Rainbow buddies sometimes we have difficulty finding live food, so how do we get live food if we don't have time or can't find live food in our area? In this article we will tell you how to do water flea culture as fish feed easily.
Water fleas are small critters that are usually given as live food for various types of fish seeds and small ornamental fish such as guppies and betta. High water flea protein content, about 60% and a fat content of 4% makes it very suitable for feeding fish fry for they growth.
Types of water fleas that are easily cultivated and the stater or seeds easily obtained are daphnia and moina. Both types of water flea belong to the family of arthopoda, class crustaceans and the ordo caldocera. Both are types of tiny shrimp.
The size of moina is smaller than daphnia, around 0.9-1.8 mm. Reddish brown body color. In the abdomen there are 10 cilia, and on the back covered with coarse hair. In nature, daphnia colonies are usually mixed with moina, so that in plain view these two types of zooplankton are difficult to distinguish.
Moina can be found in all freshwater waters such as lakes, swamps, reservoirs and ponds. Ideal water temperature for moina growth ranges from 24 ° -30 ° C with a pH of 6.5-7.5.
Moina can reproduce asexually and sexually. The life cycle of moina is much shorter which is around 13 days. With the ability to reproduce about 32 fry per day.
Water fleas are small critters that are usually given as live food for various types of fish seeds and small ornamental fish such as guppies and betta. High water flea protein content, about 60% and a fat content of 4% makes it very suitable for feeding fish fry for they growth.
Types of water fleas that are easily cultivated and the stater or seeds easily obtained are daphnia and moina. Both types of water flea belong to the family of arthopoda, class crustaceans and the ordo caldocera. Both are types of tiny shrimp.
Moina sp
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| Moina sp (Picture : UNH Center for Freshwater Biology) |
Moina can be found in all freshwater waters such as lakes, swamps, reservoirs and ponds. Ideal water temperature for moina growth ranges from 24 ° -30 ° C with a pH of 6.5-7.5.
Moina can reproduce asexually and sexually. The life cycle of moina is much shorter which is around 13 days. With the ability to reproduce about 32 fry per day.
Daphnia sp
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| Daphnia sp (Picture : PLOS Biology) |
The oval shaped daphnia is rather flat in size around 1-5 mm. Daphnia reddish brown body color. The head has two antennas and the tail is pointed. In the pond, the daphnia colony will look like red dots floating in a cluster on the surface of the water.
Daphnia is found in freshwater waters such as lakes, swamps, reservoirs, ponds and rivers. The ideal place for daphnia growth is waters with a temperature of 26 ° -30 ° C with a pH of 6.5-7.5.
Like moina daphnia can breed sexually or asexually. In the development of asexual culture, moina will produce eggs that can hatch without fertilization. Whereas in sexual breeding, male and female daphnia mate and produce fry.
The life cycle of daphnia is around 34 days and can give birth to fry every day. Daphnia lays eggs or gives birth to about 39 fry per day. In certain types such as Daphnia Magna, it can lay up to 100 fry.
Water Flea Culture
Culture of water fleas Daphnia sp or Moina sp are basically the same because their living habitats, food types, and breeding types are relatively the same. For fry or starter we can get it at an ornamental fish seller or at an online store. While the culture media we can use a bucket, tarpaulin pond or ground pool. The most important thing is to prepare food for the water fleas that we are going to culture, the natural food for water lice is pythoplankton, whereas for artificial food it can be in the form of yeast or shrimp pellets that are sold in store.
Ground or Concrete Pond
The best place to cultivate water fleas is a pond or concrete pond with a soil base. Size of the pool can adjust the needs.
Steps:
- Dry the pond and let stand for 2-3 days until the base is dry then spread limestone at a dose of 1-2kg / m² so that the soil PH is more stable and reduces parasites.
- Spread fertilizer to grow pythoplankton as food for water fleas, you can use manure at a dose of 2kg / m² and leave it for 3-5 days to dry so that ammonia from the fertilizer will gone.
- Flood the pond with a depth about 25cm, let the water turn greenish brown which means that the pythoplankton has grown, wait until the water is really green and thick, about 4-6 days then add water to a height of 50cm.
- Spread water flea fry, more fry that you spread, more fast they would develope too
- Usually within 7 - 11 days harvesting can be done, can be seen with water fleas on the surface of the water with they reddish colour.
- Harvesting is done by scooping out water fleas using a plankton net, or a special net for water fleas.
Tarpaulin Pool, Plastic Tub, Bucket
If we have limited space then we can culture water fleas in small places such as tarpaulin ponds, plastic tubs and buckets. The trick is to grow pythoplankton first, growing pythoplankton in a tarpaulin pool or plastic material is certainly different from in a pool of land.
- Using dried chicken manure, put chicken manure in a sack or cloth at a dose of 2kg / m² with a water level of approximately 25cm. Wait 3-6 days for the water to turn solid green.
- Using used aquarium water or used catfish ponds water, enter the used pond or aquarium water into the culture media and add rice washing water wait until the water turns green, if you want to speed up you can add goldfish or comet fish and leave it until the water turns thick green.
- Using a chlorella or spirulina starter, if we buy a chlorella or spirulina starter, a guide to culture usually will be included.
- After the turn into dark green colour, water flea seeds can be put into the media, but before you do that, make sure the water to be used does not contain ammonia or does not smell of urine or stench.
- It is better to prepare two or more containers to make pythoplankton, because the media used is small, then harvesting is done by draining the culture media and moving some water fleas into the new containers that has been prepared previously. So we can culture the water fleas continously.
Instant Water Flea Culture
In addition to the above methods there are easier ways but with a high risk of death as well because what we will use as water fleas food is artificial food which if we given too much, foods will pollute the cultivate media and cause death for the water fleas that we cultivating.
- Prepare culture media, plastic bucket or tub, use well water or tap water that has been keeped for 1-3 days.
- Put the water flea starter into the media and feed them. (You can choose one of feeding method below)
- Using milk powder - one teaspoon / 1 m3 of culture water, mix powdered milk with one glass of water and stir well then pour into the media.
- Using shrimp pellets or yeist - a quarter of a teaspoon / 1 m3 of culture water, do it by mixing it into one glass of water until it is well mixed, then keep it for about 15 minutes, and give only mixed water, because sediment pellets / yeist will pollute the media.
- Give food every 3 days, and do not increase the dose because it will pollute the water.
- Harvesting can be done after about 7 day for moina and 11 day for daphnia.
That's it, we hoped this article can add more knowledge and help rainbow buddies who have difficulty getting natural food in their area. Don't forget to read other interesting articles from us. See you in the next article.
