PROPAGATING DAPHNIA 



JOHN L. BENNINGTON 



AN ATTRACTIVE HOUSEHOLD AQUARIUM 



Photograph by George H. Seip 



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When the subject of raising Daphne is 

 broached, the goldfish breeder smiles 

 merrily. From his viewpoint, it can't be 

 done, he uses too vast a quantity. Now 

 Daphne can be propagated, and in quan- 

 tity, but not with the facilities possessed 

 by the average city goldfish fancier. It 

 is entirely a matter of adequate pond 

 space and food. The Japanese do it, but 

 they devote, in some cases, as much space 

 as to the fish. This is considerable, be- 

 cause a fish pond in Japan will sometimes 

 have a surface area of more than 150 

 square yards ! 



The food of Daphne is mainly the 

 smaller green algae and diatoms. If 

 these can be supplied we can breed it. 

 In nature they reproduce rapidly, very 

 rapidly, in fact, it has been calculated 

 that the progeny of a single female 

 Dahpnia pulex, in a period of sixty days, 

 might number 13,000,000,000. This be- 

 cause the young develop rapidly and are 

 themselves soon producing eggs. 



Barring the Japanese, most articles 



dealing with Daphne breeding have been 

 written by fanciers of exotic fishes. I 

 know of no successful experiments that 

 have yielded sufficient water-fleas to feed 

 a thousand, yes, even a hundred, goldfish 

 to an age of six months. It could be 

 done, but not without large pond space. 

 Various writers have in the past out- 

 lined their methods of culture. Myers, 

 starting in September, raised sufficient 

 throughout the winter to supply a dozen 

 goldfish with a liberal feed once a week. 

 He used a twelve-gallon aquarium, in 

 which he placed about a quart of Spiro- 

 gyra and Cladophora (filamentous alga?, 

 commonly called "frog-spit." These or 

 allied species are usually abundant in 

 swamp waters). These algae grew and 

 furnished the young and old Daphne with 

 abundant food. Brind advises the use of 

 quart preserving jars, having a bottom 

 of soil and containing bits of plants. A 

 large number of jars are prepared, and 

 the "bugs" used from them in rotation. 

 Gage uses a porcelain-lined kitchen sink, 



