DAPHNIA FETCHING TRIP
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Daphnia Is The Best Fry's Food
I feed my free swimming frys solely with daphnia. Fry's survival rate is high and grow pretty fast. Therefore, I highly recommend daphnia as fry food. However, some hobbyist complained daphnia is not available at their local fish shop. Although daphnia could be home cultured but the quantity yield is very little. The best way is to fetch yourself. I believe some hobbyist may wish to know how to fetch daphnia. So, allow me to share my experience with you.

Tool
These are the tool I use for daphnia fetching. A daphnia net with 10 feet long foldable hander and a pail to put the daphnia. Very simple right. Daphnia only appear on water surface early in the morning. When the Sun arises, they will submerge into water. So, I have to wake up 7:00a.m. early in the morning and go to the daphnia pond with my antique motorbike which has accompanied me for more than 20 years.
Location
The best place to fetch daphnia is sewage plant as it contain a lot of waste as daphnia food. When I reach the pond, some people already there. Nowadays, people are really "kia su" i.e. afraid to lose. Perhaps, next time I have to wake up 6:00a.m. and use torch light to fetch daphnia. The picture showed how people is fetching daphnia. The fully extended daphnia net hander is about 10 feet long so that it could reach the daphnia easily. As you can see, the daphnia pond border is sloppy and the water is deep. It is even dangerous to me. So, I would like to warn you especially kid not to go there without companion.
Closer Look
The red patches on the water surface are daphnia. I like windy day as the wind will blow daphnia to a corner and make them highly concentrated. I could fill up the pail with only few net if it is windy.

Without strong wind, they will scatter around. As such, it takes longer time to harvest daphnia.
Beware
Some ponds contain rocket daphnia which is harmful to betta frys. Its shape is like letter "A", able to swim faster and live longer in tank then normal daphnia.

It will attack betta frys by biting their tail. Betta fry will struggle to get rid of rocket daphnia. If they failed, they will die.

So, it is good practice to examine rocket daphnia by putting a small amount into a transparent container before feeding your fry.
Good Harvest
Today is windy. It only took me five minutes to fill up the pail. As you can see, the pail is without water. So, I have to quickly bring it back for cleaning and feeding.

Usually, when I reach home. Top half is still alive. The bottom half is dead. I feed the live one to my betta. The dead one will be packed and keep in cold storage. When live daphnia is not available. I will feed my betta with frozen daphnia.
Washing & Cleaning
Beside daphnia, the pond also contain other live creatures like dragon fly larva, mosquito larva, water spider and etc. These creatures are betta fry eater. Therefore, washing and cleaning is a must.

Put a fine net on top of daphnia net. Pour the daphnia into the fine net and wash it with tap water. The predators and other rubbish will be filtered out by the fine net. Daphnia will flow through the fine net and capture in the daphnia net.
Feeding
Now,the daphnia is clean and fresh. It is time for feeding. Remember not to overfeed your betta with daphnia. It is only able to live in water for around two days. Majority will die in first day. The dead daphnia will cloud the water easily.