Moina : a model system

CUBE chat
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Hello everyone, I’m S.J.Uday :sunglasses: from KJ.SOMAIYA COLLEGE . I am currently making moina culture in HBSCE lab . Firstly, the main reason behind making this culture is to have my own culture of moina so that if anyone requires a moina culture ,they could happily take it from me(as @arunan sir rightly says every college should be maintaining different model systems so that anyone whose culture of a particular model is lost or if anyone wants to start working on them,they can directly come to us and v as a resource can provide them with some organisms ) & particularly for this reason a college should be having culture of various model systems.At present SOMAIYA clg doesnt have any culture of any model organism ,so i want to start my own culture and thus ,i will start maintaining different model organisms. I am starting with MOINA at first in HBSCE lab . So before starting how to culture lets see a glimpse of what is moina and why there is a need to culture it.

MOINA:-
Moinas are crustaceans often referred as water fleas and is very much similar looking with DAPHNIA (Introduction to Daphnia Biology - Ecology, Epidemiology, and Evolution of Parasitism in Daphnia - NCBI Bookshelf). So before knowing much more,lets have a glance how a moina looks,
image
this picture above are two moinas (Moina macrocopa ,source:- https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tropical-fish-keeping.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F11%2FMoina-macrocopa.png&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tropical-fish-keeping.com%2Fmoina-moina-macrocopa.html%2Fmoina-macrocopa&docid=MnjEPHjSSHPH5M&tbnid=7-fA0WySMTZzkM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjbg4Ss-5jkAhXDqI8KHSBGDJIQMwhNKAIwAg..i&w=642&h=640&safe=active&client=ubuntu&bih=702&biw=1215&q=moina%20macrocopa&ved=0ahUKEwjbg4Ss-5jkAhXDqI8KHSBGDJIQMwhNKAIwAg&iact=mrc&uact=8)
(PS:- i am sorry i have lost my phone 2days back and so sharing a google pic)
Moinas are approximately half the size of Daphnia .
image Daphnia magna
Adult moinas are around 700-1000 microns in length while the young ones are less than 400microns(http://agrilife.org/fisheries/files/2013/09/Culture-Techniques-of-Moina-The-Ideal-Daphnia-for-Feeding-Freshwater-Fish-Fry1.pdf)(Journal:- Culture Techniques of Moina : The Ideal Daphnia for Feeding Freshwater Fish Fry Authors:- R. W. Rottmann, J. Scott Graves, Craig Watson, and Roy P. E. Yanong).
Moina appear in high numbers in pools, ponds, lakes, ditches, slow-moving streams, and swamps where organic material is decomposing. They become especially abundant in temporary water bodies, which provide them with suitable conditions for only a brief period.

Moina are generally quite tolerant of poor water quality. They live in water where the amount of dissolved oxygen varies from almost zero to supersaturation. Moina are particularly resistant to changes in the oxygen concentration and often reproduce in large quantities in water bodies strongly polluted with sewage(source :- provided above).

Moina feed on various groups of bacteria, yeast, phytoplankton, and detritus (decaying organic matter). Bacterial and fungal cells rank high in food value. Populations of Moina grow most rapidly in the presence of adequate amounts of bacterial and yeast cells as well as phytoplankton. The reproductive cycle of Moina has both a sexual and asexual phase. Normally, the population consists of all females that are reproducing asexually. Under optimum conditions, Moina reproduce at only 4–7 days of age, with a brood size of 4–22 per female. Broods are produced every 1.5–2.0 days, with most females producing 2–6 broods during their lifetime.Under adverse environmental conditions, males are produced and sexual reproduction occurs, resulting in resting eggs. Moina are extremely sensitive to pesticides, metals (e.g., copper and zinc, which may be prevalent in municipal or well water), detergents, bleaches, and other toxic materials in the water supply. So always ensure that toxins are not inadvertently introduced into the culture container.

CULTURING OF MOINA:-

I am taking a tank in which ill make my culture,
LENGTH OF TANK :- 30cm
WIDTH OF TANK :- 17cm

I will be taking 5 liters of dechlorinated water in the tank and will be putting 10 colourless moinas in it from the present moina culture in the lab. The reason to make the culture in the lab is that firstly i will maintain a culture in the lab itself and then will take some moinas with me to SOMAIYA after getting a good culture of moinas. For feeding the moina i will put 5drops of milk(as milk has lactobacilli and moina feeds on bacteria) with the help of a dropper everyday and will see whether the moinas are increasing in number or not.

