small fish & daphnia

[Flear]

can small fish (1") co-exist with Daphnia Magna ?

for a daphnia species they're about as large as they get (5mm adult).

such small fish i'm guessing would have difficulty eating such adult daphnia.

would baby daphnia (newly hatched) be small enough even for fish fry ?

once the daphnia have reached adult size, i'd like to hope that they're reproducing enough that there are enough surviving to continue the population.

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has anyone done anything like this before ?
does this sound like a sustainable food system ?
are there any problems to consider that may be encountered ?

 

[SubRosa]

The daphnia will disappear. 100%

 

[Flear]

such small fish is going to be able to eat a 5mm daphnia ?

 

[RazzleFish]

Daphnia only live for so long. Their offspring will be eaten. Unless this is a huge tank with very few fish of any size, I don't think it'll work.


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[Flear]

i keep forgetting about lifespans

i keep thinking about ferns or filling the tank with other places for them to hide, but i am in doubt of them staying where it's safe if they do have places to hide.

 

[SubRosa]

There's one way it could work for a sustained period. An in-tank (or external) refugium. Basically it's a small container that's part of the system. The food source is provided with a suitable habitat in the container and the predators are excluded from it.

 

[Flear]

i'm going to try it with 1" fish and see how it goes, ... if it doesn't work i will have to use a bunch of different refugiums, ... one for daphnia (or other zooplankton), one to culture food for the daphnia tank. if it doesn't work in one tank, then nothing is stopping me from having a system

i have no idea if it will last within one tank. makes things easier if it doesn't as i can easily think about all the fish out there. but it's that "i did it in one tank" if it can be done with size of fish vs size of live food