[Peter Finke]

As far as I know there are no saltwater Moina and surely no Moina cysts. This is obviously a short but wrong way of speaking among aquarists. Some of them in our country have formerly called the Moina macrocarpa “freshwater Artemia”. That’s the same nonsense vice versa and only means that there is a species of very small and easy to grow live food (Moina) that in some respect (easy and fast breeding, smallness, the youngest as small as Artemia naupliae) resembles Artemia but with the big advantage that they live in fresh water and not in salt water. There are Artemia cysts easily to be boxed and bought, but there is not the same with Moina. There are no “permanent eggs” (cysts) boxed in tins or cans and sold in the shop. The whole biology is totally different. It’s a totally different organism. More like Daphnia or Bosmina, but different from them, too.
The point is that our Parosphromenus very much like the soft Moina and rather dislike the hard Daphnia. And the breeding of Moina resembles that of Daphnia, but is different also. The most striking difference is that Daphnia like oxygen-rich clear water, whereas the Moina like less oxygen-rich water which is often not clear at all but full of nutrients. The reproduction can be very fast. Every two or three days you can feed all your Paros with Moina of all stages. But often the reproduction will not work, too. That depends on the very different biology of Moina if compared with Daphnia. one must learn it but then it’s easy. In any case it is highly recommended to try to get them and to use them. Paros will thrive.
Fortunately, in a former mail here an British address was mentioned. And I just received a mail by our new member Dr. Stephen Simkins from Western Massachusetts, a micro biologist, who told me that “Carolina Biological” (I don’t know what that is exactly) sell Moina cultures in the U.S.
My last recommendation is to attend our first international Meeting of the Parosphromenus-Project at the end of September 2013 in Hamburg, Germany. At least ten species of licorice gouramis could be bought there, and Moina!