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Help with daphnia moina

1044 Views 4 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  lainealex, 
lainealex
I am really desperate for some help with culturing daphnia moina. I have a large colony of licorice gouramis who don't eat too many live foods well, and daphnia moina is their favorite. I also have six juvenile dwarf puffers who eat only snails and moina despite all my best efforts.

However, my moina cultures crash constantly, and now, in the dead of winter, I can't really get any cultures going at all. I have been working at this since early last summer, so I have tried with maybe thirty different starter cultures. I place the cultures in a five gallon bucket with green water, a gentle airstone, a compact fluoro light, and feed yeast daily or else spirulina.

I have tried different types of water and I have tried different amounts of food, nothing seems to help or really affect the outcome.

Is there anyone on PT with lots of experience culturing moina indoors who can walk me through this?

Maybe I need to quit altogether, but all I have for other live foods are baby brine, blackworms, grindals and microworms - and my licorice won't eat the blackworms and the puffs won't eat the microworms or grindals, so I feel very dependent on the moina.

What am I doing wrong? Or, is there some kind of substitute for moina that would work for very small fish and be easier? (Nothing could be much more trouble!)

Thank you for any feedback,

Lainey
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mistergreen
you might want to set up a new tank, maybe a 10G with a heater set at 72F. You can feed them with green water, yeast, or spirulina powder.

You should use used water from your established tank not treated with medicine or excel and not new water from the tap.
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lainealex
Why do you think a glass tank would work differently than a bucket with a light over the top? Or are you thinking they need more gallons of water? In other words, why might this work better than my current system?

Also, are people actually culturing daphnia moina indoors, or is this just an impossible task no matter what?

Thanks,

Lainey
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mistergreen
It doesn't, 10G is bigger than a 5G bucket, more stable environment.

You can get those plastic tubs at walmert if you like. Temperature is pretty important people tend to overlook.

I raised d. magna indoors and was successful until I forgot and added water with excel in it and that killed them off.

oh, btw, You can eventually get your fish to eat prepared foods when they're hungry enough.
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lainealex
oh, btw, You can eventually get your fish to eat prepared foods when they're hungry enough.[/QUOTE]

Well, that is true for many fish, but apparently, not so licorice gouramis - the European breeders I talk to say no, they won't do it.

Lainey
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