daphnia for convict cichlids

[echo7]

Hi,
i'm doing a study on the effect of diet on convict cichlid coloration in school, and i'm still just in the designing stages. i figured i'd feed them with daphnia, that was fed with infusia. The media/food of the infusia will be the variable, and as the infusia is obviosuly too small for adult convicts, i thought i would culture daphnia on them as an intermediary. i just wanted to make sure that the daphnia would be the right size for the convict chiclids, or if anyone had any ideas of an easily culturable food large enough to be eaten by adult convict cichlids, but small enough to be easily cultured on infusia. Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[BillD]

The dapnia might be a little small for adult convicts. They will eat them, but you will need huge quantities. I cultivate vast quantities on my winter pool cover, every spring. My dog fertilizes it over the winter, and afterr the water turns green in the spring, the daphnia population explodes. As long as there is sufficient food for the daphnia, they have live young, and multiply rapidly. I don't know that convicts are the right fish to try for colour changes relative to food, as they sem to be pretty uniform in colour regardless of what they are being fed. Of course, that may be the conclusion you are looking for. Regardless, good luck with your experiment.