My attempt to co-culture dero worms (microfex) and moina

[JLW]

The moina should culture well for you; I'm surprised those aren't. They're just so darn small that they're not particularly useful.

At some point, I'd love to get some of both from you, but since they're not particularly useful, I'm not really apt to put any effort into getting them; when and if we ever resume in person meets, if you've still got them....

 

[IndianaSam]

The moina should culture well for you; I'm surprised those aren't. They're just so darn small that they're not particularly useful.

At some point, I'd love to get some of both from you, but since they're not particularly useful, I'm not really apt to put any effort into getting them; when and if we ever resume in person meets, if you've still got them....

The Moina are doing well, but they’re just so small! Frankly, I was a bit surprised by their size.

 

[Becca]

I think I’m going to pull the plug on this soon. The cultures just haven’t been productive relative to the effort I’ve been putting into it. Especially compared to how easy my white worm, grindal worm and banana worm cultures are.

I just want to thank the people who followed this and gave really useful advice.

JLW you were right; this is not a super culture. I suspected that from the start and now my curiosity has been satisfied.

I think I’m going to put the dero worms into the sump for my 135G tank. Plenty of detritus in there to feed them and maybe they’ll be successful there with minimal effort while removing detritus.

If you want to offer your culture for adoption, LMK. I have a few empty 5 and 10 gallons in the fish room. I could trade you some of the curved rimless tanks, if you're still interested.

 

[JLW]

The Moina are doing well, but they’re just so small! Frankly, I was a bit surprised by their size.

Like Cyclops and some of the other small crustaceans, you also run into an issue where they're kind of fast. For fry especially, which have little "reserves," the cost:benefit ratio of wasting energy chasing down these tiny morsels vs what you get by eating it (if successful) starts entering into play. It might make sense in the wild, but in the aquarium, you really just want to dump some microworms in there and call it a day.

 

[IndianaSam]

The hydra have returned with a vengeance and seem to have consumed all of the moina. This is disheartening.

I think they are also getting to the dero worms because their numbers seem way down at this point too. At this point I’m very successful at culturing pond snails and hydra, which wasn’t the intention.

Becca there would be no point in sharing what I have right now. I’m going to put the rest of the worms in the sump for my 135G just to see how they do and I might put some back in a plastic shoe box for observation.

 

[IndianaSam]

If I were to do this again, I'd make a few changes. Namely, I'd buy the cultures from a biological supply company to ensure that the cultures are pure and not contaminated with other organisms such as hydra. In addition, I'd go with sponge filters that hadn't just been used in other aquariums. I'd either start with brand new ones or ones that had been completely dried and sterilized. I might go with daphnia pulex because the moina were somewhat difficult to harvest.

This has largely convinced me of how important it is to have stringent isolation of these cultures from a lot of stuff that hangs out in a normal aquarium. Oh well, lesson learned!

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

Thanks for the detailed feedback, will help anyone that considers something similar in the future.

 

[Mariowaype]

Hello. And Bye.