Really good ways of changing water for daphnia easily, and harvesting?

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NeonFlux

Water agent
Oct 16, 2005
2,293
3
38
34
Los Angeles, California
Real Name
William
:D Hey, AC!

Purchased some daphnia moina as of late, and I want to start getting them going to large amounts so I could feed them my fish. I heard that they are very hardy and less sensitive, which is why I really decided on them over the pulex and magna species. So on with the title questions.. what are effective ways of changing their water without accidentally sucking them out?? I tried siphoning their water but they always get sucked in! What I done is I place a net resting above a bucket to filter and collect them on the net to put them back in, but still, small ones fall through somehow and into a bucket where I collect the old daphnia water. It's really frustrating. Is there any really good method out there to make sure the moina adults and babies don't get through? Maybe I could modify the tubing somehow so they don't get sucked in? Any ideas and thoughts on this? What's your method of changing out their water and what do you think is the best way of preventing them from being sucked out of their own tank 100%? Also how do you harvest the moina without accidentally over-harvesting? How do you guys do it? I want to know the right way I have actually failed countless times with daphnia (mainly with species pulex and magna, unfortunately) But I want to go out with a bang with the moina species and make sure they will last me a long time and do well for me.

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks a bunch guys. You all have an awesome planted tank night.

-William
 

ffmurray

AC Members
Oct 6, 2014
87
0
0
Ithaca NY
Cant say Ive ever kept daphnia moina. What if you cut a coarse filter sponge to fit over the end of your tube, then added a couple layers of nylon stocking or plankton net over that and secured it all to the tubing. It seems like a couple of layers would be able to stop a vast majority of them from getting in to the tube in the first place, and if they got past the first layer or two you could simply remove it and rinse them in the tank to clear the little guys out.

It seems to me like you would be better off trying to filter the input rather than the output of the siphon. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will be able to step in and tell you how they do it.
 

BallAquatics

Fish Breeder
Oct 9, 2010
139
0
16
Central Ohio, USA
www.ballaquatics.com
Real Name
Dennis Ball
I have a 120um SIEVE that I insert into a 2 litre bottle. Works great to get water without removing any daphnia/moina.



Use it like a gravel vac, put the sieve end under water and the bottle fills with water. Put your syphon hose inside the bottle and away you go! You can pick these up on Ebay for a few bucks.

You can also syphon off water using regular air line tubing and an air stone, but it drains very slowly.....

Dennis
 
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