What is daphnia?

I've seen those under a microscope... bloody ugly guys I'll tell ya.

Aaron

BTW I reccomend Hikari freeze dried blood worms. My fish totally devour them! However, I have yet to try any of their other products.

NJ, I think I heard somewhere that tubifex wasn't such a desired food unless they are the frozen kind because of the potential of diseases they may carry and transfer to the fish eating them. You are aware of this, right?

just tried daphnia

I just today tried some frozen daphnia. They are very small. The little tetras that are still in quarantine gobbled them up. Much smaller than brine shrimp, so for very small fish, a good choice.

I've been reading up on how to raise them myself, but I don't know if I have enough fish to make it worth the trouble.

daphnia are great live foods, i have been told they are like laxative for fish if fed to much. I have actually raised live cultures and feed dehydrated daphnia to my fish.
Daphnia will feed on green water readily. I have containers of very green water go clear within a week.
A great site for culturing them is:
http://www.aquaculturestore.com/info/daphnia.html
you can also order cultures from this site.
Another helpful site is our own wetman's site. (smart man)
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/

hope this helps, I also prefer these guys over worms as additional feeding supplement. I know what is in these guys..

jim

Frozen is the way to go if that's your purpose NJ. I think it's a great idea to use the daphnia to help the clean out process.

Can daphnia be used to control green water?