Moina Macrocopa

I saw a few reviews saying these eggs didn’t hatch, but I can confirm: they absolutely do hatch if you follow the right setup. I had Moina swimming around in less than 24 hours! Please read this before you try—it will save you frustration and wasted eggs: 1. Use clean, dechlorinated tap water. Avoid pure RO or distilled water—they lack essential minerals. Tap water is perfect unless your water is from a well or has very high pH. If your water is too alkaline (above ~8.5), you may have trouble hatching. 2. Water depth: Keep water at about 3–4 inches deep. Shallow water improves light penetration and oxygen exchange. 3. Light is critical: Place the container near a window with good indirect sunlight, or use a daylight-spectrum bulb (white light) about 3–4 inches above the container. Aim for 12–16 hours of light daily. I used an old aquarium white LED light. Yellow light is not as good. 4. Temperature: Around 75–85°F works best. Room temperature worked well for me. 5. Let the eggs float: Floating is normal and helpful! Don’t try to sink them. The eggs hatch best near the surface with light and warmth. 6. No aeration needed: I didn’t use any air pump or aeration, and they still hatched fine. Aeration might help, but it’s optional. 7. Don’t overdo the eggs! I used an entire capsule because of some other reviews, and it was way too much. I wish I had not done that. Half of one capsule is plenty to start a good culture. 8. Be patient: Hatch time is usually 24–72 hours, but I saw mine start moving in under 24! 9. Feed once they hatch: Use chlorella powder or pure spirulina powder, dissolved in water. Start with a very small amount—just enough to lightly cloud the water. Don’t overfeed! I’m really happy with the results. If you follow these steps, you should get a great hatch too. Don’t let the negative reviews discourage you!

It's day 11 and nothing has hatched, at all. I used the capsules between 4 containers. I wanted to experiment and see which hatched out best. 2 Reverse Osmosis and 2 tap water (well water with a whole home filter system and treated with tap water conditioner). 1 R/O and 1 tap were under a heat light (water temp 82°F) and the other 2 were room temperature (72-75°F). All containers are under a grow light (with my plants). NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING has hatched. When day 14 rolls around without anything hatching, I'm packing up the empty capsules and sending them back for a refund. UPDATE: It is now day 14 and NOTHING has hatched. I just noticed that this item isn't returnable. So, I'm out $15 (taxes included). I just sent an email to Green Water Farm and I'll update if they reply. UPDATE: 03/02/2023 They finally started hatching about 2 weeks ago, so it took about 4 weeks to hatch. Not everything, but enough to start a culture if they survive. The ones that hatched were in a small bowl with R/O water at room temperature around 72°F (no heat light). I took advice from an old forum thread from someone who cultures them on a large scale and have been feeding them Sweet Potato baby food. About 1 tablespoon into a bottle of water (a regular sized drinking water bottle) and shake it up. I put about a tablespoon of that mix into the culture every day. They actually swarm to it. I also dump it into my daphnia cultures and they're populations are booming. I mix new food every day, and toss the baby food after a few days. I also top off the bowl with water from one of my Daphnia cultures. Every few days, I carefully siphon out 1/4 water with a turkey baster and scrutinize it for baby Moina and replace the water with fresh R/O water. It'll take a hour to do, lol. Once the babies get a little bigger, I'll transfer them into a larger container with an air pump--no stone--just air line with a regulator turned down to a couple of bubbles per second. I also would like to thank Sprite from Green Water Farms. I reached out to tell them that nothing had hatched and he sent me a new pack of eggs. I'll keep them in the fridge until I need to hatch them.

Im actually very impressed. I spent far more than the $15 on live cultures being delivered to the glue with postage and everything. I was having an issue getting my daphnia numbers up so I figured I'd give this a try. After adding the eggs to my currently running culture I was please to see hundreds of hatchling daphnia swimming around. It only takes 3 days. With these out there I will never pay the expense of a living culture. I'll just add these to my tank and go from there. I was skeptical but this came out awesome. Will buy again. If your breeding tropical fish, just add these a few days before your expect to need fry food. Smaller than baby brine shrimp and just what is needed for tiny fry.

Update - I have kept the culture alive for 4 months now. I have changed how I culture it, instead of a 5 gallon bucket I use a few 1/2 gallon juice bottle. I use mostly chlorella culture to feed and propagate the moina. Every day I completely empty one bottle on a mini coffee filter and feed that to my fish. Then I fill the empty bottle with chlorella culture - the moina that stay stuck on the bottle are enough to repopulate that bottle in about a week. I have anywhere from fresh bottles and about week old bottles. If needed, I supplement feeding with a solution containing brewer yeast, spirulina and chickpea flour. Original post: Eggs hatched as expected. I used only about 1/3 of one vial in a 5 gallon bucket and had a lot of moina, in a population that did not crash right away. I am feeding them chlorella from a culture I started about 2 weeks before I started the moina. I have been keeping them for about 3 weeks and I feed my fish about 3 times per week. My fish - mostly tetras, rasboras and Corys love the live food!

