Right – I did my little investigation. The result is here.
As you can see,the rehydrated powder was full of life and much of that was composed of photosynthesising creatures. Light is therefore significant, if not for the Moina themselves then for the maintenance of their food supply – of which the ZM stuff provides a concentration.
For ‘instant’ fry food I use Protogen pellets which provide an abundance of infusoria. ZM provides some (apart from the single-cell algae) but not nearly as much, it appears. Still, it’s useful to know that it could be used in an emergency!
One aspect of the Protogen, incidentally, is that it’s packed with nitrates and phosphates (inter alia) – so maybe that would mean it wouldn’t necessarily be suitable as a source of infusoria for Paros fry?