What is a Daphnia Magna
Daphnia Magna is a small planktonic crustacean with the scientific name Simocephalus exspinosus (Koch, 1841). Daphnia has gregarious behavior. During daylight, Daphnia stays in the safety of deep water and feed at the surface only at night. Daphnia is found in lakes, rivers, and temporary water sources in North America and Europe, such as the United States, England, and Belgium. Daphnia can live in both fresh and brackish water.
Biology of Daphnia Magna
- Average age: 56 days
- Adult size: length 3-4 millimeters
- Newly-hatched size: length 0.40-0.49 millimeters (400-490 micrometers)
- Reproduce after 6-10 days of age
- Both lay eggs and give live birth
- One female Daphnia gives birth to an average of 50 offspring
Start to Daphnia culture
Prepare the necessary equipment
- Daphnia eggs
- Tray [0.1 gallons (0.38 liters) in size for hatching]
- Tank [size should be a minimum of 3 gallons (11.3 liters) for culture]
- Water
- Aquarium air pump and aquarium air control valve
- Food
- Aquarium fishnet
- Aquarium heater or heat lamp
- Aquarium siphon cleaner tube
Water condition
Recommended water source
- Tap water is an easy and popular choice, as long as it has been treated to remove chlorine and adjusted condition properly.
- Freshwater from your aquarium
- Bottled water. It is the most expensive way. The mineral water is not recommended because the mineral level is too high.
Recommended water condition
- Ammonia level is less than 1.5 milligrams per liter.
- pH between 6.2 and 8.9 (pH 7.8 is optimum.)
- Low in salinity (fewer than 8 grams per liter)
- Do not use any chemicals.
Optimize the environment
Place a heat lamp above the tray for hatching. Place a heater inside the tank to keep the water temperature between 70 and 90 °F (21 and 32 °C). Put an aquarium thermometer in the tank to monitor the water temperature. If you live in a place with suitable temperature ranges, the heater may not be needed. If the temperature is low, it will take an additional 3 to 5 days for hatching. Hatching place is important. It is best to hatch inside to prevent invasive species and keep the temperature steady.
Sunlight is good to increase hatching capacity. Let the eggs receive sunlight 3-4 hours per day in the temperature range. Be careful overheating. If sunlight is not available, you can use the lamp instead. The eggs still hatch even though they do not receive sunlight.
Hatching Daphnia Magna Eggs
Fill up the water into the tray. Open the capsule carefully to sprinkle the eggs into the water. Make sure that the eggs do not accidentally get stuck on the edge of the tray. Floating or sinking eggs do not affect with hatch rate. After sprinkling the eggs into the water, it will hatch within 3-10 days.
Add oxygen to the water. In the early days, adjust the air control valve to the lowest level because Daphnia is very small and may lose control in swimming. Gradually adjust the air control valve to the level that suits the population of Daphnia.
Look closely. Daphnia is so small and almost invisible to the human eye for the first few days. You can use a flashlight in the dark to confirm the hatching. Shine lights on the water surface and watch the shadows move.
After 3-10 newly-hatched appear, that means the eggs begin to hatch. Then transfer the Daphnia and eggs to the tank for culture by pouring the hatching tray into the tank and add the water.
If the eggs do not hatch
If the eggs do not hatch within 10 days, dry the eggs by pouring them into an aquarium fishnet and wait for 2-3 days. After the eggs dried, start the hatching process again.
Daphnia Magna food
Daphnia eats bacteria, yeast, Spirulina, and Chlorella.
Feed Daphnia by pouring the prepared food into the tank. if you feed them by Chlorella the water will turned to light green. Be careful to overfeed. Feed 1-2 times per day. Increase or reduce the food according to the population of Daphnia. Do not feed more if the water is still green. In a few days, they will start to reproduce, and you will have thousands of them to feed your fishes.
Change the water
The water will gradually turn light yellow due to the waste excreted by Daphnia. Drain the water by using an aquarium siphon cleaner tube. Suck Daphnia and water out as much as possible from the water surface to downward.
Pour the water and Daphnia into a bucket through an aquarium fishnet. Daphnia will get stuck on the fishnet. You do not have to suck the Daphnia that sinks to the bottom of the tank. It is dead, Drain the remaining water and dead Daphnia out and clean the tank.
Add 80% of fresh water and 20% of old water into the tank. Then, drop the Daphnia on the fishnet into the water. When the water turns dark yellow, it means a lot of waste is in the water. The waste will turn to be ammonia and kill Daphnia, so keep your eyes on the color of the water.
Feed Daphnia Magna to your fish
Use syringe, dropper, bucket, or aquarium fishnet to transfer Daphnia to your aquarium. If the population of Daphnia in the tank is too dense, you can freeze some of them. Live Daphnia is great food for your tropical fish. We highly recommend it. It is simple to grow if you follow the tips above. Your fish will love eating it.
