Are these daphnia?

[dustin]

Ok, i have a large bin of water in which i was going to propagate aquatic plants in. at the moment its in the house and i might be moving it outside or dumping it, but at the moment its serving as a live food culture for my bettas.

In the beginning i walked by and noticed mosquito larvae. I scoop 95% of them out, divide them up and dump them in my betta tanks and they have them gone within a minute, fun to watch them because sometimes they don't get eaten on the first bite so i get to watch my bettas chase them . and i know they are safe because there are no chemicals, these are also in clear water just without movement, i might be adding a sponge filter or something to it soon though.

Today i noticed something different in the bin. I was going to assume they were daphnia, but do they appear with no culture? The tank was inside the house so I'm wondering were they came from. Or are they older mosquito larvae that i should probably feed to my bettas asap?

What they look like are a small little ball on one end and a little tail that is directly below them that they swim with.

All this bin has in it is old fish tank water, and maybe a little dirt/perlite, but not to an extreme, could there have been dormant eggs in the media for the daphnia to start? Also these are water fleas right? they don't leave to water like the mosquito larvae do. so i should get the mosquito larvae out first.

Any thoughts? sorry the pic isn't that close up, I'm actually surprised it came out as good as it did.

 

[Not a Number]

It's a mosquito larva. Daphnia don't have tails and are transluscent.

 

[dustin]

Oh, thanks then i guess its going to become betta food now

 

[jimscott]

 

[amphirion]

^^if that were a t-shirt i would totally buy it!

 

[dustin]

^^if that were a t-shirt i would totally buy it!

haha that would be cool, though people would wonder what was on your shirt

Thanks for the pic jimscott, i looked closely able to see better with my eyes, i saw striping on the tail that was similar to the longer mosquito larvae, i was just a little confused because i had never seen one look like that before. I did wind up emptying the container after feeding tons of them larvae to the bettas they seemed to enjoy them very much

 

[Woodnative]

That is the mosquito pupae.........in between larvae and adult. They can still swim if disturbed.

 

[Ghost Writer]

Daphina are actually baby brine shrimp, you normally can buy the eggs in a a small bottle to hatch yourself... i've tried raising them in the past when i had two breeding puffers, but can tell you its a real PITA to get a culture going not to mention they don't live very long...

 

[Clue]

Daphina are actually baby brine shrimp...

How come my daphnia never turn into brine shrimp then?

 

[amphirion]

Ghost Writer, daphnia are NOT baby brine shrimp, they are both crustaceans, but are in different genre. daphnia are strictly freshwater where as brine shrimp are saltwater.

Daphnia: Genus Daphnia / Ceriodaphnia
Brine Shrimp: Genus Artemia
Hence, not the same species.

 

[Ghost Writer]

^ My bad... got my translations mixed up trying to work out Chinese - English...