tubiflex worms in soil and breeding live daphnias

[Jungle-mania]

Just wondering what would be the outcome of having some tubiflex worm in your soil for a planted tank, will they be good for the tank? I thought they might also provide snacks for some of the fish.

Also has anyone breed daphnias for fish food?

[XnSdVd]

-raises hand-

I actually managed to do both in my tank. I had daphnia taking care of algae and bacteria blooms, tubifex areating the soil and trumpet snails to make sure the silt and fine gravel stayed at the bottom.

But if you want a filter in your tank then the daphnia won't survive. So to breed them you'll need:
a tank(any size will do)
fill it with water and drop some fishfood in(for bacteria to grow)
add some snails and tubifex(to prevent fungus on the fishfood)
wait 1 week and that tank should be full of micro-organisms
add daphnia
after 4 days you can harvest 25% daily to feed your fish

Optional:
you can float a large water lettuce in the tank to remove the nitrates, I did, until my cat killed the plant

harvesting involves siphoning 25% of the water and pouring it into the fishtank. After that just topup your daphnia culture and repeat the next day.
Now the culture also makes an execellent fry tank, my rasboras reached adult size in just 2 months!

[Nicky]

After that just topup your daphnia culture and repeat the next day.
Now the culture also makes an execellent fry tank, my rasboras reached adult size in just 2 months!

Hey I'm interested to know more..

What do you mean by 'top up your daphnia culture'? Do you mean top-up with just water?

What do you feed your daphnia?

I need to aerate the culture tank, right?

Thanks for the tip.

[Jungle-mania]

I too stay in Pasir Ris, is there anywhere near our place that you can get daphnia culture?

[XnSdVd]

@Nicky:

Yup, just add more water. I usually use distilled but on the occasions i used tapwater nothing happened.

I don't feed them exactly, just drop some sinking pellets in every now and then. The bacteria grow on that and the daphnia eat them.

aerating the culture tank is quite optional... I've never did it because i just can't be bothered. Give them lots of surface area so oxygen can diffuse into the water quickly and they should be fine as long as they don't start turning red.

Jungle:
Head down to pasir ris farmway most of the shops have daphnia for sale. Just pick a bag where there aren't too many dead ones.

[Jungle-mania]

If I put tubilflex worm in my planted tank, will I have an outbreak of them in it? I cannot imagine seeing them flooding my gravel amd seeing my fishes bloated on them.

[XnSdVd]

They won't flood your gravel. In fact you'll barely notice them. Lets just say there'll be about a teaspoon per sqft or gravel when their population balances out.

[spinex]

1 stupid question.

Is daphnia those very tiny mini red bug like stuff sold in LFS like C328 in whole pack and overal it looked orange red ?

[XnSdVd]

Yup, but not to be confused with brine shrimp. Daphnia are . <-- that big. the size of a fullstop.

[spinex]

Yup, but not to be confused with brine shrimp. Daphnia are . <-- that big. the size of a fullstop.

I wonder will shrimps take them as food ?

[Justikanz]

1 stupid question.

Is daphnia those very tiny mini red bug like stuff sold in LFS like C328 in whole pack and overal it looked orange red ?

Not to be confused with baby brine shrimp... BBS look orangey... Daphnia looks more to teh grey side... BBS comes in brine water... So, be careful. Ask the LFS is you are unsure.

[XnSdVd]

Actually you can just smell the bag, salt has a distinctive... salt smell.