Daphnia for Fish Nursery: Development of an indigenous method to culture Daphnia in order to supplement planktonic biomass to young ones of Indian major carp

Shortage of fish seed is major constraint in Fish culture. Although the The production has been increased in terms of hatchlings but their poor survival is one of the major problems. Lack of suitable live food is major factor for mortality. In rural area where farmers are not much equipped with technology and resources, they depend largely on indigenous method. The authors have tried to develop an indigenous method to culture Daphnia to provide feed the larval size fish. The method involves the use of locally available poultry litter, Goat dung and cow dung which is very easily available in each rural family of Chhattisgarh. As these family either have local poultry variety,goat or cattle in their house.So these organic manures can easily be digested and releases the nutrients which can be very useful in production of phytoplankton consumed by zooplanktons and multiply rapidly which are ultimately consumed by young ones of fishes. On this hypothesis authors had tried to evolve an indigenous method to culture Daphnia.