• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Why should you grow your own bugs!

ghostsword

ghostsword

Member
Joined
19 Nov 2009
Messages
3,422
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
I went yesterday to a local shop, looking for dapnia to setup a small live food tank on the garden.

As I bought the bags the guy on the other side o the counter told me to look carefully before I put the critters on the tank, as sometimes there are predators with them.

I was puzzled, what sort of predators would it be with sub tiny critters? I couldn't see any.

Hydra says he, sometimes there are hydra mixed with them.

Nice..... Just nice...



.
 
I have numerous bugs in my tanks that were introduced with daphnia.
I love having them in my nano on my desk as I can sit with my nose right in front of the tank and peer for ages in fascination at them all. Have had hydra from time to time and they never did any harm to anything.
 
Ok, maybe I'm old school but I always thought that hydra was bad for fish and shrimps, at least it was bad for fish in the mid 80's, no shrimp in tanks then.

The bugs have gone to the garden, this weekend will check if they survived an start collecting some for my fish .


.
 
It's a general problem with live food from shops in that you don't KNOW what else is in the bag - Bloodworm, for example, tend to be found/bred in stagnant nasty water that you don't necessarily want to be adding to your tank. I'm going to be setting up a spare nano for Daphnia for this reason, and also because i think they're fascinating!
M
 
bigmatt said:
It's a general problem with live food from shops in that you don't KNOW what else is in the bag - Bloodworm, for example, tend to be found/bred in stagnant nasty water that you don't necessarily want to be adding to your tank. I'm going to be setting up a spare nano for Daphnia for this reason, and also because i think they're fascinating!
M
Click to expand...

The daphnia, would they live and survive on a nano tank? What about the filter? What do they eat?

I got a 8L nano, too small for fish, but for daphnia would be good, I think.
 
Yep Another reason I grow my Own.
In the past have received the following in with Daphnia:
Water beetle,
Water Scorpion,
Water Boatman,
Midges,
Mayfly,
Mozzies,
Ostracods,
Isopods etc

This year the early warm weather has been great for daphnia. Numbers have really boosted due to the heat and abundant green water.
 
ghostsword said:
Ok, maybe I'm old school but I always thought that hydra was bad for fish and shrimps, at least it was bad for fish in the mid 80's, no shrimp in tanks then.
Click to expand...

I think thats still the commonly held view. It is just me being different again :crazy: I've sat there for hours straight watching fish chase hydra (they are tough for them to catch). Never seen it the other way around, but thats not to say it does not happen.

bigmatt said:
It's a general problem with live food from shops in that you don't KNOW what else is in the bag - Bloodworm, for example, tend to be found/bred in stagnant nasty water that you don't necessarily want to be adding to your tank. I'm going to be setting up a spare nano for Daphnia for this reason, and also because i think they're fascinating!
M
Click to expand...

The water is usually rank and I would never add it to my tank, I always net out the critters and add them separately.

ghostsword said:
The daphnia, would they live and survive on a nano tank? What about the filter? What do they eat?

I got a 8L nano, too small for fish, but for daphnia would be good, I think.
Click to expand...


The first stumbling block I found was flow, anything above an air driven sponge filter and they did not last long.
They eat all sorts, but green water seems to be the main choice for people who culture them.

I will stop advising you there as have not cracked successful long term daphnia production. I can keep a few alive indefinitely but getting them to reproduce consistently in sizeable amounts without crashing is an art I have not yet mastered.

The net has loads of info (lots conflicting as you'd expect).
I am recently experimenting with using spirulina as a food (something Pardeep told me about).

The main use I have for daphnia is keeping the water from going stagnant in my unfiltered vases.
 
a1Matt said:
The net has loads of info (lots conflicting as you'd expect).
I am recently experimenting with using spirulina as a food (something Pardeep told me about).

The main use I have for daphnia is keeping the water from going stagnant in my unfiltered vases.
Click to expand...

Yep, Spirulina powder is great for daphnia, sprinkle a pinch every so often into the water and watch as they fill up green.

Tip:

Either Ebay powdered spirulina, or wait for the better than half price sale @ holland and barret (best you can get IMHO + IME) and buy a large bottle of it. and it will last you years.
 
Ok, so they can be kept on stagnant water, no flow or little, and they eat spirulina and greet water.

I placed mine on the acrylic tank on the garden, had some snails on it, apple snails, but they died, maybe too cold for them.

It has some green water already, should I add some crushed Pleco food? This until I get some spirulina?

When I was a kid I use to pick up daphnia from concrete building foundations, no idea how they got there, but where great food for my angel fish and guppies.
 
ghostsword said:
Ok, so they can be kept on stagnant water, no flow or little, and they eat spirulina and greet water.

I placed mine on the acrylic tank on the garden, had some snails on it, apple snails, but they died, maybe too cold for them.

It has some green water already, should I add some crushed Pleco food? This until I get some spirulina?

When I was a kid I use to pick up daphnia from concrete building foundations, no idea how they got there, but where great food for my angel fish and guppies.
Click to expand...


I always add snails into the bucket/barrel. Stagnant with no flow at all.
Something else i do is throw in left over from lettuce and salad bags, that should suffice.
 
Growing your own bugs is the way forward, I was spending so much on brine shrimp for my apisto's I had to sort something out, took a while to get them confident enough to come and take the flies from the waters surface but now there mad about them haha.

Havnt had to buy food for them for weeks now 🙂
 
yeah my flies have weetabix, a piece of tomato and a grape 🙂

what do you think would help to add some kind of colour enhancement to the a.cacas? something high in protein?
 
So what should be minimum canister size to grow daphnia? Is some 10L bucket fine or something bigger? Keep it on sun or in shade or 50/50?
 
nayr88 said:
yeah my flies have weetabix, a piece of tomato and a grape 🙂

what do you think would help to add some kind of colour enhancement to the a.cacas? something high in protein?
Click to expand...
Your flies eat better than I do.
 
Haha, if you can fit in a mayo jar your more than welcome to take up residence in the fish drawer haha 🙂
 
Radik said:
So what should be minimum canister size to grow daphnia? Is some 10L bucket fine or something bigger? Keep it on sun or in shade or 50/50?
Click to expand...


A bucket is fine and full sun is fine. Saying that the smallest size i have grown them in is 200ml.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top