How To Culture Live Daphnia

When you first receive your kit you will have 3 bags. Each contain different items. They are all marked. Do not open any until you have read these instruction. Have all necessary items collected before you start. If you need time extra time to get all of your items together you can place your culture bags in your refrigerator for up to 3 days. You may notice a reduction in the number of daphnia but their will still be some survivors you can use. You will have plenty in just a short while.

Fill an empty soda bottle with clean aged tank water about full. Extra water from your tank works best as it will contain elevated levels of nitrates and phosphates great for growing algae. Carefully open your green water bag and gently pour this into your soda bottle. Place in a warm area were it will receive filtered sunlight. Give it a daily stir by inverting it gently a few times back and forth.

In your five gallon bucket, add about 3 gallons of clean aged water. Dechlorinated water will work, but you should bubble it for at least 12 hours before adding daphnia. Carefully open your daphnia bag and add gently add to the water. Sprinkle a few grains of yeast on the surface of the water, allow them to sit for a few minutes to absorb some moisture. Stir the water gently until the yeast dissolves. Take a good look at your water, does it look cloudy? You want the water to have just a very light cloud of yeast. You should be still able to see the bottom without much obstruction. If it needs more add just a little at a time until you achieve a transparent cloudiness. Continue to feed your daphnia culture daily in this manner until your green water develops. If you over feed your water will remain cloudy for several days. This is not desirable, refrain from feeding again until the water has cleared.

After a week your green water should be getting rather dense. Its color should have changed from a pale green to a dark green. You may subdivide this by pouring half of this into a new empty soda bottle and top both off with old tank water. It will only take about a day or two to regain its former density in both bottles now. Once you have achieved this, you can begin feed this to your daphnia. Feed the contents of one bottle per day or as needed. Refill each bottle with aged tank water to continue culturing. It is also a good idea at this time to place a few ounces of green water into a separate container and place it in the refrigerator. You can use this later to restart your culture if your others crash.

You do not need to feed both yeast and green water to your daphnia. You can if you choose to but they will survive on just green water or just yeast. Mixing the foods provides a better food source for your fish, green water is better than yeast alone. In this kit yeast is provided just to feed the daphnia until your green water is ready. For larger production, you may add a slow bubble of air into each culture vessel, both green water and daphnia. For even greater production, wait for you daphnia culture to grow at least 5X its original amount and subdivide into a second (and third and so on) bucket. Make sure you grow enough green water to support this growing mass. Never add daphnia to your green water cultures as they will either suffocate or strip the green water leaving you with no food.

Culturing Daphnia (Simplified)

   Culturing daphnia or water fleas is a relatively easy process. Breeding daphnia begins by growing of algae (green water). Algae are easily grown in two litter bottles to old fish tanks. Daphnia can also be feed on yeast (fungi) to bacteria or in combination.

   Next daphnia them selves can be cultured in two liters to five gallon buckets depending on needs. Once you have your green water going good. Start feeding your bugs the algae. Make sure you water has a good green color. Once the daphina eat most of the algae the water will start to clear. Before the water clears adding more algae again. Some people have used drip system to keep adding a constant fresh algae to the water making feeding easier. Light bubbling of the algae and very light bubbling of the water fleas will help keep the water oxygenated and moving.

    Make sure to have multiple cultures going of the algae and two of daphnia in case of crashes.

   Daphnia can also used to feed marine fish as tasty treats.