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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Food for Daphnia

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20 Apr 2012 18:01 #1 by Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)
I love feeding my discus live foods, so recently started a Daphnia culture to have a ready supply of foods that I (hope) know will be pathogen free. Living in an apartment without a balcony, it's difficult for me to make green water anywhere, so made my own food to feed the water fleas. The recipe is equal parts dry yeast, spirulina powder and baby's first freeze-dried vegetarian food.

I pounded this into dust with a mortar and pestle and add enough each day to keep the water tinged green (never fully clear, never too dark).

Is there anything anyone would suggest I change to this? So far the culture seems to be doing fine and I can see smaller daphnia appearing, so there must be some degree of breeding going on, but know that daphnia cultures can crash easily, so any pointers welcome.

Thanks,

LoB

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20 Apr 2012 18:07 #2 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
The yeast method is pretty good.....don't add too much at once though.

Gentle aeration, and ideally use a small internal air-driven floss filter.
Some activated carbon will do a good job as well.

Daphnia are very sensitive to changes in water quality.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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20 Apr 2012 18:08 #3 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Food for Daphnia
Hi Lorcan,

I'd say you have it covered, the amino acids in Daphnia will bring them on in leap and bounds, the mere activity of catching live prey is a catalyst for breeding as it simulates the sudden availability of live fare in nature.

Kev.

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21 Apr 2012 14:20 #4 by Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)
Thanks for that lads. I am using a small internal sponge filter, would that do the job also? I heard too fine a mist of air can get trapped under their carapace and cause them to become too buoyant?

All of the water is coming out of my Shellie's tank, which has never had any meds added to it, so would I still need the carbon? From what I read, using aged aquarium water should be the safest and also have microorganisms in it to help with feeding the daphnia.

At what point should I start taking them out of the tank and feeding them to the fish? I want to wait until I reach maximum capacity so it will be self-sustaining, but obviously don't want it to crash because it gets too dense. Is this just simply a case of trial and error?

Thanks again,

LoB

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