I guess one of the benefits of starting with green water is that the Daphnia can live happily in a concentrated food solution and reproduce at a maximal rate. I noticed that feeding too much yeast resulted in some death and ephippia formation (my hypothesis for this is oxygen depletion), so your food recipe and feeding recommendations seem to be much better than others I’ve heard
So just so I understand it correctly, I can find daphnia or buy it and all I have to do is add 5 to 10 in a jar and just feed it a couple of times a week and they produce more? I guess I didn't realize they were mono and self-reproducing. I'm going to try it. Thank you!
I've been breeding daphnia in a jar with just a old piece of wood from an old tank setup, and some salvinia floating plants. I got millions of them now for my fish.
@@Aquarimax I have since set up a small 8 litre fish bowl for them, with a gravel substrate and some live plants, I will still keep the jar going too incase one of them crashes
Okay I know it's been two years but I'm super curious, did culturing daphnia in a planted fish bowl work out? That's just what I was planning to do but I always see them kept in bare bottom containers.
Your daphnia guides are the only thing that keeps me hopeful for doing a daphnia culture, so very helpful! I killed about 3 cultures, but my current one has been going on for 2 weeks, which is a massive milestone for me. One question though, how do you clean the jar itself from the exoskeletons, dead daphnia, and (because i add snails to eat the leftover food) snails’ waste? Hope you read this, absolutely love your videos!
Your tutorial on Daphnia was very nice. You got my attention. Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed watching. I subscribed and put notifications on, so keep them coming!
Thanks for this video, my 1gallon jar cultures keep crashing on me, and after watching this video I suspect I am adding too many daphnia at once. I was about to give up, but this video gave me hope that I might succeed with my next attempt.
Hi there i just wanna kindly ask why they used the term "Crash" when they Fail on culturing Daphnia??? Isn't that more appropriate for a collision of two vehicles?✌ Newbie Anyway!😅😊
@@giovanncute9723 "Crash" can also mean: - a sudden general collapse of a business enterprise, prosperity, the stock market, etc.: - a sudden, rapid decline in the size of a population. (www.dictionary.com/browse/crash?s=t) We are using the last definition in this case. It's different than "failing" to culture Daphnia. It usually means the population got so big that they killed themselves off either from depleting their food sources or from producing so much waste that the environment became toxic. That's why the Daphnia population can crash because of too many Daphnia in the environment.
My 1 gallon daphnia jars have been going for over a year. I never feed them. Well I have the same size jar next to them of green water. I swap out the water with green water once a month.
These videos are awesome. Definitely checking out your other stuff. This has been super helpful, gonna order some Daphnia and start one of these for my Zebra Danio's!
Thanks so much for making this video! I’m trying to find more resources on keeping small cultures without aeration to have as backup to my larger, aerated tank. I don’t have the means to aerate the 4 backups I have, so it’s nice to see that it is possible to keep them like this.
Mary Ann Chu I’m glad it helps! In a nutshell, if you start with a small number of daphnia, don’t overfeed, stir the culture when you feed, and do 50% water changes about once a week, they should thrive for you. 👍
Good tips on feeding and multiplying live food (Daphnia) for fish. Liked and subscribed to your channel. Another exciting channel on fish and aquariums. I am a fresh water aquarium hobbyist and love to watch videos relating to this hobby.
You just saved my axolotl babies with this video! Post where I live has all but stopped due to the pandemic, and I had been buying their food online til now. Was panicking I'd run out of food, had no idea daphnia were so easily sustainable. Thanks!
Cyaneyed77 Glad to year it! For raising Axolotls, I would suggest my other video on raising daphnia indoors, it details methods for breeding larger quantities 👍
I tried twice with Moina eggs in a 2 gallon. Not sure why both attempts failed. For my 3rd attempt, I used a small clear jar (1L) with aquarium water, a small amount of Moina eggs, a few small pond snails, and one small frogbit floater. Set in cold south windowsill (Winter Canada). The jar allowed me to hold it up to the light each day to get a good look inside to see what was happening, which I enjoyed. Took 3-4 days to hatch. I fed them a bit of spirulina and dry yeast for a few more days. Then I dumped the the Moina into my 2 gallon jar that has small pumice substrate, small pieces of floating elodea, and an open airline for aeration.
Your a hard working guy, thanks for the reply. Thanks for your updated Daphnia culture video. I was going to go snail-free because of other videos but you mentioned that daphnia cultures with snails are slightly less productive but overall more stable. And thats what I wanted, a small jar that looks nice & is more stable.
Hi there... my daughter needs to culture daphnia for a science experiment and your video was very helpful. If you add 2-3 daphnia to a quart jar following your directions... how long will it take until you have a colony of 30+? Also, would it be possible to use the commercial daphnia food instead?
laurabruner1970 assuming zero mortality, and you add 2-3 mature daphnia, you could have 20-30 daphnia within days. If you start with younger daphnia, and all goes well, you could still have 20-30 within a week or two. commercial daphnia food should work fine. 👍
Awesome!,also Rus two great news first my AFT gecko started eating today feed it some mealworms and second of all the mite crisis finally is over a lot of them left so it’s all good now👍
Such an ample knowledge you have. You must have had a lot of trial, fail and so then the experiences... I really appreciate your knowledge man! I had a question. I am starting a culture without the starter daphnia using oil cake method. Failed last time guess because of excessive sunlight like you said it's not good and because I used a lot of algae as food. Now I am trying with rain water and green water. Do you think I'll get daphnia naturally or do I need to do/add or something? PS: I am doing this because daphnias aren't available in my place so that I could get some and culture. I hope you'll get my doubt and reply soon as I have already began the trial by collecting the rain water as the first step..
I wish you luck, getting daphnia without a starter is tough, because you need to rely on the wind or birds to bring daphnia eggs to your culture, which isn’t likely if you have no daphnia in your area. I suggest purchasing dry daphnia cysts online. That may be your best option.
