# How to culture daphnia?



## It'sJames (Nov 15, 2007)

I collected some daphnia from a local source a couple days ago, and I would like to culture them so I have a steady supply for my bettas and DPs. What's the best way to keep them? Will they reproduce on their own?
I was thinking I would use a 10 gallon with an aerator and maybe a DIY sponge filter. Will this be alright, or would the sponge filter suck the smaller ones in? What should I feed them?


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## blueblue48 (Dec 18, 2006)

LOOOL! i accidentily got them from an LFS, now i have hundreds and hundreds of them in a 10 gallon! i dont even try and the reproduce like mad. its got a regular HOB filter, no sponge, and a small heater. i feed mine an algae disc once every 3 or 4 days depending on how much they eat.


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## It'sJames (Nov 15, 2007)

Lucky.... I hope mine will take off like that. I'm trying to move them from a 10 gallon with icky pond critters and duck weed to a clean 1.5 gallon. There must be a better way... it's taking me forever to just get a couple dozen in there. Maybe I shouldn't be so cheap - buying a culture would be way easier.


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## Flashygrrl (Jan 18, 2008)

lol, most starter cultures on aquabid are like $10-15 for 500+.....probably safer too. Some have free shipping. You could always put a wanted up in the classified too


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## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

Everything you need to know about culturing Daphnia. This is the first thing that comes up on Google if you search Daphnia Culture. However, I would not have thought to do so had not this very link been posted on the forum for the aquarium society to which I belong.

http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/


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