Post by va on May 28, 2020 22:58:30 GMT -5
Hey Doug,
Sorry...I have to correct myself. I suffer with an infestation of scuds..not just the swimming copepods/cyclops. Scuds are crustaceans that are almost like cockroaches for me. They are bullet proof...they are super tough and are vermin in the tank that are everywhere. Although I have so many little predators around, honestly the badids suck at hunting them. The scuds reproduce like crazy and truly a bane in most of the planted tank hobby. Once they are in the tank it is almost impossible to get rid of them. It might be a good thing in a cichlid tank with a barebottom, but not in nature aquarium tanks where they can infest the substrate layer and boom in population.
I never took video of the daphnia swimming, but I do have them in a tub that I can try to capture. I'll try getting a video this weekend. I mean I have cultured them in the past in a bigger tub with an airstone at a slow bubble, but I never really got the best success with them. When I started I got cultures from this man who kept them outdoors in green water and the cultures were choked full of daphnia. I think he used to make the green water separately from the cultures and feed them regularly. I have them going under the stong CP lights and tried to outsmart nature and feed them using the phytoplankton that is used in the reef hobby, but it isn't as successful as I hoped. I did also culture them previously with yeast, but I don't know if it is related, I used to find some of my fish got some weird fungal infections and my paranoia made me stop feeding them with yeast. Over the past few months I have trailed off managing the culture because I found the fish don't really like the daphnia too much any more. They rather prefer the white worms.
In terms of the best animal for your purpose: Depends on kind of algae. If you have string algae that plagues many utrics and forms slimy stringy messes...I think you are better off perhaps keeping some freshwater shrimps such as amano shrimp. If you have a lot of green dust algae that makes it hazy green, daphnia/cyclops anything that is a filter feeder should do the job. I don't think you should have to worry about the shrimp feeding on the daphnia.
Sorry...I have to correct myself. I suffer with an infestation of scuds..not just the swimming copepods/cyclops. Scuds are crustaceans that are almost like cockroaches for me. They are bullet proof...they are super tough and are vermin in the tank that are everywhere. Although I have so many little predators around, honestly the badids suck at hunting them. The scuds reproduce like crazy and truly a bane in most of the planted tank hobby. Once they are in the tank it is almost impossible to get rid of them. It might be a good thing in a cichlid tank with a barebottom, but not in nature aquarium tanks where they can infest the substrate layer and boom in population.
I never took video of the daphnia swimming, but I do have them in a tub that I can try to capture. I'll try getting a video this weekend. I mean I have cultured them in the past in a bigger tub with an airstone at a slow bubble, but I never really got the best success with them. When I started I got cultures from this man who kept them outdoors in green water and the cultures were choked full of daphnia. I think he used to make the green water separately from the cultures and feed them regularly. I have them going under the stong CP lights and tried to outsmart nature and feed them using the phytoplankton that is used in the reef hobby, but it isn't as successful as I hoped. I did also culture them previously with yeast, but I don't know if it is related, I used to find some of my fish got some weird fungal infections and my paranoia made me stop feeding them with yeast. Over the past few months I have trailed off managing the culture because I found the fish don't really like the daphnia too much any more. They rather prefer the white worms.
In terms of the best animal for your purpose: Depends on kind of algae. If you have string algae that plagues many utrics and forms slimy stringy messes...I think you are better off perhaps keeping some freshwater shrimps such as amano shrimp. If you have a lot of green dust algae that makes it hazy green, daphnia/cyclops anything that is a filter feeder should do the job. I don't think you should have to worry about the shrimp feeding on the daphnia.