betta fry surrounded by daphnia

[old fish]

hi all, encountered some problems here wif my 5 day old betta fries. Betta fries estimated numbered around 50( got difficulties counting after 35). No air pump.

read somewhere that daphnia is good for betta fries, so i bought some from LFS. Failing to exercise due care, i just pour the filtered daphnia into the fish tank (size estimation 25cm x 15cm x 20cm). Now my fish tank is filled with of daphnia.

My question is

How long will the daphnia last in this tank??
Will the daphnia affect my betta fries??
Do I have to do any thing about the dead daphnia??
Whats the next best course of action??

Many thanks in advance for the advice.

[lucasjiang]

hi all, encountered some problems here wif my 5 day old betta fries. Betta fries estimated numbered around 50( got difficulties counting after 35). No air pump.

read somewhere that daphnia is good for betta fries, so i bought some from LFS. Failing to exercise due care, i just pour the filtered daphnia into the fish tank (size estimation 25cm x 15cm x 20cm). Now my fish tank is filled with of daphnia.

My question is

How long will the daphnia last in this tank??
Will the daphnia affect my betta fries??
Do I have to do any thing about the dead daphnia??
Whats the next best course of action??

Many thanks in advance for the advice.

1. They will last only 1 to 2 days

2. YES, the dead daphnia will generate A LOT of ammonia, which will rapidly worsen water quality.

3. You must siphon out as much dead daphnia as possible, if not the above will happen.

4. Place your tank in a dark location, shine a torchlight at one specific spot in your tank, eg the center. Hold it there for 5 mins. The daphnia will be attracted to the light and you can scoop them up. Then you can feed the excess to other fishes (almost all fishes love daphnia), or you can keep them for a day or two. Assuming you want to keep them, take the water that came with the daphnia (if you have thrown away the water, use water from a matured tank)and pour it into a container, and put the excess daphnia inside, and bubble the water gently.

[old fish]

many thanks lucas...

will work overnight later...

[freyster]

Very good info lucasjiang.

[stormhawk]

If the tank is alkaline in pH and has a source of bacteria or microscopic food for the daphnia, they will last indefinitely until they are all consumed by the fish. Die off in daphnia occurs when they are stressed, or kept in acidic pH. To enrich them just feed with Liquifry No.1 or 2, or some other liquid diet for rotifers/filter feeders, or with green water if you can generate bottles of them. In holding tanks for daphnia, try not to bubble the tank but rather align the air hose to generate a flow of air directly at the water surface. Daphnia are very sensitive to air bubbles.