Daphnia

[jesper]

I am still hunting for some kind of critter that can eat algae and I just thought about having daphnia in with the newts...
I have never cultured daphnia but I know they eat algae which fits nicely into my masterplan

Are they easily cultured in a newtish environment?

 

[joeri]

I'm experimenting with daphnia myself at the moment - as food for my baby newts

Grow them in a sunny place, with algae and LOTS of oxygen (refresh water often) or as you're wondering: I have some cyclops and daphnia roaming in my aquarium as well. I don't have that much algae in my tank, but that bit seems to be enough.

An other tip for avoiding algae (testing that at the moment as well) : turn out your lightnings for 1 hour. It should mess up the algae. So if your newts have light for 8 hours, make that 4-1-4
Not sure it really helps, time will tell

greetz
joeri

ps: http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/ for more professional advise

(Message edited by Xixarro on April 10, 2004)

 

[jennifer]

Jesper, daphnia will clean out "green water" type of algae. But they won't help get rid of the kind that sticks on the glass.

 

[pin-pin]

And if you have them in the tank with the newts, they might disappear into your newt's belly.

 

[jesper]

Hehe, yeah well Pin-Pin that would be ok with me

- I just hoped that enough would survive to keep the algae down.

Jen - Exactly what I needed to know, I have some "problems"(not much really just very annoying especially when distorting the plant colour...) with these brownish algae that sticks to plants and the glass.

Joeri - When I have problems with algae I usually just put out the lights for a couple of days, but these brownish strains seems to enjoy whatever I do... I use a timer - usually 8-10 hours of light a day.

 

[joeri]

An other idea: use more floating plants, that reduces the amount of light in your tank as well. Should help. Works fine for my fish tank.

An other reason for algae may be to much current, but you probably don't have that in your newts tank.

 

[jesper]

Yeah fast-growing plants compete with algae.
Reduction of lighting doesn't do much good when combating Bacillariophyceae(the brownish algae we are talking about).

As far as I know algae isn't very fond of current, probably due to the high concentration of CO2. Strangely enough plants seem to take over when high amounts of CO2 are present even if there's enough to go around.

Btw, it seems my guppies are eating algae - Is it me hallucinating or can they use it?
I don't feed them so they might just be very hungry(they are supposed to be newt food...). It's quite strange I don't feed them but they are really fat anyway - I have fed the newts sparingly too.

 

[edward]

Hi Jesper,
Guppies and other live bearers require a fair amount of algae in the diet so this is normal behavior (anbd is good for them).
Isn't this family a type of diatom? The limiting nutrient for diatoms is usually silca as they are often more efficent at feeding than higher plants. Their growth rate allows them to overrun the plants and prevents the plants from outcompeting the diatom. As they have brown pigments they are adapted to low light situations and are better adapted than the plants to deal with it which is why reducing the light level doesn't seem to affect this algae.

There are a number of species that do just fine in higher current levels (and some species of diatom are one example) such as some types of Claudaphora.

Ed

 

[jesper]

Hi Ed,
Aha so Guppies in newt tank might be a good idea then, at least if one prefers fish waste instead of algae(waste is easily removed, algae isn't). Can guppies live strictly on algae?

Bacillariophycea = diatoms

Yes I wrote a little about these algae in a different post.

 

[edward]

hi Jesper,
I doubt the guppies are going to be able to keep up with the diatoms. You could try one of the smaller "pleco" species as these can usually knock the levels of the algae down but they will produce a lot of waste.... Guppies should have a small amount of additional food as the straight algae diet is insufficient for the best health of the fish. I thought they were diatoms..
Ed

 

[jesper]

Yeah those would be great but there is a rumour that they(algae eaters) are dangerous(their spines..) to newts if ingested, I haven't heard much to substantiate this it is one of those things that sounds reasonable so "people"(like myself hehe) keep spreading it.

It's kind of like that about apple snails being dangerous to newts thing that we got substantiated a while ago.

 

[edward]

Hi Jesper,
If the pleco is large enough that it can't be ingested then the spines would be moot. Even the small plecos I see in the pet stores are too large for any newt I have ever seen to get into their mouth.

I haven't kept an apple snail with anything ever since college when I watched one I had in an aquarium catch and eat two gold fish. I thought the first fish was a fluke and then the next day it captured the second goldfish. The snail would climb around the aqusrium and when it was above the fish it would parachute down towards the fish. Eventually it cornered the fish in the corner and proceeded to capture and devour the fish.

Ed

 

[jesper]

lol@applesnail - they seem pretty cool to me

I have also heard that big plecos/algae eaters can be aggressive to newts otherwise I would have a couple already.

Btw, I happened to get a molly together with my guppies and the molly seems to prefer to be lower down in the water column and eat more algae - just a personal observation.

Geez, the newts haven't touched the guppies yet - I bought like 10 - now I have 30-40....
One of my two mollies seem to mysteriously have disappeared though..

I'm hoping the newts will eat them simply to get rid of those little newt food stealers - I have already seen the fuzhongensis staring at them, gazes full of hatred indeed

 

[edward]

Hi Jesper,
The aggressiveness of the plecos is why I would only use small ones and just give them away (or trade them back into the pet store).
Mollies are even more herbiverous than guppies but they require some salt in the water to do really well (at least a tablespoon/gallon).
Some newts seem willing to actively chase the guppies while others totally ignore them. At work the greater sirens scarf down fish as fast as I add them to the tank while the lesser siren totally ignores them.

Ed

 

[jesper]

My newts totally ignores them...
Should probably trade my guppies for some mollies..
Crossocheilus siamensis is a good algae eater that grows to the suitable size of about 15cm, not to be confused with Epalzeorhynchos kalopterus which looks like the siamensis but doesn't eat algae(hehe).
I'm still a little bit sceptical about algae eater with newts, have had quite a bit of "wow how did that fit" experiences with waltls and earthworms...

 

[jessica]

Ok sorry to beat this subject with a dead horse...but just to clear this up. Is it ok to have an algae eater type fish in the tank with a newt? If so is this only ok for a certain "type" of newt or is it ok for any newt? Thanks

 

[edward]

Hi Jessica,
In general I would not recommend keeping most algae eaters in with newts as there is the risk of predation or harassment of the newt by the algae eater or if the algae eater was small enough being consumed by the newt with problems due to the pectoral and dorsal spines. In this specific case there is an ongoing algae problem and this was one of the possible solutions to resolve the situation. (not ideal but a possible solution).
Ed

 

[edward]

Hi Jesper,
As earthworm lack a rigid structural support system they are compressiable unlike fish... If you add the salt to the water, mollies would be a better algae feeder but I doubt they will be able to consume enough to make a difference (but as some of the genus such as the sailfin mollies can be netted from the surf they should have a better nutritional makeup).
I have seen more than a few siamese algae eaters for sale that were not the true algae eaters...
Have you considered the small ramshorn snails (Planorbis sp.)?

Ed

 

[jesper]

Hi,
On siamese algae-eaters:
http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/

Otocinclus affinis is a small algae eater ~5 cm that seem to be especially fond of diatoms..

Yeah, those(planorbia spp) are the ones the always find their way to the tank no matter what you do right?
Well yeah I love 'em - my newts love them too..
They basically stand no chance, it is like giving chocolate to pregnant women

 

[jessica]

Ok thanks Ed, just mild thoughts. I'll stay away from the algae eaters then. It's just that there's this stuff/debris that I can't get rid of that floats around when I try to clean it up. I know my tank will never be completely clean,(that would be bad for the newt anyway),but the pictures of other people's tanks makes their tanks look cleaner. Thanks again