Moina: My #1 choice for live food for my tropical fish
In order to keep your tropical fish happy and healthy, it's important to feed them a variety of food.
In spite of the claims of fish food companies, no one fish food is totally complete.
And the same diet for too long can expose whatever is lacking in those "complete fish food" packets".
Immune systems become weak and the fish easily get external lesions from parasites, bacteria, fungi or virus that healthy fish would not succumb to.
Their coloring is lackluster and birthrates take a nose dive.
They can become either lethargic and withdrawn; or extremely agitated, continually scraping their mouths and bodies on the rocks and other ornaments in the tank.
'Nuff said about the importance of nutritional variety.
In addition to decapsulated baby brine, dry flakes and fry booster powder, I treat my fish to some live moina (a genus of crustaceans within the family Moinidae), more commonly known as "water fleas".
Moina is the smaller cousin of Daphnia, has a higher protein content, easier to culture and in my part of the world (Asia), costs less.
There seems to be a thousand different methods for starting, growing and maintaining a thriving moina colony.
Some people swear by raising their moina in "green water" (result of a lot of actively growing algae); others recommend pond water (If you're near a pond, don't waste your money on commercial moina, get the moina from the pond!), but most moina egg vendors instruct customers to "use clean, de-chlorinated water" or even "distilled water".
What to feed your moina is as confusing as the water issue (commercial chlorella, special (and expensive) "secret recipe moina food" - yada, yada, yada.
The following method is not a recommendation. It's just what I do. And I have had a continual supply of moina for over two years.
I take an old, Beta tank. Fill it with aquarium water, drop in some moina eggs and a slow flowing air tube.
When the eggs hatch (usually between 48-72 hours), I mix some dry yeast (the same yeast I use in my electric bread maker) or corn starch in aquarium water and pour enough of that slurry into the Beta tank until the water looks like milk.
Other than feeding the moina to my fish, then feeding the remaining moina with the yeast/corn starch (2-3 times a day, depending on the colony size) and seeding backup moina tanks, that's my "special, secret method" (ooh, ahh, shhh...).
FYi.
My fish go crazy over the live moina food!
May you and yours be well and loving life today.
In Lak'ech,
JaiChai