I'm super curious what pets you would suggest for plant lovers like me! I have red wiggler worms for my food scraps and notice that you had daphnia eating some lettuce leaves...I wonder what else might eat my food scraps, might be fun to have, and would be beginner-proof for a newbie bug/aquatic pet owner like me?
Excellent video, can you please do one on collecting daphnia eggs, they are not easy to get where I am so collecting and storing egg cysts would be really helpful.
ahhian Thank you! Some people use baker’s yeast, but it seems that it can cause crashes. If you do use it, make sure to dissolve it in daphnia-safe water first, and only use a very small amount at a time.
I use conditioned tap for jars and Healthy tank for buckets or larger if that makes sense. No pro star crap here Rus. I just bounce back and forth btw sizes depending on need.
Excellent channel, it has been very useful for me as I am really new to the hobby (6 months). I followed your instructions and currently have a 20 gallon tank with a fully stabilized culture. I only have one question, regarding the remains that accumulate at the bottom of the tank.... what should be done with it? should it be removed? how often? I am feeding my daphnia with spirulina, wheat flour and chickpea flour. Thank you very much for your great work and I hope to continue learning from your videos.
@@Aquarimax thanks for the quick reply, hopefully my culture would be successful, just got home today and a lot of them died, probably because of ammonia build up coz I got them online and was shipped to me, but got the survivors and placed them in a clean jar, hopefully they will pull through.
Would it be possible to buy springtales and isopods from you for a 8x8x12 mourning gecko vivarium. I think you would know exactly what I would need. Thanks.
Thank you for the prompt reply. I believe that is the plant. The one with the small leaves. I like it. By the way, does the daphnia culture smell? I've heard some people say it starts to smell really bad after a couple of days.
Sham Maideen Yes, the one with the small leaves is lemon button fern, a great plant. I have it with my dart frogs and my garter snakes. 👍 in my experience, an infusoria culture smells bad, but a daphnia culture generally doesn’t.
I got mine in egg form from a russian guy on ebay.com, there is only one guy selling them on ebay so you will find him if you still want them. They hatched out in 4 days.He sends you eggs of pulex and moina.
Black Light Thank you, that is a great suggestion, but roaches are one of the few taxa my wife has requested I not keep.. 😊 I may have to do a collaboration with a Dubai roach breeder for that.
Hello sir. I did following your step. unfortunately, the moina is not multiply. after few days all of them are gone. Could you please share how to prepare moina food? I use spirulina. tq
Azahari Hamzah you can mix the spirulina with ground rice flour. Two issues can often lead to failure-unsuitable water, and overfeeding. What source of water do you use?
@@Aquarimax I used aquarium water and feed everyday. I feed them on the morning and the next day the water become clearer and I feed again. It is correct?
I’m trying to breed earthworms, can I keep them in with my pill bugs or no? I don’t see why not because the soil is damp and they eat the same stuff, I just want to know
The Jeffrey 27 they can coexist in the same container, but they will be competing for the same food, and one species will likely outcompete the other eventually. So, itwould he possible, but not very efficient. 👍
Uhm can my fish sustain on a daphnia colony? I have a heavily planted tank and my fish wont/barely eat anymore. All my water parameters are ok and my fish look happy I assumed they feed of the daphnia and algae since I discovered a lot of daphnia between my plants (no clue how they got in). And I always see my guppies and CPD foraging the algaes.
Riot Breaker That is a very common scenario with Triops kits...daphnia hatch out, and the Triops eat them, but if the Triops don’t survive, the daphnia thrive. It is worth a try to keep the daphnia reproducing. If you want to feed them to fish, make sure it is a species without a long tail spike. Most species have tail spikes, but those that are suitable as aquarium fish food tend to have short ones. The long spikes are understandably not the best for fish, although some species of fish probably wouldn’t mind. 😊👍
I want to start some daphnia in a 5 gallon bucket. I have a heat lamp but was wondering on how to filter the water without disturbing them. Are there any beneficial plants I can use? Like duckweed or hornwort?
Kyle Spotted Bear Good question. Personally, I wouldn’t use the heat lamp, although some illumination is beneficial. In the long term, plants and Daphnia don’t seem to do all that well together, unless they are in a larger body of water, such as a pond. I would avoid the use of plants in a bucket for that reason.
Rishie Ragooonanan You should be able to keep them in there indefinitely, as long as you do regular partial water changes, feed them appropriately, and harvest regularly.👍
ThINK 2002 That is an interesting idea! I have never tried that...an advantage of beads could be less weight than stones, but a disadvantage would be the much lower porosity, in terms of less water capacity and less surface area for beneficial bacteria. It would certainly be an interesting experiment!
Lorelei Gilmore If you can, I suggest starting with an active culture rather than eggs if possible. Live cultures can be purchased on aquabid.com, or from me. If you can only get eggs, eBay has them. 👍
Thank you for the video. I do have one question regarding water change. I’m doing a science experiment, where I study sex determination as a respons to pesticides. Thinking of starting a few cultures with one mature daphnia in each container. The project will be going for a bit under a month, so do you think it will be necessary to change the water? Any other good tips about how not to kill them would also be very much appreciated. Again thank you for your video, I enjoyed it very much.
Sounds like an interesting experiment! I think you could probably get by without water changes for a month, as long as the culture isn’t over fed or anything like that
I have a mealworm farm that got kind of mouldy, but it has tons of beetles and mealworms. Can I put the mealworms and beetles into new oats and just wait a while before feeding them to my leopard gecko? If so, how long should I wait? If not what should I do?
I cUrrently only have yeast. My spirulina powder will be here next week and I cant get the flour. How long can the daphia live off of yeast and how much should I feed a 5 gallon tank?
Rus, I have a lot of koi pellet powder because the koi sticks happen to leave behind a lot of powder. The powder is super fine much like yeast. Will my daphnia be able to eat it?
