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Previous research reported the translocation of nano‐ and microplastics from the gastrointestinal tract to tissues in Daphnia magna, most prominently of fluorescent polystyrene beads to lipid droplets. For particles >300 nm, such transfer is biologically implausible as the peritrophic membrane retains these in the daphnid gut. We used confocal laser scanning microscopy to study tissue transfer applying the setup from a previous study (neonates exposed to 20 and 1000 nm polystyrene beads at 2 µg L^–1 for 4 and 24 h), the same setup with a fructose‐based clearing, and a setup with a 1000‐fold higher concentration (2 mg L^–1). We used passive sampling to investigate whether the beads leach the fluorescent dye. Although the 1000 nm beads were visible in the gut at both exposure concentrations, the 20 nm beads were detectable at 2 mg L^–1 only. At this concentration, we observed fluorescence in lipid …