WHERE CAN CULTURE DAPHNIA

Daphnia are undemanding in terms of what you culture them in. I personally culture them in 4 (3.4 US) gallon plastic crates because I don't have the space for multiple aquaria. Many people like to use children's blow-up paddling pools (I've used these in the past with great success), but what you keep them in is really up to you. There are some things to bear in mind though when selecting containers:

• Is the container made of a material that won't dissolve in water, and/or leech chemicals into the water (some plastics, particularly polypropylene do this)?
• If you use a metal container, stainless steel is the safest because many metals will react slowly with water over time (e.g. Aluminium oxidises to form a skin of aluminium oxide, but small amounts of aluminium are released into the water).
• Just like ordinary aquaria, it is desireable to have as high a surface area to volume ratio as possible to ensure that there is good gaseous exchange (though not very demanding, Daphnia appreciate a good oxygen supply).
• If you're keeping the "tank" outside in strong sunlight or with heavy illumination around, it is a good idea to use a container larger than 10 gallons as the water temperature will fluctuate less markedly, thus providing greater stability for the culture. It is also important when putting a container in strong light that it isn't a dark colour (especially black), because as you probably know, dark colours produce more heat in the light than white or yellow containers.

For someone who only wants a modest amount of Daphnia per week, cultures can be maintained in two litre bottles. For an aquarium, a light bulb in the lid which is on a timer makes it easy to keep indoors (you can get timers from electrical shops or from good aquaria outlets). I have found that Daphnia magna likes gentle aeration. In theory this would seem to be a good idea for all daphnia as it not only helps increase gaseous exchange at the surface of the water, and it also helps stabilise the water conditions and acts against culture-fouling. However, I have found that although Daphnia pulex does better with aeration, very gentle aeration seems to be the key. Airstones should be avoided, since fine bubbles can lodge inside the carapaces of daphnia, floating them to the surface and also preventing them from feeding, and eventually resulting in death (Artemia also suffer from this problem)

Sumber: http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/