Where do u find or get the Daphnia to start with? Is this simply just a miniscule creature found in outside water, day water that’s collected in a pot plant tray in garden or ? I have a bowl in my garden with some branches of Szyngonium left in it to sprout roots. Amongst that water is leaves from tree above bowl, a bit of fit from what not...obviously being still water it’s had mosquitos create larvae etc etc etc plus other tiny living things. Are Daphnia naturally found in this type of water? Cheers ... Lisa , Perth West Australia
Lisa Saxon dry Daphnia eggs or live cultures can be purchased online, from Aquabid.com for example. However, you may sometimes find daphnia small bodies of relatively still water, such as the one you describe. Birds will sometimes carry viable daphnia eggs on bits of dried mud stuck to their legs to such bodies of water, or the wind may blow the dried daphnia is eggs into the water along with dust and debris. In these ways, people may find them in water collection barrels, decorative ponds, etc., without having purposely placed them there. Thanks for watching, Lisa!
I accidentally ended up with daphnia in a jar 😂 now I have two jars because i split the culture because there were so many. Their vases are decorated too 😂 They're more or less my pets now at this point because I'm getting them some small live plants lol. One culture is in a $5 vase from dollar general with sand and creek rock and the other is in a dollar tree vase with black substrate and 3 colorful natural river stones. I keep them with my terrariums so they get enough light. I may set up a bigger culture just for fun to see how many I end up with.
Very cool! That is how I first started culturing daphnia! I collected some pond water as a kid, and distributed it into various jars and tanks. Had those daphnia going for years! Let me know how the plants work out for you…some people have issues getting both daphnia and plants to thrive together. One potential issue is that live plants sometimes harbor hydra, which can destroy a daphnia population in a short time.
@@Aquarimax it'll probably be a little while because i dont plan on going to the store soon but I'm gonna try to pick up some of those plants in the gel snail free stuff because I'm pretty sure those are less likely to have pests and stuff. I'm probably just gonna get something simple like an anubias for each jar and stick it on the rocks in the center of the jars
@Aquarimax but I'll definitely be careful about the possibility of hydra. I may add both plants to one jar for awhile to make sure they don't have any and the daphnia are still fine then after I'm sure take one out and put it in the other jar that way I have a backup jar incase it kills the first colony.
@Aquarimax the reason I want plants is i want to turn them into a little ecosystem jar. I may also setup another jar for scuds because I find them fascinating. I think microfauna and other small living things are pretty cool.
GunXMetal37 I have raised brine shrimp to adulthood and on to further generations on food that is very similar to the daphnia mix I talk about in this video. They are challenging to raise in high densities in small enclosures, but in low densities it is not too hard.
hello i work at a company that makes powdered foods like powered carrots, powdered broccoli, powdered avocado and anything you can think of. would these be a good food for the daphnia? what would be the ideal powdered food to mix with the flour?
@@Aquarimax Thank you so much for that quick response! Because I will get some Daphnia in January because my local fish store will get them then and I have no experience with online orders and I'm kind of afraid that they would arrive dead 😂😂 Was just kinda worried that if I breed them in the same containment that my excellent doing infusoria culture would get killed. Thanks for telling that they can coexist though :D Honestly don't need much infusoria at the moment anyways. No mating fishs currently, no eggs, no frys xD
Thanks for the video. My daughter is doing a science fair experiment (if exposure to a wifi router will affect the heart rate of daphnia) and plan on keeping 3 mason jars of daphnia in 3 different distances away from the router (9 jars total). She's hoping to run the experiment for at least 4-5 weeks to collect a far amount of data. Do you have any advise to keep the daphnia alive that long in quart (or pint) jars?
Sonya Mai Interesting experiment! I would go with the quart jars for sure, rather than the pint ones. To keep them alive, feed them sparingly, about 3 times per week with just one drop of the food mix I suggest here in the video, and make sure to do partial water changes (30-50%) with aged, dechlorinated water every week.
Thomas Wheway The three cultures did well. The one closest to the router started dying off by the end of two weeks but the 2 cultures further away from the router were still going strong. She ran the experiment for 2 weeks only, the lifespan of one generation.
Do you (or anyone else reading this) have suggestions about how to collect daphnia from the wild? Any pond? Flowing water? Is this worth the effort/fun? : ) The process of keeping them seems do-able. Now considering where to get my "beginnings." Thanks!
Heather K. I have collected daphnia from the wild, including the first ones I ever cultured. Typically, ponds or ditches with few or no fish are the best options. Lakes may yield daphnia too, even in the presence of plentiful fish. Some species occur in rivers or lakes, but probably not the type best adapted to captive culture. Personally I enjoy collecting trips, but daphnia are also easy to purchase for those who prefer that route.
@@Aquarimax Thank you so much for your answer. I'm just trying to use what I have here. I have spirulina - Just none of the other things. I bought yeast on my first foray into this, they did great for 4 days then the whole thing crashed. I think I may have overfed them. Anyway, I don't want to lose this next batch and it will be here any day. BTW, I love your channel, I've subscribed and I'm doing a tank and a jar as a backup! You're the best.
can you do a video on paludarium pets you can keep with guppies? i was thinking of getting a tiny turtle like a spotted turtle or common musk turtles but i also really like creyfish and axolotls i just dont want them to eat my guppies and female bettas
Jessica good idea! Turtles, crayfish, and Axolotls can all eat small fish like guppies and bettas. Some good tankmates for guppies include Neocaridina shrimp and snails such as nerites or ramshorn snails,
Ok so I need help! I've got a 20 long and i can't seem to keep the daphnia alive and reproducing. I've tried multiple times and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. This last time I put themwith the Blackworms I'm culturing to see if the food source from them won't help. Well that didn't fair out well either. Can I get some advice?
I provide aeration when I culture them in aquaria. I get much larger yields that way. However, thr real point of this method is simplicity, and I don’t use aeration with this method, and have had years of success this way.
