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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?
Here’s a progress report:
I can’t see a ‘preview’ button here, so I’m trusting to luck that the link will work!
This culture is in an unheated tank next to a window. They’re fed, so far, with phytoplankton powder and gram flour. They have a couple of apple snails and a couple of ramshorn snails for company (and for extra infusoria!).
The tank was originally uncovered but I took your advice, Helene, and made a cover from acrylic sheet. I’m not convinced about the need for strong light, though – mainly becuase the phytoplankton are dead. I guess if the Moina were relying on living, photosynthesising food then good lighting would be significant factor? Or am I missing something?!
Actually … just to make sure, I’ll try culturing some of the phytoplankton powder and see if anything appears to wake up!
Hello Everyone
Well, I have some news (reference the paragraph to Bill in my message #1146)!
Whereas Carolina Biological refused to ship Moina cultures to me, they did so willingly to their UK agent – Blades Biological. In turn, BB sent them on to me. As a result, I now have some Moina!
They arrived on Saturday and in surprisingly good health. Not only are they still alive, they seem to have increased in number on a staple diet of horse poo!
So long as I confirm with them, in due course, that the cultures remain healthy, Blades Biological seem willing to repeat the exercise – not only for me (should my cultures collapse at some point) but also for any interested UK fishkeepers.
Latest news …
I’ve had an e-mail back from Blades Biological Ltd. saying:
“Carolina do stock living cultures of Moina. Within my next monthly order which I shall place on the 15th October I will try and order one in for you.
The price would be £8.70 per culture.”I’ve said “yes” of course and await to see if their attempt to import is successful.
Hello Threadmates!
Thank you all for your various replies so far.
@ Helene. I know that my use of the word ‘cysts’ is inexact and that I should properly be using the term ‘ephippia’, i.e. the eggs that Cladocera produce in adverse conditions. With multi-layered cell walls, they give their parent species the chance of surviving periods of cold or drought. I’m positive we both understand this.
However the term ‘ephippium’ is not understood by fishkeeping hobbyists and isn’t used in conversations between the trade and hobbyists (not in the English language anyway!). Instead, the term ‘cyst’ is used – presumably because of its familiarity in other contexts.
Ephippia of Moina salina are pretty easy to get hold of – they’re (relatively) widely cultured by marine fishkeepers. I feed Artemia occasionally to my other fish and I wash them several times in RO/DI water before feeding : in that context it doesn’t matter too much if not all of the salt is washed out. However, I’m slightly worried about incomplete washing if I were to feed to Paros, given the narrow conductivity tolerances (apparently) involved. Hence my search for ‘freshwater’ Moina as a preference. Again, rightly or wrongly, some tradespeople do seem to make a distinction between ‘freshwater’ and ‘saltwater’ Moina. Maybe I’ll come back to that when I get to Peter’s reply.
@Little. Yes – I had an exchange with Florida Aqua Farms about a week ago. They said : “we do not carry them in cyst form so we could not ship”. From here (UK) I haven’t so far been able to trace other commercial outlets in the US that sell Moina, so I’m extraordinarily glad of your attention and presence ‘on the ground’, so to speak!
re Carolina Biological : now there’s a coincidence! Getting nowhere with my enquiries, I tried a little sideways thinking which led me to contact one or two fish-farming outlets and a trade body ; and also companies that specialise in selling biological supplies to schools etc. One of the latter was Blades Biological Ltd. Its reply to my enquiry came in with the subject header: ‘Carolina Information’. This baffled me until I read that they “are proud to be the UK official supplier for Carolina Biological Supply! Anyway, their reply was: “Thanks for your email. I am afraid it is quite difficult to import living cultures, there are so many restrictions. However leave it with me and I shall make some enquires [sic]”.
@Paul. [Great to hear, btw, that your bintanarrived safely and in good health. I’ll reply to your e-mail when I’ve completed arrangements re my opallios]. Thanks for your links. I’d looked at the first two. Livefishfood said: ” Hi Andy Sorry only Bloodworms, Daphnia or River Shrimps”. My PC won’t display any contact details for TropicalAquatica, so I wasn’t able to progress that.
