Daphnia

[suphi]

Photo of Daphnia, one of the winners of Nikon Small World Contest. Pretty cool.

Daphnia is widely used as baby fish food in Asia. It's especially great for new born ranchu before they can take bloodworms. Many breeders fiercely believe that it stimulates wen growth in ranchu fry and is a better alternative than baby brine shrimp. Overfeeding daphnia can, however, lead to gill infection.

http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/images/gallery2010/fourbythree/Almodovar_18414_1.jpg

http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/

[Veil Gal]

Why would overfeeding of daphnia cause gill infection? Would frozen daphnia give good results? Just wondering as I have good and bad experiences with live daphnia.

[suphi]

I'm not exactly sure why, but it's a common knowledge among ranchu breeders/keepers who feed daphnia to their fry. My guess is that they either indirectly cause polluted water or directly get into the gills and cause damage. :youtellme:

I haven't tried frozen daphnia, but I raised my ranchu fry almost exclusively with freeze dried daphnia (not the best idea as I learned later).

[Ichthius]

I bet it's bacterial gill disease assosciated with over feeding and poor water quality. I use Daphnia all the time with only great results.

[bluebelly]

Dave I have three daphnia sites, have learned to use only one for best results. Depends on what is feeding the daphnia that you bring home to your fish for future bacterial problems. My best source is a 100 ft greenhouse that we grow bog plants in. Other sources with wild ducks or fish become a real nightmare. I bring 5 gallons of daphnia home and spread them out in containers of clean water for two weeks before I feed them to the fry.

[suphi]

Dirty water is their natural habitat, I guess.

[Corrie]

bluebelly is right..

dirty water, lots of daphnia, lots of problems.
Plus daphnia can damage their gills.

suphi, they raise daphnia on chicken/animal poop, that's their first problem.


Bring them home, clean them up first, then feed.

You can also gut load them to make them more nutritious while you're cleaning/flushing them out with any of the algae pastes or shrimp meal.