I know this is an older video, but thank you so much! This and your Daphnia Questions video helps me getting started :)
I guess one of the benefits of starting with green water is that the Daphnia can live happily in a concentrated food solution and reproduce at a maximal rate. I noticed that feeding too much yeast resulted in some death and ephippia formation (my hypothesis for this is oxygen depletion), so your food recipe and feeding recommendations seem to be much better than others I’ve heard
So just so I understand it correctly, I can find daphnia or buy it and all I have to do is add 5 to 10 in a jar and just feed it a couple of times a week and they produce more? I guess I didn't realize they were mono and self-reproducing. I'm going to try it. Thank you!
best explanation on the internet, thank you very much!
I've been breeding daphnia in a jar with just a old piece of wood from an old tank setup, and some salvinia floating plants. I got millions of them now for my fish.
Sounds like a nice low-tech way to do it.
@@Aquarimax I have since set up a small 8 litre fish bowl for them, with a gravel substrate and some live plants, I will still keep the jar going too incase one of them crashes
Okay I know it's been two years but I'm super curious, did culturing daphnia in a planted fish bowl work out? That's just what I was planning to do but I always see them kept in bare bottom containers.
old piece of wood? a lot of wood?
Your daphnia guides are the only thing that keeps me hopeful for doing a daphnia culture, so very helpful! I killed about 3 cultures, but my current one has been going on for 2 weeks, which is a massive milestone for me.
One question though, how do you clean the jar itself from the exoskeletons, dead daphnia, and (because i add snails to eat the leftover food) snails’ waste?
Hope you read this, absolutely love your videos!
I added hornwort to help eat any decomposition in the water column :)
Your tutorial on Daphnia was very nice. You got my attention. Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed watching. I subscribed and put notifications on, so keep them coming!
Jose Montalvo Thank you Jose, I am glad to know you appreciated my video! I’ve got lots more coming. 😊👍
Aquarimax Pets Cool!
Always good to have daphnia on the go
Thanks for this video, my 1gallon jar cultures keep crashing on me, and after watching this video I suspect I am adding too many daphnia at once. I was about to give up, but this video gave me hope that I might succeed with my next attempt.
Hal Carleton Glad to heae it is helpful...starting with a small group and building it gradually is key 👍 best of luck with your next jar culture.
So when it crashes, does it actually kill off the entire culture? I would think a few might survive to get it going again, no?
@Hal, your comment was 5 months ago, I was curious how your culture is currently doing? Did this video help like you had hoped?
Hi there i just wanna kindly ask why they used the term "Crash" when they Fail on culturing Daphnia???
Isn't that more appropriate for a collision of two vehicles?✌
Newbie Anyway!😅😊
@@giovanncute9723 "Crash" can also mean:
- a sudden general collapse of a business enterprise, prosperity, the stock market, etc.:
- a sudden, rapid decline in the size of a population.
(www.dictionary.com/browse/crash?s=t)
We are using the last definition in this case. It's different than "failing" to culture Daphnia. It usually means the population got so big that they killed themselves off either from depleting their food sources or from producing so much waste that the environment became toxic. That's why the Daphnia population can crash because of too many Daphnia in the environment.
I really like the way you make your content. Very educational ... This is what I'm going for
Felty's Aquaria Thank you very much! I’m glad you appreciate the way I make my videos. 👍
No problem man I've got a very fresh channel And I'm trying to get there. You're an inspiration!
My 1 gallon daphnia jars have been going for over a year. I never feed them. Well I have the same size jar next to them of green water. I swap out the water with green water once a month.
Robert Anthony makes sense...green water is a great food!
What is this green water? I've looked on the internet, but couldn't find anything.
Diogo Farias this should help: www.livefoodcultures.com/microcultures.html
Thanks for the info! I love videos that are efficient- give me the info and no irrelevant extras.
These videos are awesome. Definitely checking out your other stuff. This has been super helpful, gonna order some Daphnia and start one of these for my Zebra Danio's!
Thanks so much for making this video! I’m trying to find more resources on keeping small cultures without aeration to have as backup to my larger, aerated tank. I don’t have the means to aerate the 4 backups I have, so it’s nice to see that it is possible to keep them like this.
Mary Ann Chu I’m glad it helps! In a nutshell, if you start with a small number of daphnia, don’t overfeed, stir the culture when you feed, and do 50% water changes about once a week, they should thrive for you. 👍
New subscriber. Love small scale examples of culture. Looking forward to going through your videos. Thanks
Mark Haunert Thanks for subscribing! I am glad you appreciate my approach...I find that many hobbyists only want or need small scale production. 👍
Good tips on feeding and multiplying live food (Daphnia) for fish. Liked and subscribed to your channel. Another exciting channel on fish and aquariums. I am a fresh water aquarium hobbyist and love to watch videos relating to this hobby.
my fishcave Welcome to Aquarimax! I am glad it is helpful, thank you so much for watching! 😊👍
Thank you. Looking into daphnia to clear green water in tanks.
Angel you’re welcome! They are very good at that. 👍
nice useful video....explained systematically in simple understandable language....thanks....
Bijoy Valiyaparambil I am glad it is helpful! 👍
Great info Rus. A simple project that can only be great fun to try for anyone.
Fangs and Fins Shop Thank you MIck! I hope this video gets lots of people to try culturing their own live foods. 👍
great video thank you so much, is their any way i can print the transscript for instructions
Can you look up the transcript in the settings?
good job!! try mixing dry yeast in the water it works daphia will produce very quick.
herbman herbman Thanks for the suggestion! 😊👍 I have worked with yeast, it can be a good food but can also lead to crashes...
bojo perez I never use yeast anymore...
Thanks for great educational video! You helped me with my daphnias a lot ;-)
You just saved my axolotl babies with this video! Post where I live has all but stopped due to the pandemic, and I had been buying their food online til now. Was panicking I'd run out of food, had no idea daphnia were so easily sustainable. Thanks!
Cyaneyed77 Glad to year it! For raising Axolotls, I would suggest my other video on raising daphnia indoors, it details methods for breeding larger quantities 👍
I tried twice with Moina eggs in a 2 gallon. Not sure why both attempts failed.
