Moina & Artemia

[badflash]

Some fish hatchlings require live food to survive. There are two critters most often cultured to do that. There are Moina, the smallest of the water fleas, and Artemia, the brine shrimp. Both are simple to culture, but the conditions need to be kept right, especially for water fleas.

I was unable to keep a culture of moina going once my town switched over to chloramines. Even folks with well water may have problems due to contaminants in the water. I now use a Kold-Sterile water filter and that has taken care of the problem. I grow moina because they can be cultured intensively. The buggers grow fast and need daily attention.



Most people seeing their aquarium do this would freak out and so what ever it took to get rid of it. Not me. This is music to my eyes and aquaponics at it's most basic level. This tank went green about 3 months back and I've been encouraging it ever since. This is the perfect food source for moina, and if you have a salt water variety of algae, as I do, you have the perfect food for brine shrimp as well.

To keep the fresh water algae blooming, I give it lots of light from daylight bulbs 16 hours a day. As I remove green water to feed the moina, I replace it with used fish water. I keep it aerated and in motion and heated to about 80F. That is it. I keep apple snails in the tank to eat any algae that drops to the bottom.

For more on moina check:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA024

To grow moina I put a start of the little critters in a 1 gallon jar, half full of green water, with an open bubbler. Do not use an air stone as the tiny bubbles get into the shells and float them to the surface. They can't get the bubble out and die. When I see the water start to change color, I add more green water. Once the jar gets full I harvest 1/2 and start adding more water. That is all there is to it.

Artemea are even simpler. Set up a 10 gallon tank with an open bubler. Mix up salt water using used aquarium water. About 15 ppt salinity is good. Add a start of marine algae. Once you see the culture start to bloom, add about 1/8 teaspoon of brine shrimp eggs. That is all there is to it. Keep the tank topped off with aged fish water and check the salinity about once a month. In a month you can start harvesting a good supply of brine shrimp whenever you want. Now & then vacuum the bottom and add a little salt, but that is really all there is to do.

Here are some pics:






Once the brine shrimp are adults you'll see mating, then females with eggs, then live babbies jumping about. The culture is self sustaining and they never exhouse the food supply.

[jackalope]

For the water fleas:
1. where do you get them?
2. Does the algae grow naturally, or is it a special algae?
3. do they grow to maturity like the brine shrimp, and if so, at what age?
4. Are they n egglayer, or a live bearer?

For the brine shrimp:
1. where do you get the salt water algae?
2. how long does it take for them to get to maturity?
3. do they carry the eggs like a cray, or what?

[badflash]

For the water fleas:
1. where do you get them?
2. Does the algae grow naturally, or is it a special algae?
3. do they grow to maturity like the brine shrimp, and if so, at what age?
4. Are they n egglayer, or a live bearer?

For the brine shrimp:
1. where do you get the salt water algae?
2. how long does it take for them to get to maturity?
3. do they carry the eggs like a cray, or what?

Moina: You can catch them in small ponds, but I buy mine on aquabid. Dalus Discus is a seller I've gotten good service from. Green water will show up spontaneously, but if someone sends you a start, it is easier. Moina reach sexual maturity in 4 days and give birth to live young. If conditions get bad, males are produced and after mating they produce eggs and die.

Brine Shrimp: again, green water will occur spontaneously, but it is better if someone sends you a start. It take about a week or two for them to reach sexual maturity. Under good conditions they produce live young. When things get bad they lay eggs. Under good conditions the females will produce 50 or more offspring a day for months.

[jackalope]

Moina: You can catch them in small ponds, but I buy mine on aquabid. Dalus Discus is a seller I've gotten good service from. Green water will show up spontaneously, but if someone sends you a start, it is easier. Moina reach sexual maturity in 4 days and give birth to live young. If conditions get bad, males are produced and after mating they produce eggs and die.

Brine Shrimp: again, green water will occur spontaneously, but it is better if someone sends you a start. It take about a week or two for them to reach sexual maturity. Under good conditions they produce live young. When things get bad they lay eggs. Under good conditions the females will produce 50 or more offspring a day for months.

I'll have to try those when I can get the dough-ray-me together Thanks

[badflash]

Sweeet. i gotta get me some of that.

How does the Kold-Sterile water filter compare to RO water? I use a Merlin RO system to purify water.

Way better than R/O. It just removes the bad stuff, but leaves most beneficial minerals. No need to add hardness and you get nearly 4 gpm flow.

[badflash]

My green water culture is no more. It got infected with rotifers and cleared up in a few days.

I went to plan B and tried some alternate feeds. Grahm Flower, Yeast Flakes, and Sweek Potato. Take any of them and put them in a blender and blend very smooth. Add just enough to the culture to make a light haze in the water. Do a 50% water change using aged aquarium water. Works easily.

The best for me seems to be a mix of 25% by volume yeast flakes and 75% sweet potato. I make up a quart and use it until I need to make more. Grahm flour is made from chick peas. By itself it doesn't work all that well.

Leave a little mulm at the bottom of the tank for them. It breeds bacteria that they can eat between feedings.

[badflash]

That sounds sweet. Do you know what your TDS PPM is after filtration?

Still pretty hard. My normal hardness out of the tap is about 350, pretty much liquid rock. It drops it dow to maybe 300.

[badflash]

Yes, no waste like R/O which is 9 lost for every 1 made, plus full flow, pretty much like a garden hose. I got mine off an advertiser on aquabid, but I haven't seen him lately. I'd never go back to adding chemical or re-mixing R/O. Lots of places are selling this. The proce seems to be fixed, so get one locally so the shipping isn't bad.

[badflash]

I've been watching the progression of my tank that was formerly green. It has been fascinating to watch. Once the rotifers took over they exhausted nearly all the algae and the tank was brown with millions of rotifers. Suddenly a few hydra appeared, then hundreds as they were well fed from the rotifers and reproduced like crazy. Within a few days the rotifers were gone and they hydra starved. Suddenly dead hydra were floating around and the snails were feasting on them. Today there was no sign of hydra or rotifers, and the water is once again turning green. Looks like the cycle is poised to start again.

I put about a dozen male Endlers Live bearers in the tank to suppress the rotifers. Hopefully I can break the cycle and maintain the tank green for my moina. Moina do OK and the sweet potato/ yeast mix, but nothing like they do on green water.