Quick daphnia question

[fishychick]

How do you guys feed frozen daphnia to your fish? They are so small, I'm afraid I will either overfeed or my fish just won't see them and never actually eat them. I've heard people mention turkey basters, is that the best way? Or do I just dump it in and assume they will get to it eventually? Thanks!
W

 

[RevLine]

my hikari daphnia container allows me to control how big the opening is to prevent daphnia from over-pouring so i end up using it like a salt shaker. frozen daphnia floats though so most likely all the top-swimmers will get it. i use the turkey baster/syringe method to soak them for a bit and then squirt it into the water column so some float into the bottom.

 

[fishychick]

my hikari daphnia container allows me to control how big the opening is to prevent daphnia from over-pouring so i end up using it like a salt shaker. frozen daphnia floats though so most likely all the top-swimmers will get it. i use the turkey baster/syringe method to soak them for a bit and then squirt it into the water column so some float into the bottom.

Thanks! A container seems like it would help. I have the Hikari daphnia in the frozen little cubes. I put a whole cube in a little cup of tank water to defrost it, but I feel like when I put a little in the tank, it didn't float...should I not be defrosting it? Does defrosting it or not make a difference? I really need to get a turkey baster.....that was a weird statement....

 

[RevLine]

my apologies let me clarify: i have freeze-dried daphnia. they're dry and not packed into frozen cubes, like little sprinkles lol that's why mine float.

i heard that it's good to discard as much liquid as you can after melting it in a cup so that you're not adding anything extra except for the daphnia. and since yours don't really float, in my opinion, you won't need the turkey baster unless you're target-feeding.

 

[fishychick]

my apologies let me clarify: i have freeze-dried daphnia. they're dry and not packed into frozen cubes, like little sprinkles lol that's why mine float.

i heard that it's good to discard as much liquid as you can after melting it in a cup so that you're not adding anything extra except for the daphnia. and since yours don't really float, in my opinion, you won't need the turkey baster unless you're target-feeding.

Hmmm, so maybe if I drain the water I am defrosting it in I'll have a better chance of grabbing exactly how much I want? I was trying to use tweezers but its hard to tweeze stuff in water, lol. Now if I could only get my fish to actually see it.
Last time I tried it just sort of floated down un noticed. I'm hoping that any that land on the ground will be eventually eaten by my corys. Maybe I should look into freeze dried.

 

[RevLine]

lol those things are so small even tweezing them sounds like a pain lol.
tell us about your tank though. what kind of fish are you trying to feed and how big is your tank?

 

[P220]

What I do with my frozen stuff is scoop out a little aquarium water into a small plastic cup, drop the cube in it, let it thaw out, then suck some up into a syringe (just some oral syringe you can pretty much get at any drug store). Then you can squirt in how much you want

 

[fishychick]

What I do with my frozen stuff is scoop out a little aquarium water into a small plastic cup, drop the cube in it, let it thaw out, then suck some up into a syringe (just some oral syringe you can pretty much get at any drug store). Then you can squirt in how much you want

Ooooh, a syringe, I have one of those! I'll give that a try. Thanks! How do you know how much to feed?



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[fishychick]

lol those things are so small even tweezing them sounds like a pain lol.
tell us about your tank though. what kind of fish are you trying to feed and how big is your tank?

Yeah, tweezer weren't too successful, lol. That's why I came to you guys! I have 3 tanks; a 20 tall with guppies and panda corys, a 20 long with albino & bronze corys, a DG and an Oto, and a 2.5 gallon with a Betta. I may be wrong, but I think daphnia would be ok for all my fish, right? I'm trying to vary foods to give everyone a more well balanced diet.


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[P220]

Guess the amount to feed depends on how much they'll eat in a minute or two? Daphnia is kinda small, almost food for fry or nano fish, which is why they may be ignoring it... brine shrimp might be easier to work with for the fish you have

 

[fishychick]

Guess the amount to feed depends on how much they'll eat in a minute or two? Daphnia is kinda small, almost food for fry or nano fish, which is why they may be ignoring it... brine shrimp might be easier to work with for the fish you have

Yeah. That makes sense.


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[Coyne]

I use one of those fish feeding cones when Im feeding frozen daphnia. I just let it thaw in the cone (which is in the tank).
Once its thawed, I just give the cone a little tap and some daphnia will shake loose. I'll give it another tap every 5-10 minutes until they're all gone.

Here's a link to a picture of the cone, in case you're not sure what Im talking about:
Feeding a Copperband Butterfly

 

[fishychick]

I use one of those fish feeding cones when Im feeding frozen daphnia. I just let it thaw in the cone (which is in the tank).
Once its thawed, I just give the cone a little tap and some daphnia will shake loose. I'll give it another tap every 5-10 minutes until they're all gone.

Here's a link to a picture of the cone, in case you're not sure what Im talking about:
Feeding a Copperband Butterfly

wow, that's super cool. Thanks so much for the suggestion!