Daphnia vs BBS

[bluesky5683]

has anyone try to feed their fry with daphnia? are they better then BBS? will any disease carry when them if I feed my fry with daphnia?

[dishpanhands]

I start my fish on BBS then i switch them to daphnia when they need a little bigger food. It is just a little bigger then BBS. I stick to name brand that way it will be clean.

[bluesky5683]

u mean name brand for daphnia or BBS? which brand is good for BBS and daphnia?

[dishpanhands]

I only feed name brand of both foods.

[bluesky5683]

I mean live daphnia and BBS! can you recommand me some good brand for both live food?

[dishpanhands]

BBs you can hatch your self, and you can get different brands. as for the Daphnia I use frozen and after they get to eating live BBS I switch then to frozen on that also. And I always use
Hikari frozen food, but thats what I can get...HTH

[dishpanhands]

Just to be sure we are on the same page you are goimg to feed this to new born fish aren't you? this stuff is too small for anything else. some call 2" fish fry

[bluesky5683]

yes, I am gonna feed to the new born baby!

[Peachtree Discus]

i'm totally inline with dishpan. bbs then daphnia.

with newborns, i would think that daphnia would be a bad substitute for bbs. IME, newborns are not very aggressive eaters and daphnia can be messy if not eaten. i tend to think of live bbs as helping them learn to take food rather than eat of the parents and use daphnia to help them transition to other foods.

[bluesky5683]

i'm totally inline with dishpan. bbs then daphnia.

with newborns, i would think that daphnia would be a bad substitute for bbs. IME, newborns are not very aggressive eaters and daphnia can be messy if not eaten. i tend to think of live bbs as helping them learn to take food rather than eat of the parents and use daphnia to help them transition to other foods.

so were you feeding live daphnia or frozen? cause I was thinking to feed live one but I am afraid they will carry some disease with them!

[dishpanhands]

If your going to catch the Daphnia in the wild I'd say no. If it is a culture that you are keeping in doors then I would say go for it..

[bluesky5683]

I was thinking to buy some culture from online! is that safe?

[dishpanhands]

If you keep them inside they will be fine..

[dishpanhands]

You don't want bird dropings or bugs to get in it..

[bluesky5683]

do u know how to keep them alive?

[dishpanhands]

Nope I don't have room for them...If there is a tank of water in my house it has discus in it....LOL

[Peachtree Discus]

i have only used frozen daphnia.

[mikesmac]

Hello Bluesky,

Discus fry will normally continue to eat BBS until they are quite large as long as they continue to get it, even if it is alternated with other foods. Once you stop giving it to them and they are used to only getting larger foods, then they seem to forget that the BBS is food and it just becomes debris in the water.

I've never dealt with Daphnia so I don't know what the advantages or disadvantages are with it but the risk of introducing unwanted critters to fry with BBS is supposedly nil because it is a saltwater organism and freshwater critters will not live in the salt water environment that the BBS eggs originate from.

There is one well know breeder, I believe it is Andrew Soh but don't have my book in front of me to check right now, that feeds his discus BBS and Brine shrimp pretty much exclusively so as to not introduce any unwanteds to his stock.

Mike