First, the directions aren't very clear. Do I use an air bubbler before they hatch? After? And there are so much conflicting information out there. I had a fish bowl laying around, and thought it would be perfect. I have fish, so I used the tank conditioner to clear out any chlorine or chloramine that might be in the water. I set up a heater, a thermometer, and grow lights. I put a few eggs in, and noticed they immediately stuck to the side of the tank. No matter what I did, they stuck to the side. I tried using the bubbles to keep them from sticking, but that didn't work. I tried stirring them, but nope. On day 5 I saw something moving, so I put spirulina in the tank, but I think it died. I think on day 8 I saw another one, but that one died too. I used up a whole capsule on that tank and it was a bust. Ok, after doing some more research, I realized no one was using one of those round fish tanks for their moina, so I found a different fish tank. One thing I read was moina like calcium in their water. I only filled it half way with water. I also had some cuttlebone laying around from when I tried to get more calcium into my snails diet. Spoiler, my snails ignored it. I broke up a little bit of cuttlebone and put it in. I also saw that someone said they had some great success by not using an air bubble, at least in the beginning, so I didn't even bother with it. I put a small amount of eggs in the tank, and on day 3 I could see movement. Instead of adding the spirulina directly to the tank, I mixed it in water and let it sit for a few minutes. I used a pipette to put a little of the water in the tank. I then added more eggs, but not even half. I also got yeast, so on the second day, I mixed a little yeast in some warm water and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I added more spirulina in with the yeast and used a pipette to give them some of this food. I also noticed more babies in the tank. They are all healthy and moving around and having a little water flea party. I am so happy. I already gave my betta some and he was like "Ooh, something is moving!!" I had my betta in with some shrimp, but he was having too much fun hunting them, so I had to move him to a different tank. He looks so bored, so I wanted to give him some live food that he can hunt down. Because moina can live it the same water as my betta, I knew they wouldn't die if my betta couldn't find them all, and can actually benefit the tank since they are filter feeders. So far they are still tiny... I think we are on day 5. They seem to be thriving in the little tank. I think I am going to try a 2 liter bottle as a 2nd "tank" so I can keep a decent supply. Even though I failed with the first batch, I think this is a good value, especially if I can keep them going. I only used about half of the 2nd container. Going to see how big I can get this colony, and save the eggs if the who thing crashes. Only time will tell how long I can keep them going. I will update if I have any major changes. The first 2 pictures are of the failed attempt, but the other pictures are of how many there are after 5 days. They are so small it is hard to get a clear picture, but those little specks are the moina.

I don't often write reviews but since I was very much on the fence about getting this, I figured a positive followup could be helpful to others. This is not the first time I bought daphnia, though it is the first time I bought eggs. My original daphnia cultures crashed a few times and I was pretty much assuming that I was going to run out before I could learn to make a self-sustaining culture. The other reviews saying that it is a lot of eggs are correct. I used probably 2/3 of one capsule (two come in the package) across three different containers. I have green water ready to go. I tried placing in the eggs across the three (as an insurance policy against crashing). Two containers are plastic 4+ gallon bins, and one is a gallon+ glass jar. I've read surface area and volume are helpful. I don't have aeration. After 3 days of not much of anything happening, I put a seedling heat mat under one of the bins. The mat has kept the temperature in the mid to upper 70'sF. Otherwise the temps have been probably upper 60's to low 70's. The bin with the heat showed substantial hatching within 24hrs while the bin without the heat showed only a little. I've since added heat to the second bin and the hatching seems to be picking up. Sure, it's possible that it was something else, but the instructions do suggest hatching between 77-90F, and it worked. I plan on adding air later. I just don't yet have the equipment for it. I like the eggs because I can keep some in reserve in case I crash all my cultures and need to start over. The price was right, and it's working so far.

added two more stars, and adding and edit. second review so I took fish tank water and tried again. this time I just put it in a jar and stuck it in my window. And a bunch of the eggs. hatched. the first vial that came in this package nothing hatched at all. The second one, however, did. So I poured more of these same eggs into my fish tank. And they hatched as well. so I added two more stars because the second vial hatched. I think the trick is to do it with seasoned water. The first vial I was using only dechlorinated water. this time I scooped it right out of my tank and used that and poured the eggs into my pee puffer tank. I think the eggs are a batch of already hatched eggs and eggs that have yet to be hatched. and maybe that's why you get two vials. either way I have some small crustaceans in my tank and in a jar. going to try to order the larger size. daphnia magna see if I can get those to hatch as well. wish me luck first review Did not hatch at all . Did everything per directions , and nothing . Still have very hungry pea puffers . I dislike having to go to the pet store to buy brine shrimp that are live because I don't have a saltwater tank, three itty bitty pea puffers can only eat so many in one sitting hence me wanting to hatch the eggs myself. I tried three different times with the capsule that I was sent.. nothing .. tried in multiple different tanks, nothing.. so sad about this.. I looked at the reviews and wanted to give this seller a chance, being there was a no return policy I should have never ordered them. Order live and breed them yourself..

I really tried. I tried distilled water at 4 in high, no luck after weeks. I tried used fish tank water, no signs for the last month. Turned a 10 gallon tank into a green water tank during all this, then tried to hatch the moina in there with no success for 3 weeks. At this point i didn't know what else to do, I watched YouTube videos for roughly 12 hours of everything moina before starting any of this, so I went back to YouTube and found a video in Chinese that used a brine shrimp hatchery. So I bought a brine shrimp hatchery, and everyday I'd turn the air off and check if anything was alive. After 2 weeks of this I gave up. There is a seller on here (Carolina I believe) that sells live moina. I bought it for 6 dollar more than this and it came in 2 day (it said it would take 1 and a half weeks to 2 weeks for delivery) all alive and thriving in the same situations I put the eggs through (except the brine shrimp hatchery, don't use one unless you have brine shrimp eggs). I saw the comments about hatch rates and thought they were just uninformed people. But after all my research and many trials I also failed. Take my comment with a grain of salt, I could've gotten a rare batch of problem eggs. I could've missed the live ones ( however with the live batch I got from Carolina I can easily see them and don't believe I missed any). If you read this, you did your research. Props to you.