moina

["Ed Pon" <edpon@hotmail.com>]

The following is cut and pasted from the aquatic plants forum on the 
topic of moina.  Moina sounds like it has good possibilities as a live 
food for apistos (which is why I have been trying to locate some).

beginning of paste:
Mike Variano wrote:

I know this ins't the right place for this question, but
with all this talk about green water and daphnia I had to
ask. Does anyone have or know where to get Moina? it's very
similiar to Daphnia, but has lots of advantages. According
to my microalgae culture manual anyway.

Hi Mike!

A friend of mine once cultured Moina. He kept it solely
as a fish food. I'll tell you, I have never seen fish in such
beautiful colors as was his. It is well known fact Moina
poseses the highest protein content of all commonly available
and cultured critters. There are several advantages of raising
Moina as opposed to other Daphnia varieties. One of the
most important is surely abundance of proteins(75% of dry
matter)and amino acids for which we know are not stable
and usually break down within hours of the death of the host
(daphnia) in our case. Resistance to extreme temperatures is
another (it will do well from 5 to 35 degrees Celsius).In  fact one
can easily keep them in the fridge for a few days. They will be
just fine perhaps a bit hungry :-) that is all. There are other
advantages which I can elaborate on, if there is more people
interested.
I have heard, that more and more commercial fish hatcheries
are using Moina as opposed to brine shrimp.
Since I moved from Vancouver, I have lost contact with the
above mentioned friend, but I'd love to get my hands on a
small culture.

Franc Gorenc           Kitchener, Ontario

end of paste

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