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Collection
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Do not collect daphnia from polluted water systems. It's safest and easiest to purchase ready-to-feed daphnia from fish food supply stores. They are purchased freeze-dried, frozen or fresh-sealed.
Culturing Daphnia
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Collect daphnia with a fine mesh fish net from local sources that are clean and unpolluted. Maintain an aerated tank for the crustaceans. Place a water container outside to collect wild algae spores, or collect algae from a clean source. Feed this "green-water" to the filter feeding daphnia. Keep the daphnia tank near sunlight for the algae to grow. The culture can also be fed on pieces of algae fish food wafers or pellets. Keep snails in the tank to avoid water fouling. Yeast can be used, but this can pose some pollution problems in the tank leading to the collapse of the daphnia culture. Add water to the tank as it evaporates. Daphnia can also be purchased live from fish and pond supply stores.
Feeding
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Using a fine mesh net collect the daphnia and rinse them off. Feed these to the marine fish.
Feeding Tips
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Do not overfeed the marine tank - only feed as much as the fish can consume in a few minutes. Daphnia will not survive in saltwater and as they decay the tank can become polluted.
Saltwater Daphnia
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Marine daphnia can be purchased for saltwater fish tanks. Fish supply and fish food breeders carry these copepods. These daphnia are indigenous to the marine environment and will survive in a tank.
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Can You Feed Daphnia to Marine Fish?
Daphnia are small, generally freshwater dwelling crustaceans similar to shrimp. There are over 100 species of these "water fleas," and they are found in many aquatic environments across the globe. Daphnia are filter feeders, eating algae and decaying vegetation with a few select species being carnivorous. Daphnia make excellent food for marine fish, and marine daphnia are also available.