For my 3rd attempt, I used a small clear jar (1L) with aquarium water, a small amount of Moina eggs, a few small pond snails, and one small frogbit floater. Set in cold south windowsill (Winter Canada).
The jar allowed me to hold it up to the light each day to get a good look inside to see what was happening, which I enjoyed. Took 3-4 days to hatch. I fed them a bit of spirulina and dry yeast for a few more days.
Then I dumped the the Moina into my 2 gallon jar that has small pumice substrate, small pieces of floating elodea, and an open airline for aeration.
Dried eggs can be a little tricky, but I am glad you have hard success with the most recent attempt!
Your a hard working guy, thanks for the reply. Thanks for your updated Daphnia culture video. I was going to go snail-free because of other videos but you mentioned that daphnia cultures with snails are slightly less productive but overall more stable. And thats what I wanted, a small jar that looks nice & is more stable.
Thanks for this... very helpful for betta hobbyist like me :)
dbachelor's Planted Aquarium Excellent, that is just what I was hoping. 😊👍
Super video Rus. Sounds ideal for me. :)
colinbarsby Thanks Colin! I hope you give it a try!
I will be for sure. Daphnia are such easy, no fuss little creatures.
I love this video
randel the sheep thank you!
Thank you! Hope this works for my lab experiment
Monica Natasha you’re welcome! Best of luck on your experiment!
Aquarimax Pets I hope so! Thanks a lot
Very cool, thank you ❤
thanks for the video
Thank you for watching it!
Hi there... my daughter needs to culture daphnia for a science experiment and your video was very helpful. If you add 2-3 daphnia to a quart jar following your directions... how long will it take until you have a colony of 30+? Also, would it be possible to use the commercial daphnia food instead?
laurabruner1970 assuming zero mortality, and you add 2-3 mature daphnia, you could have 20-30 daphnia within days. If you start with younger daphnia, and all goes well, you could still have 20-30 within a week or two. commercial daphnia food should work fine. 👍
use rice bran powder. it works. in indonesia they use FENG LI size 0 which is shrimp food for newborn shrimp.
Awesome!,also Rus two great news first my AFT gecko started eating today feed it some mealworms and second of all the mite crisis finally is over a lot of them left so it’s all good now👍
Dinosaurs Terroir World awesome! Glad to hear it!
Aquarimax thanks
Such an ample knowledge you have. You must have had a lot of trial, fail and so then the experiences...
I really appreciate your knowledge man!
I had a question. I am starting a culture without the starter daphnia using oil cake method. Failed last time guess because of excessive sunlight like you said it's not good and because I used a lot of algae as food.
Now I am trying with rain water and green water. Do you think I'll get daphnia naturally or do I need to do/add or something?
PS: I am doing this because daphnias aren't available in my place so that I could get some and culture.
I hope you'll get my doubt and reply soon as I have already began the trial by collecting the rain water as the first step..
I wish you luck, getting daphnia without a starter is tough, because you need to rely on the wind or birds to bring daphnia eggs to your culture, which isn’t likely if you have no daphnia in your area.
I suggest purchasing dry daphnia cysts online. That may be your best option.
great video! i was wondering though if it would be bad or just fine to also have bladder snail inthe same jar?
It could work...just make sure they don’t overpopulate the jar. 👍🏽
I'm super curious what pets you would suggest for plant lovers like me! I have red wiggler worms for my food scraps and notice that you had daphnia eating some lettuce leaves...I wonder what else might eat my food scraps, might be fun to have, and would be beginner-proof for a newbie bug/aquatic pet owner like me?
Excellent video, can you please do one on collecting daphnia eggs, they are not easy to get where I am so collecting and storing egg cysts would be really helpful.
Tawny kittie Galloway glad to hear it has been helpful! I have done limited egg collecting...do you live somewhere the eggs could be shipped?
@@Aquarimax I live in Plymouth UK and was hoping to collect eggs from my cultures, your videos have been a huge help.
Tawny kittie Galloway Ah, I see what you mean. I will try to do a video on that. 😊👍
@@Aquarimax thank you very much 😊 I look forward to it and more videos from you 😊
I’m about to grab a jar and set up some daphnia now. Do they need a heater? I’m in UK, my room gets no colder than 19 and no hotter than 22.
Amy Dean no heater needed. They should be fine 👍
Aquarimax Pets thank you sir
Amy Dean you’re welcome!
Hello. Thanks for the great info.
I need to catch that 1 guy to start a daphnia culture.
So my question is where to bring it from?
Lionheart IV You can try aquabid.com or ebay, they usually have some available. 👍
Thank you 🙏
Thank you. Easy to understang 😉
can I use baker's yeast to feed them instead? great video btw
ahhian Thank you! Some people use baker’s yeast, but it seems that it can cause crashes. If you do use it, make sure to dissolve it in daphnia-safe water first, and only use a very small amount at a time.
That "subscribe" clip though. HAHAHA!
Hi Rus, Thanks buddy! I jar culture Daphnia
Roger Nilson Thank you! What do you feed them to?
killies or dwarf cichlids. growing fry
Roger Nilson Great uses for Daphnia...they can help condition the adults for breeding, and put size on the juveniles. 👍
I use conditioned tap for jars and Healthy tank for buckets or larger if that makes sense. No pro star crap here Rus. I just bounce back and forth btw sizes depending on need.
Roger Nilson sounds like a good, flexible system 👍
Excellent channel, it has been very useful for me as I am really new to the hobby (6 months).
I followed your instructions and currently have a 20 gallon tank with a fully stabilized culture.
I only have one question, regarding the remains that accumulate at the bottom of the tank.... what should be done with it? should it be removed? how often? I am feeding my daphnia with spirulina, wheat flour and chickpea flour.
Thank you very much for your great work and I hope to continue learning from your videos.
