The ghost of a Daphnia culture

[Becca]

A couple of weeks ago we lost power for a whole day and, with it, went my Daphnia culture.

I have been some combination of busy, sick, and lazy, so I never broke down the tank. I peered in there this morning and was surprised at what I saw.

The sides of the tank are coated with small, whitish, worms and some little jumpy things (infusoria?). There are also strange "swimming" worms that seem to wriggle towards the top of the water and a monster rams horn snail who has grown fat and large on the carpet of sludge growing over the myriad Daphnia carcasses. No clue where he came from.

Any idea what the various worms and itty-bitty-creepy-crawlies might be?

Are they probably safe to harvest and feed to fish?

 

[chriscoli]

The jumpy things are probably copepods, which fish will eat with relish. Don't know about the worms, but also probably some sort of detritivore. I'd offer a few and see if they want them.

My daphnia culture nearly crashed for a similar reason.....the airline tubing fell out and I didn't notice for about a day. There are a few left that I'm hoping can repopulate the culture.

 

[thedavidzoo]

Hah, I just posted a question on the worms in my daphnia tank minutes ago. I was wondering what they were and if they were safe to feed the fish. We'll see what the experts say.

 

[JLW]

Think about it this way... What would make them "unsafe?"

They'd have to parasites of some sort, right? Well, if they're parasites, where did they come from and what have they been eating?

Therefore, they're not parasites, and most likely safe.

Keep the culture going, and you may also see Daphnia shortly. They produce resting eggs for "Just such an occasion."

 

[Frank Cowherd]

Harvesting such worms can be time consuming. You might instead put a couple fish you want to fatten up in the tank with the worms. If they are on the glass, ancistrus will make them disappear. Gouramis do a good job on cleaning up live stuff in the tank. Most cichlids should also.

 

[Grundsau]

I've heard them called Dario worms.