This was just a beginning of what are moina and how i am going to make a moina culture.Hopefully after seeing me working with these models(presently moina) ,i could generate some curiosity in my classmates too,so that they too would start working on them.Waiting for that day where SOMAIYA too will be counted in the leading resource centres in Mumbai.Also one last thing, as i am totally new to this model,i dont have good knowledge about this model,so people across the country working on moinas ,please do help me and keep collaborating.
:heart_eyes::sunglasses: KEEP CALM & STAY COOOL :sunglasses::heart_eyes:

@GN @Arunan @Jaikishan Thankyou for giving this opportunity :heart:

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Why not culture Moina in simple transparent bottles too, so that on can move it easily from one place the other? @Sjuday2527

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It will be nice if you post short reports and plans! @Sjuday2527

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Yeah once I get a good culture in the tank I’ll transfer some to the bottles too and will take them to college

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I somehow disagree this point because once the dissolve oxygen is less it will turn red and which can result it in forcing it to sexual breed which can affect the growth rate of the population… so how it can reproduce in large number please try to find out a reliable reference as we have many before starting this big initiative

For this I guess your experimental setup is very big and if you are putting 5 liters of water and adding 10 moinas don’t you think it is going to difficult for moina to find out food mind you, you are not doing a bottle culture (the available water is huge) SO PLEASE TAKE THAT INTO CONSIDERATION

and for the feed of bacteria 5 drops I guess it is not enough, as we put 1 drop alternate day in the bottle culture of 250ml, so please tell us the reason behind this feed…

But surely a great initiative… hope that you take this point into consideration and future we can lend many moinas from you CUBE chat #COOOL

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I dont think milk is food for moina.

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What do you think sir should be fed to moina?

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Sir, moina feeds on bacteria and milk contain lacto-bacteria
So its fine to feed moina with milk😇 @jaikishan

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It may feed on algae, yeast, freshwater phytoplanktons, curd, pasteurised milk.
Now necessary only raw milk.

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Yes sir the milk is not the food for moinas but the bacteria in its environment is the food for moinas.

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Is this the only difference between Daphnia and Moina? What do you think @Sjuday2527 ?

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Don’t you think that water bodies strongly polluted with sewage may contain bleaches, detergents, toxins, etc which may harm them? Will they survive in these conditions?

quote=“Sjuday2527, post:1, topic:1884”]
metals (e.g., copper and zinc, which may be prevalent in municipal or well water), detergents, bleaches, and other toxic materials in the water supply. So always ensure that toxins are not inadvertently introduced into the culture container.
[/quote]

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Wht do you mean by “good culture”?
When are you expecting? On what basis? @Sjuday2527

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Do’nt you think few drops of milk will be easily accessible to any one than algae, yeast or even curd…? @drishtantmkawale
Do we have evidence that Moina grows in algal culture (which algae) etc? @drishtantmkawale

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Yes, milk is easily accessible so it is used. I was just telling the other options.

Yes, I don’t know which algae but I have one algal culture where moinas are present in the CUBE HBCSE Mumbai

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I didn’t mentioned anywhere as only raw milk @drishtantmkawale…as milk is very feasible enough to get from HBSCE canteen ,so I am providing it

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Which bacteria? Does it feed only on a particular bacteria type? @drishtantmkawale…do you think after feeding with milk, the bacteria won’t grow???

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High population densities of Daphnia can result in a dramatic decrease in reproduction, but this is apparently not the case with Moina. The egg output
of Daphnia magna drops sharply at a density as low as 95-115 mature individuals per gallon (25-30/L). The maximum sustained density in cultures of
Daphnia reported is 1,900 individuals per gallon (500/L). Moina cultures, however, routinely reach densities of 19,000 individuals per gallon (5,000/L)
and are, therefore, better adapted for intensive culture.

This is from the same article which I had sent in post itself. The main difference between moina and daphnia is size but there are many more differences too ,one of them stated above, i.e. their reproducibility

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Which algae culture do you have? And also as per your statement,

It feeds on algae ,which as u told is that your moinas are present in an algae culture,so it means that you don’t provide them with any feed like milk drops ryt? The algae itself in the bottle is acting as a feed for your moinas ryt?

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It is not my culture as such, recently during the CUBE workshop I found some algae whose (name unknown) in a bottle so I asked Jai sir whether I should add moinas in that as only had greenish algae, he gave permission so I added some 10-15 moinas.

Yes, maybe no one feeds them milk and they feed on the algae itself.