# Daphnia with shrimp?



## Fishlover02

Would it be possible to culture daphnia in a shrimp tank? I mean, in reference to my 10g cherry shrimp tank, the tank is well balanced, so that wouldn't be an issue, there's no microbubbles to get into the daphnia (I heard that can be a problem before) in the tank, and the shrimp wouldn't eat them. Thoughts?


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## Fishfur

I think you'd have to try it and see how it worked out. Bubbles from a sponge filter don't seem to bother them, at least, not that I've noticed.. I haven't seen any floaters using a sponge filter, but I also make sure the uplift tube is just barely below the water surface, so bubbles don't go into the water column.

I would wonder whether feeding them with shrimp in there might be an issue. You have to feed them either green water or dissolved baker's yeast, or else have enough infusoria and bacteria in the water column to support them. Those last two are not so easy to arrange. I don't think yeast or green water would bother shrimp much, unless you overfeed it. That is where I have had some problems.

I think I have fed too much at one time to the daphnia I've tried to raise. This can cause big problems, so I read, by consuming too much oxygen from the water column, thus killing the daphnia, which is what happened to mine. If it kills daphnia, I'm guessing it might kill shrimp as well. 

I would also wonder if shrimp would eat the resting eggs daphnia can produce, which sink to the bottom of the tank where shrimp forage. Not at all sure about that, but I'd wonder.


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## Splak

I have about 20-40 of them running around my 10g tank right now. With my Carbon rili's, not sure how I got them. But, they seem to be thriving and reproducing pretty fast.

They get along with the shrimp well, don't bother the babies.

I have a sponge filter with about 1" of water over the top of the inlet tube, and the surface is covered is a huge mass of duckweed.

So far so well, I don't think you should have much of a problem!


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## igor.kanshyn

*I would not keep them together*

I have had daphnia living in my shrimp tank for 2-3 week.

It was couple of years ago, I was leaving a house and decided to split my daphnia colony to increase their chances to survive my absence. I had a dirty shrimp tank at that time, so I put couple of dozens of daphnia in.
When I come back in a week, daphnia were there, but it was not a lot. It made sense, because nobody was feeding them. I observed daphnia swimming in the tank for the next two weeks until the last one starved to death. I was not feeding them.

Here the thing, daphia needs a food swimming in a water column. Shrimp tank needs a filter. Even a simple sponge filter will clean tank water in couple of hours and your poor *daphnia will have no food again*.

It's possible to carefully feed daphnia every day with a green water (floating algae), but it's not easy to have that algae constantly growing.
It's also possible to feed daphnia with yeast in a shrimp tank, but that will make it quite dirty. I'm also not sure that shrimps will gee healthier eating all that yeast that will be collected on the filter.


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## Fishlover02

I think I'll refrain from trying to culture them in my shrimp tank, and stick to my plan of either a tank inside for them, ro a big bin outside in the summer. I don't want to risk my shrimp's health afterall!


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## igor.kanshyn

Daphnia is easy to keep, no tank needed (just use a bucket), no filter needed ..
I agree with Fishlover02, do not risk your shrimps tank for it.


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