Delighted to know that my videos have been helpful! I usually siphon off of the detritus every week or two. 👍🏽
Hi, I'm wondering if you need aeration for magna daphnia in jars, just starting my 1st culture, is it possible to have no aeration for them?
I currently have 3 daphnia cultures, 1 without aeration. The yield is not as high, but it is certainly possible.
@@Aquarimax thanks for the quick reply, hopefully my culture would be successful, just got home today and a lot of them died, probably because of ammonia build up coz I got them online and was shipped to me, but got the survivors and placed them in a clean jar, hopefully they will pull through.
@@bogoy106 I hope so!
Green water really works too!!
This was great! How long can you keep the liquid food mix in the fridge?
Green Thumb Aquariums Thank you! It will keep for at least a month in my experience, often longer. 👍
Thank you for sharing
You’re welcome 👍🏽
How do you get rid of Hydra?
Would it be possible to buy springtales and isopods from you for a 8x8x12 mourning gecko vivarium. I think you would know exactly what I would need. Thanks.
chico cerven yes, we can do that...shoot me an email and I will give you some recommendations. 👍
How many times a week do we need to do a water change????
@@rohanarts1158 About once a week usually works!
Thanks sir for your video
Tata Yamson You’re welcome!
Rus, what is that green plant in the tank behind you? It looks really good and I'm very interested to get some in my tank.
Sham Maideen There’s a lot of lemon button fern in the dart frog tank behind me. Is that the one you are talking about?
Thank you for the prompt reply. I believe that is the plant. The one with the small leaves. I like it. By the way, does the daphnia culture smell? I've heard some people say it starts to smell really bad after a couple of days.
Sham Maideen Yes, the one with the small leaves is lemon button fern, a great plant. I have it with my dart frogs and my garter snakes. 👍 in my experience, an infusoria culture smells bad, but a daphnia culture generally doesn’t.
Any suggestion where can I get Daphnia just to start culture
Thanks
Ludmila Ishansade aquabid.com or eBay usually have them available 😊👍
just put rotten cabbage into tap water, and wait for a week. and you will get your own culture starter
where r u from? where i am i have something called kijiji where ppl sell their stuff you can give that place a check up and see if they have any
I got mine in egg form from a russian guy on ebay.com, there is only one guy selling them on ebay so you will find him if you still want them. They hatched out in 4 days.He sends you eggs of pulex and moina.
Thanks for the video
cool thanks there friend from 2022
Hey Rus, great video! Can you do a video about culturing dubia roaches next? Keep up the good work, cheers!
Black Light Thank you, that is a great suggestion, but roaches are one of the few taxa my wife has requested I not keep.. 😊 I may have to do a collaboration with a Dubai roach breeder for that.
Ahh I see. Well how about breeding mealworm then? Superworm would be fine too. Superb video, hope you have a great day!
Black Light Thank you so much! Here is my mealworm breeding video: ruclips.net/video/Kk0QN3AR0AI/видео.html
Hi Sir. Possible to use your method for culturing moina? TQ in advance
Azahari Hamzah I have cultured Molina in this way, I a 1-gallon container. It worked very well. 👍
@@Aquarimax tqvm for respond. I'll do it soon.
Hello sir. I did following your step. unfortunately, the moina is not multiply. after few days all of them are gone. Could you please share how to prepare moina food? I use spirulina. tq
Azahari Hamzah you can mix the spirulina with ground rice flour. Two issues can often lead to failure-unsuitable water, and overfeeding. What source of water do you use?
@@Aquarimax I used aquarium water and feed everyday. I feed them on the morning and the next day the water become clearer and I feed again. It is correct?
I’m trying to breed earthworms, can I keep them in with my pill bugs or no? I don’t see why not because the soil is damp and they eat the same stuff, I just want to know
The Jeffrey 27 they can coexist in the same container, but they will be competing for the same food, and one species will likely outcompete the other eventually. So, itwould he possible, but not very efficient. 👍
Why not add a biological filter and a pothos plant to remove the need for water changes entirely on say a 20gallon culture? Just a thought :)
BetterDeadThanRed It is definitely worth some experimentation!
Guppy grass seems to do well with them
Hi! Do you have any advice for me on how to separate the dead daphnia from the live daphnia in a jar?
You shouldn't. It's too risky
Use a siphon such as a turkey baster. It's what I use to catch them as well.
Uhm can my fish sustain on a daphnia colony? I have a heavily planted tank and my fish wont/barely eat anymore. All my water parameters are ok and my fish look happy I assumed they feed of the daphnia and algae since I discovered a lot of daphnia between my plants (no clue how they got in). And I always see my guppies and CPD foraging the algaes.
I bought Triops for Christmas but I ended up with a massive Daphnea culture, what could I do with them? Keep?
Riot Breaker That is a very common scenario with Triops kits...daphnia hatch out, and the Triops eat them, but if the Triops don’t survive, the daphnia thrive. It is worth a try to keep the daphnia reproducing. If you want to feed them to fish, make sure it is a species without a long tail spike. Most species have tail spikes, but those that are suitable as aquarium fish food tend to have short ones. The long spikes are understandably not the best for fish, although some species of fish probably wouldn’t mind. 😊👍
@@Aquarimax thanks for the info, I have Senegal Bichirs that would eat anything half their size.
Riot Breaker They would be able to swallow them, if the daphnia are not too small. 🤣👍
Can i put daphnia to algae covered tank? Also, can i put them where the sunlight hits the tank for like 4hrs? Thanks mate!
I want to start some daphnia in a 5 gallon bucket. I have a heat lamp but was wondering on how to filter the water without disturbing them. Are there any beneficial plants I can use? Like duckweed or hornwort?
Kyle Spotted Bear Good question. Personally, I wouldn’t use the heat lamp, although some illumination is beneficial. In the long term, plants and Daphnia don’t seem to do all that well together, unless they are in a larger body of water, such as a pond. I would avoid the use of plants in a bucket for that reason.
