Feeding live Daphnia to discus?

[Ben]

The weather is starting to warm up here in Melbourne, and i was ltalking to a lady at my LFS and in the next month she will have a large, constistant supply of live daphnia.
So this got me thinking as i have never fed it to my fish before, and bieng a fresh water creature will it be ok to feed to discus?

Just wondered if it can carry parasites that can be transmitted to the fish, kinda like live black worms.


Any feed back would be great!
Cheers,

Ben

[Merrilyn]

Ben, years ago we used to get live daphnia all the time. It's wonderful fun for the fish to catch, and the advantage is that they stay alive in the tank until eaten. Any fish that doesn't chase and eat live daphnia, is very sick indeed.

Only problem with them is, in large quantities they can have a laxative effect, so they should only be fed as part of a balanced diet.

You can raise your own daphnia, in a pond or large tank outside with lots of green water.

Let me know when you get some Ben. I'd love to get hold of some myself.

[Ben]

Thanks Merrilyn,

The lady at the LFS around the corner from me says every spring and summer she gets it by the bucket load (she breeds various goldfish and has many ponds).
In a months time daphnia season will start to take off as the weather warms up.

I will let you know when she gets it,

Thanks again,

Ben

[sammigold]

a friend of mine at work was telling me he used to collect daphnia at a lake in a park in Moonee ponds. He'd take it home and keep it in a barrell in full sunlight to keep it alive. He said his discus went mad on it. They loved it. He would get up early on a sunday morning and go to this park to collect it. ( the things we do for our fish!! :lol: :lol: )

[blackwater spa]

One time I bought a bag of daphnia from an aquarium shop and luckily for my fish, I happened to notice a fish louse swimming merrily together with all the daphnia, just as I was about to open the bag and pour the daphnia together with the fish louse (and who knows how many fish lice children) into my fishtank thinking I was giving my fish a treat...

:(

I'd write what I did to the captured fish louse but the RSPCA might object...