Water Fleas are not fleas. They are Crustaceans (like crabs and woodlice).

They are tiny but just big enough to see. You need a microscope to see them properly.

  

Daphnia water fleas swim in a jerky way and look as though they are jumping. Fish and newts love eating them.

Dapnia eat algae by filtering water
dapnia dapnia-volvox
All water fleas eat tiny, floating green plants called algae. The plants are too small to see without a microscope but so common they often turn pond-water green Daphnia's name comes from the Greek story about the naiad Daphne. Naiads are spirits who lived in ponds or streams. In this mosaic picture Daphne is being turned into a bush by the Goddess Gaia to escape from the God Apollo who is chasing her.
euglena dapne & Apollo
Cyclops Water Fleas have only one eye. The females carry their eggs in two sacks The Greek monster Cyclops had only one eye
Cyclops cyclops
Cypris water fleas ave shells that cover their head as well as their body. If tey are disturbed, they close both halves of the shell and wait until they think it is safe to start swimming again.
Cypris is another name for Aprodite - the Greek Goddess of Love. She was born in the sea and is usually shown in a seashell - maybe that is why the water fleas that are born in a shell got given her name.
  
Cypris

 

Cypris

  

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