I hadn’t come across your third link, though. I’ll certainly give them a bell later today and see what they say. Biggleswiggle isn’t too far away from me here so, in the unlikely event of a miracle happening, it would be quite convenient. [Edt : just phoned and they’re not replying. Will try again later].
@Peter. My reading has led me to believe that the Moinidae are taxonomically identified as being a family within the order Cladocera (as are the Daphniidae) one of the features of which is the ability to form ephippia. I could very well be wrong, of course!
The final paragraph of this document seems to support my understanding.
I’ve come across many references to ephippia in Moina – this or this for example – and I know that I can buy them from commercial outlets that supply the marine hobby (as I mentioned above). I’m not comparing the biologies of Artemia with Moina – many apologies if I’ve given you that impression ; the only relevant biology in this context is the ability of both Daphnia and Moina to form ephippia.
So (again from my reading and interpreting what you have written) it appears we may have a number of ‘freshwater’ species of Monidae. Some/most/all of them can survive in saltwater of various salinities. If that’s the case, it may follow that I should, in fact, be able to source ephippia of (say) Moina salina and successfully rear them in freshwater! That would be a good result! Do you think it’s worth giving it a try and seeing what happens?
Do you remember what was the ‘British address’ that you referred to – will I find it if I search the site for ‘Moina’ ?
All Best to everyone
Andy
Hi Paul
(Did you get my reply, 5th Sep,to your e-mail, btw?)
After it had become apparent, to me anyway, that getting hold of Paros was going to be difficult, I started digging around with the assumption that Continental Europe was going to be the source.
Eventually I dug down to the Fish Health Inspectorate – a substratum of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science … itself a division of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The upshot is that, so long as one has authorisation from the FHI, via an application form coded as AAH2, and so long as the animals are packed so to avoid health issues in transit, then one can bring them into the UK from the EU without even mandatorily presenting them at the border for inspection.
My plan was (or will be) to undertake a Eurostar trip to collect whatever specimens might make themselves available within reasonable distance/time. My ‘contact’ at the DHI, who had to slog through my explanations of what I was envisaging, didn’t seem to think that authorisation would be a particular difficulty.
Thanks everso for your Fish Hut link – I will surely investigate! I don’t ‘do’ Facebook (etc.) so I’d appreciate his e-mail address. It’d be good, though, to try to get hold of species that aren’t well-represented over here already?
Best
Andy
(Vale! has an exclamation mark – it’s Latin!)
I’m so sorry to hear that you have to abandon your work with Paros.
I would really like to be part of this : we need some/most/all of these fish in the UK, where Paros seem as rare as hens’ teeth (or rocking horse … droppings if you prefer that analogy!).
I have committed myself to keeping Paros but sourcing them has been a problem. Also a problem is the fact that, so far as Paros are concerned, I am a beginner ; judging from what you wrote, Hugues, this puts me out of the running! However, I am not an inexperienced keeper of soft/acidic water fish and I am confident that I can supply the correct conditions for them. Actually I would be able to take some Paros now (if I could find them!) but I have designed the system that I would like to use as a permanent care/breeding setup and have been standing ready to build it as-and-when the promise of some fish came along. I would need several months to get that system together, so the timescale that you mention is happily just right!
Another problem is that I envisage keeping just two species to start with : from the list that you published, P. ornaticauda ; and P. bintan are on my list of species to look out for.
However, if it would be permitted that I receive these two species, my system (once built and running) would allow me to take temporary custody of all four species that you list. I would then be prepared to act as distributor for any UK Project members who wished to take the balance of the species and/or individuals. But, of course, I would have to be certain that they’d have UK homes to go to beforehand!
So:
a) Does the fact of my being a beginner really rule me out of contention completely? If not …
b) Are there Project Members in the UK who would like to co-operate and take some of the fish?Of course I am aware that there will almost certainly be better-qualified Paros-keepers near to you on mainland Europe but I wanted to register my strong interest in response to your message, just in case …
All best
Andy
(Vale! is my username on tropicalfishforums.co.uk where I am a member of the moderating team)