Aquarimax Pets will tbey stay in a half pig tail bucket and if they can how long can u keep them there for????
Rishie Ragooonanan You should be able to keep them in there indefinitely, as long as you do regular partial water changes, feed them appropriately, and harvest regularly.👍
Hey can I ask you something? Is it ok to use stuff like beads for a false bottom?
ThINK 2002 That is an interesting idea! I have never tried that...an advantage of beads could be less weight than stones, but a disadvantage would be the much lower porosity, in terms of less water capacity and less surface area for beneficial bacteria. It would certainly be an interesting experiment!
Where is the best place to buy daphnia eggs (?) to get started ?? Thanks
Lorelei Gilmore If you can, I suggest starting with an active culture rather than eggs if possible. Live cultures can be purchased on aquabid.com, or from me. If you can only get eggs, eBay has them. 👍
Thank you for the video. I do have one question regarding water change. I’m doing a science experiment, where I study sex determination as a respons to pesticides. Thinking of starting a few cultures with one mature daphnia in each container. The project will be going for a bit under a month, so do you think it will be necessary to change the water? Any other good tips about how not to kill them would also be very much appreciated. Again thank you for your video, I enjoyed it very much.
Sounds like an interesting experiment! I think you could probably get by without water changes for a month, as long as the culture isn’t over fed or anything like that
I have a mealworm farm that got kind of mouldy, but it has tons of beetles and mealworms. Can I put the mealworms and beetles into new oats and just wait a while before feeding them to my leopard gecko? If so, how long should I wait? If not what should I do?
Thank you
Nice brother
Betta Ciaruteun thank you!
I cUrrently only have yeast. My spirulina powder will be here next week and I cant get the flour. How long can the daphia live off of yeast and how much should I feed a 5 gallon tank?
Animal Addiction Dissolve. Few grains of yeast in a small amount of water, and add a few drops. It is better to underfeed yeast than to overfeed.
@@Aquarimax okay thank you 😊
Rus, I have a lot of koi pellet powder because the koi sticks happen to leave behind a lot of powder. The powder is super fine much like yeast. Will my daphnia be able to eat it?
They will probably do well on that. I would recommend mixing a tiny amount with water and then feeding it.
Aquarimax Pets will fish flake work?
Rishie Ragooonanan It is not ideal, but if you grind it to a very fine powder and mix it with water, you can use it.
Where do u find or get the Daphnia to start with? Is this simply just a miniscule creature found in outside water, day water that’s collected in a pot plant tray in garden or ? I have a bowl in my garden with some branches of Szyngonium left in it to sprout roots. Amongst that water is leaves from tree above bowl, a bit of fit from what not...obviously being still water it’s had mosquitos create larvae etc etc etc plus other tiny living things. Are Daphnia naturally found in this type of water? Cheers ... Lisa , Perth West Australia
Lisa Saxon dry Daphnia eggs or live cultures can be purchased online, from Aquabid.com for example. However, you may sometimes find daphnia small bodies of relatively still water, such as the one you describe. Birds will sometimes carry viable daphnia eggs on bits of dried mud stuck to their legs to such bodies of water, or the wind may blow the dried daphnia is eggs into the water along with dust and debris. In these ways, people may find them in water collection barrels, decorative ponds, etc., without having purposely placed them there. Thanks for watching, Lisa!
I accidentally ended up with daphnia in a jar 😂 now I have two jars because i split the culture because there were so many. Their vases are decorated too 😂 They're more or less my pets now at this point because I'm getting them some small live plants lol. One culture is in a $5 vase from dollar general with sand and creek rock and the other is in a dollar tree vase with black substrate and 3 colorful natural river stones. I keep them with my terrariums so they get enough light. I may set up a bigger culture just for fun to see how many I end up with.
Very cool! That is how I first started culturing daphnia! I collected some pond water as a kid, and distributed it into various jars and tanks. Had those daphnia going for years!
Let me know how the plants work out for you…some people have issues getting both daphnia and plants to thrive together. One potential issue is that live plants sometimes harbor hydra, which can destroy a daphnia population in a short time.
@@Aquarimax it'll probably be a little while because i dont plan on going to the store soon but I'm gonna try to pick up some of those plants in the gel snail free stuff because I'm pretty sure those are less likely to have pests and stuff. I'm probably just gonna get something simple like an anubias for each jar and stick it on the rocks in the center of the jars
@Aquarimax but I'll definitely be careful about the possibility of hydra. I may add both plants to one jar for awhile to make sure they don't have any and the daphnia are still fine then after I'm sure take one out and put it in the other jar that way I have a backup jar incase it kills the first colony.
@Aquarimax the reason I want plants is i want to turn them into a little ecosystem jar. I may also setup another jar for scuds because I find them fascinating. I think microfauna and other small living things are pretty cool.
@@MasonsRainforest I get that, scuds are great too, but they do love to munch on plants 🤣 a you may be able to create a balance
I need daphnia for my 10 gallon i keep getting green water so I may want to do a jar thanks
When adding water for water changes dose the water need to be same temperature?
Bloodshot Gamer It should be fairly close, but water that is a frew degrees cooler does no harm. A large difference could shock them.
What is the hearty variety of daphnia that you mentioned?
Bill Sherman they were sold to me as ‘Russian Red Daphnia’, but I was never given a scientific name.
How often should I do a 30% water change on a 1/2 gallon jar ?
Approximately once a week 👍🏽
@@Aquarimax thanks!
What do you know about brine shrimp ?? What do I feed them ??
GunXMetal37 I have raised brine shrimp to adulthood and on to further generations on food that is very similar to the daphnia mix I talk about in this video. They are challenging to raise in high densities in small enclosures, but in low densities it is not too hard.
hello i work at a company that makes powdered foods like powered carrots, powdered broccoli, powdered avocado and anything you can think of. would these be a good food for the daphnia? what would be the ideal powdered food to mix with the flour?
If they are free of pesticides, I think it would be worth experimenting! Probably one of the powders based on a green vegetable.