Summary
The Daphnia Magna Eggs for hatch to be fish food. Expand culture by feeding food such as Chlorella. Suitable to feed tropical fish.
Alayna Stranger –
*I?d have to check with you here. Which is not something I usually do! I enjoy reading a post that will make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!
Adelle E. (verified owner) –
Michael Pham (verified owner) –
Tyler (verified owner) –
I now have thousands of daphnia. Thanks!
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Andres (verified owner) –
No hutching at all. I have tried twice and nothing hutch. Trying now for third time another capsule.
Anoop Ajaya Kumar –
Purchase Daphnia magna capsule. At first they didn’t hatch with normal tap water and bottle water. As i only took a portion of the eggs. I had plenty of them left. So i started again with RO filtered water that was successful got around 10-12 daphnia hatch. Which is a pretty good amount to start with. So happy with the purchase.
Vinh Trinh (verified owner) –
Wil Flanagan (verified owner) –
faizan (verified owner) –
Very nicely packed and high hatching rate. Thank you!
Lennart Lindgren (verified owner) –
Great as always
Lennart (verified owner) –
Richard Perreault (verified owner) –
Tres bien
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Etienne Gauthier-Lafreniere (verified owner) –
Did not receive it
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Tommy (verified owner) –
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Yong –
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Andrew N. (verified owner) –
These were viable and the daphnia are large sized. Get several capsules if you need lots of them.
Randall Ison (verified owner) –
Good hatch rate, totally satisfied.
cleveland weeden (verified owner) –
Andrew –
I was hoping these would provide a big healthy colony of daphnia for my fish room but after 4 weeks, I’ve given up hope. I emptied both capsules into different aquariums of green water, which I use for daphnia colonies, and after 4 weeks … nothing. I’ve had at least 3 continuous cultures of daphnia for over 4 years, which allows for when an individual culture crashes but 6 months ago I lost all my cultures. Was hoping these would get me back on track but no such luck. Can not recommend this product. 0% hatch rate.
admin (store manager) –
Hello
The daphnia eggs must hatch in freshwater only, not green water.
Richard (verified owner) –
Arrived in the time frame promised and the eggs hatched without any problems
Michael Wun –
Successfully imported into Australia via mail, so it got past the custom checks into Australia.
Got a culture going using half of one capsule, in a 20 litre glass tank, with aquarium heater, air pump (without airstone) and lights.
The first hatchlings were seen after a week @ 27 degrees Celsius.
My recommendations after a few attempts to get a culture going.
1. The hatchlings are really small and white, so it is easier to see them in glass container.
Tried hatching my first batch in a large white plastic bucket. Couldn’t see anything happening, because it was small white objects against a white background.
2. Pack comes with two capsules of eggs. Use at least half a capsule at a time,
Initially I use a few eggs at a time in various glass containers, without any heaters, lights etc.
Was trying to stretch out my egg supply. The trouble is that a few eggs means few hatchlings. And a few hatchlings in a large jar are hard to spot, so you dont know when they have hatched, and so you dont know when to start feeding them.
The more eggs used, the higher the chance of noticing the hatchlings.
3. Patience.
I tipped all my initial “failed” attempts into my big white plastic bucket, which I kept outside in part sun. I couldn’t see any Daphnia in the bucket so I thought it was also failure. Algae started going in the bucket, and I just left it alone. I ran a fine net through the bucket after 3 weeks and to my surprise found adult Daphnia in the bucket. So the moral of the story, is that hatching will probably happen, but the hatchlings are really small, so you need patience for the hatchlings to get big enough to spot. Thats why I ended up using a small lit glass aquarium, because it made it easier to notice hatching & growth.
Xoel Sanchez (verified owner) –
Excelente service and delivery. The product it self is of a high quality for sure.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Very fast shipping. Very good quality. Hatched in 3 days.
Vincent (verified owner) –
Followed instruction perfectly and nothing hatched.
Lina (verified owner) –
Product was as advertised. Dumped some in water and had live daphnia a few days later. I got exactly what I ordered and am very happy.
José Castro (verified owner) –
Patrick K. (verified owner) –
Gary (verified owner) –
Hi,
I am sorry to say that I followed the instructions but the daphnia did not hatch so I am disappointed. I already lost money purchasing the daphnia and do not want to loose more money to purchase them again.
Brian Baird (verified owner) –
Very impressed, high hatching rate i’ve also bought other eggs with the same success will definitely buy more great company to deal with answers all your questions if you have any
Carylon Rodemoyer –
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Conchita Saeler –
It is truly a nice and helpful piece of information. I am glad that you just shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
Selma Holderness –
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Receiving PO 070988 (verified owner) –
The product was as expected but the shipping took almost four weeks. If they could speed up their shipping time I would give them a 5.
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Major thanks for the article post.Really looking forward to read more. Keep writing.
Maxine Gadd (verified owner) –
I haven’t received the daphnia eggs
Rival (verified owner) –
No hitched after the two weeks.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
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