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Brineshrimp versus Daphnia


carla

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With my Daphnia culture going great I wondered if anybody has ever compared the food value of brineshrimp versus Daphnia for feeding fry.

Everybody is dead keen on the brineshrimp which seem just another thing one has to attend to, while the Daphnia do it all themselves!

So I wondered if anybody ever did a comparison?

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I don't know scientically but I would suspect daphnia would be about equivalent to adult brine shrimp which would make newly hatched nuplii better than both because they have the adition of the unused yolk sac. I feed small daphnia to larger fry as well as brine shrimp nuplii and microworm-- that way it is hard to go wrong.

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I bought some sieves in Germany years ago. They are just square plastic with different mesh sizes in the bottom.

I am sure they were originally for Artemia not Daphnia - but work just as well!

artemiasieb.jpg

They are also available in sets:

siebsatz.jpg

The sieves are (in mm):

0,18

0,30

0,56

0,90

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HANDS wrote

I have feed bbs and daphina in the same tank (bbs to fry & daphina to the parents) and I'm 99% sure the daphina were eating the bbs. Surly this would be the SUPER SNACK for fish

Well I'm 100% sure this happens HANDS, I use this trick to get large amount of bbs into the belly's of my Adult pairs of Apisto's. :wink:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All

I will always stand to be corrected by "experts";

but a "CAWTHRON INSTITUTE" report on our (NZ Produced) Brine Shrimp as opposed to Rotifers, Daphnia and other fresh water "foods" state that;

The nutritional value of "NEWLY HATCHED"....................

Brine Shrimp:

Protein............80%

Fat.................1.5%

Fibre...............4.8%

Daphnia:

Protein............52%

Fat...................8%

Fibre...............6.9%

NOTE:

Too much Daphnia can keep fish thin due to the amount of roughage in it's constitution.

Both foods are there to complement each other.

Daphnia is a natural resource while Brine Shrimp is a "MAN MADE" super food for the hobby.

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HI All.

Alanmin4303, I understood that the decapsulated form were not as nutrious as newly hatched live nauplii. :oops:

It was something to do with the chemicals used in the decapsulating process. :roll:

They are easier to feed as you just have to soak them for a bit and then feed them; not as time consuming as hatching your BBS, but for the food value I'll personally stick with the newly hatched product. :wink:

:bow:

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Amazonian you may be correct. I tend to think a fish would prefer live food and they are also more "in the face" because they are swimming rather than sitting on the bottom. I have bought some from a different source and have also decapsulated some eggs that did not hatch well. Still prefer the live ones from the coke bottle trick.

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The only decap b/s eggs that will hatch come in a concentrated brine solution, to keep them dehydrated and are expensive.

Any decap that come at that price and free-flow ( that is not in a brine solution ) have been decap'ed at a higher temperature then the shrimp can survive = they are non-hatching.

As for weather they are better or not I suppose depends on what your feeding.

I use both hatched and decap.

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