@@Aquarimax they are "organic" and made for humans! cheers.
What temperature do they need. Thanks
3:45 Will daphnia eat my infusoria or will they just be a symbiosis?
Both will usually happen to some extent. 😊👍
@@Aquarimax Thank you so much for that quick response! Because I will get some Daphnia in January because my local fish store will get them then and I have no experience with online orders and I'm kind of afraid that they would arrive dead 😂😂 Was just kinda worried that if I breed them in the same containment that my excellent doing infusoria culture would get killed. Thanks for telling that they can coexist though :D
Honestly don't need much infusoria at the moment anyways. No mating fishs currently, no eggs, no frys xD
PandaFish Happy to help! The daphnia will definitely eat a lot of the Infusoria, but there should always be some reproducing in the culture as well. 👍
Thanks for the video. My daughter is doing a science fair experiment (if exposure to a wifi router will affect the heart rate of daphnia) and plan on keeping 3 mason jars of daphnia in 3 different distances away from the router (9 jars total). She's hoping to run the experiment for at least 4-5 weeks to collect a far amount of data. Do you have any advise to keep the daphnia alive that long in quart (or pint) jars?
Sonya Mai Interesting experiment! I would go with the quart jars for sure, rather than the pint ones. To keep them alive, feed them sparingly, about 3 times per week with just one drop of the food mix I suggest here in the video, and make sure to do partial water changes (30-50%) with aged, dechlorinated water every week.
Let me know how the test goes please
Thomas Wheway The three cultures did well. The one closest to the router started dying off by the end of two weeks but the 2 cultures further away from the router were still going strong. She ran the experiment for 2 weeks only, the lifespan of one generation.
Sonya Mai Interesting! Thanks for sharing the results!
Thanks for the reply I may try a simular test with a smart metre
Do you (or anyone else reading this) have suggestions about how to collect daphnia from the wild? Any pond? Flowing water? Is this worth the effort/fun? : ) The process of keeping them seems do-able. Now considering where to get my "beginnings." Thanks!
Heather K. I have collected daphnia from the wild, including the first ones I ever cultured. Typically, ponds or ditches with few or no fish are the best options. Lakes may yield daphnia too, even in the presence of plentiful fish. Some species occur in rivers or lakes, but probably not the type best adapted to captive culture. Personally I enjoy collecting trips, but daphnia are also easy to purchase for those who prefer that route.
@@Aquarimax Thanks!
I’m just wondering if I can use almond flour?
Good question. I haven’t tried it for daphnia, but I would think it would be on the oily side, which might cause a slick to form on the surface.
@@Aquarimax Thank you so much for your answer. I'm just trying to use what I have here. I have spirulina - Just none of the other things. I bought yeast on my first foray into this, they did great for 4 days then the whole thing crashed. I think I may have overfed them. Anyway, I don't want to lose this next batch and it will be here any day. BTW, I love your channel, I've subscribed and I'm doing a tank and a jar as a backup! You're the best.
Can you keep plants in the jar?
Some people manage to do so. I have found the best success without plants.
@@Aquarimax thank you, I’ll try without 👍
how many time you need to make water changes in a week?
Suzaku r2 Once a week is often enough. 👍
@@Aquarimax thank you sir for replying
A jar doesn't need soft aeration? Some say yes and some no - what's your take?
I'm thinking of starting a culture but I'm getting mixed messages lol
Tanner w I have done jars for years without any aeration, but it can work with aeration as well. 👍
@@Aquarimax Awesome, thanks; love the channel by the way!
Tanner w Thank you!
I've never heard of daphnias. Who do you get them? I would love to start my own.
I sell them at Aquarimax.com, Aquabid.com is another good source
@@Aquarimax Thank you!
can you do a video on paludarium pets you can keep with guppies? i was thinking of getting a tiny turtle like a spotted turtle or common musk turtles but i also really like creyfish and axolotls i just dont want them to eat my guppies and female bettas
Jessica good idea! Turtles, crayfish, and Axolotls can all eat small fish like guppies and bettas. Some good tankmates for guppies include Neocaridina shrimp and snails such as nerites or ramshorn snails,
ya i want to do something cool like african dwarf frogs or a pee puffers or cory cats
Jessica Cory cats are a great option with guppies 👍
Where do you get the initial daphnia to seed your culture? I have not seen them for sale in my local pet store.
You can try Aquabid.com, or if you are in the US, try Aquarimax.com
i’ve looked for a bit before having to ask this question, but why does it need to be in indirect sunlight? or any sunlight at all
Thebwarmth and light seem to stimulate the growth of the culture much more than very dim light. 👍🏽
Ok so I need help! I've got a 20 long and i can't seem to keep the daphnia alive and reproducing. I've tried multiple times and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. This last time I put themwith the Blackworms I'm culturing to see if the food source from them won't help. Well that didn't fair out well either. Can I get some advice?
Randy Harmon Sure, do you have a video of your setup ?
@@Aquarimax I don't right now but i can get one, if I can get your email I'll send it to ya when I did later tonight
Randy Harmon cool! My email info is available at aquarimax.com
What about distilled water
How long if the food mixture good for in the fridge?
Once mixed with water, at least a couple of months
Could you do this in a plastic water bottle?
If it were large enough and free of contaminants, yes you could.
@@Aquarimax thank you, 1 more question, is it possible and safe to start from wild caught individuals?
What if I live in a town house and the north and south are connected to another house
The Jeffrey 27 I would try keeping it in ambient light, and not worry about a window.
what are you feeding them
Don't they need aeration? In such a small jar is bigger bubbles better than smaller ones?
I provide aeration when I culture them in aquaria. I get much larger yields that way. However, thr real point of this method is simplicity, and I don’t use aeration with this method, and have had years of success this way.
Hello, I have just placed some daphnia eggs on some water and I'm wondering when they hatch do I feed them straight away?
Bobo Baba Dod you hatch them along with a little soil-type medium?