 6-'8
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